Cerebral Transformation
Understanding adolescence: a fundamental shift

Do you believe—as many do—that any important brain development is over by the time a child is 3? Evidence points to a contrary reality, one that helps explain teenagers’ zigzagging pathways to adulthood. Groundbreaking scientific work shows that the human brain dramatically transforms itself over the adolescent years.

Aided and stimulated by current technology that allows them to view the workings of the living brain, neuroscientists around the world have gathered evidence that extensive remodeling and reorganization—over roughly a 10-year period—transitions young people toward what we would call a stable maturity. Barbara Strauch, who chronicles the ongoing scientists’ work in her book Primal Teen, calls the teenage brain “a work in progress, a giant construction project. Millions of connections are being hooked up; millions more are swept away. Neurochemicals wash over the teenage brain giving it a new paint job, a new look, a new chance at life. The teenage brain is raw, vulnerable. It’s a brain that’s still becoming what it will be.”
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Highlights of the Journey:
Reflections of Milton students on the growth of identity, cognition and judgment

Adults hope to see teenagers exhibit the best elements of adult behavior: predicting consequences, planning for the future, controlling negative impulses, appreciating nuance, understanding one’s self. Recent scientific advances are beginning to explain that development of these cognitive skills depends not only on genetic makeup and environment, but also on biology—the physiological development of the brain. While the specific interactions and the sequencing of events within this network of changes are still the subject of intense research, the truth is that teenagers experience an extensive reorganization of social, emotional and cognitive processes. A number of researchers pinpoint between eighth and eleventh grade as the time for the biggest shift in cognitive growth—advances in the connections between prefrontal lobe and other centers of brain activity.
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Accountability and Redemption
When teenagers make mistakes

Adolescence is an exercise in discovering who we are about to become—trying on styles of dress, political stances or even different types of friendships. Making a bad choice, following that risky impulse, testing the established limits is part of the territory. The best educators of adolescents, then, are expert at finding the “teachable moment,” of helping teens to realize the implications of their decision-making—for better or worse. Enter: the Discipline Committee (DC)—a structured but supportive, fair but firm process that helps a student acknowledge a mistake and begin over.
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Sexuality and Relationships
All questions are fair

Classic teen comedies such as Caddyshack or American Pie would have us believe that teenagers spend a great deal of energy talking about, thinking about or pursuing sex. According to the Sexuality Informa-tion and Education Council (SIECUS) a national, nonprofit organization, the statistics are that more than 60 percent of American high school boys and nearly 50 percent of high school girls have had sex.

But those teenagers are not necessarily ready to manage the challenges and joys of sexual intimacy with maturity, asserts Ellie Griffin, director of Milton Academy’s Health and Counseling Center and, since 1978, the developer and leader of
the Human Sexuality & Relationships (HS&R) course curriculum and training.
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