POLITICS HAS FAILED TO MATURE REPUBLICANS

Summer vacation is over and the House and Senate Republicans are back in Washington behaving like Middle Schoolers.  They are bullies, cry-babies, vengeful, selfish, and unable to see any consequences to their oath of office for their actions.  Their votes are certainly not in the best interest of the American people who have been trying to tell them that with every poll.  Instead, they are determined to make Obama a 'one-term- President.  Would any one of the Republicans give me a good reason why he should be.  He has been far better for the American people than his predecessor.

Middle Grade Students:  For the source, The California Department of Education Publication,  click here.

1. Are often erratic and inconsistent in their behavior; anxiety and fear are contrasted with periods of bravado; feelings shift between superiority and inferiority;
   
   
2. Have chemical and hormonal imbalances which often trigger emotions that are frightening and poorly understood; may regress to more childish behavior patterns at this point;
   
   
3. Are easily offended and are sensitive to criticism of personal shortcomings;
   
   
4. Tend to exaggerate simple occurrences and believe that personal problems, experiences, and feelings are unique to themselves;
   
   
5. Are moody, restless; often feel self-conscious and alienated; lack self­ esteem; are introspective;
   
   
6. Are searching for adult identity and acceptance even in the midst of intense peer group relationships;
   
   
7. Are vulnerable to naive opinions, one-sided arguments;
   
   
8. Are searching to form a conscious sense of individual uniqueness­ "Who am I?";
   
   
9. Have emerging sense of humor based on increased intellectual ability to see abstract relationships; appreciate the "double entendre";
   
   
10. Are basically optimistic, hopeful;
    
    
11. Are psychologically at-risk; at no other point in human development is an individual likely to encounter so much diversity in relation to oneself and others.

4. Social Development

Middle Grade Students:

1. Experience often traumatic conflicts due to conflicting loyalties to peer groups and family;
   
   
2. Refer to peers as sources for standards and models of behavior; media heroes and heroines are also singularly important in shaping both behavior and fashion;
   
   
3. May be rebellious towards parents but still strongly dependent on parental values; want to make own choices, but the authority of the family is a critical factor in ultimate decisions;
   
   
4. Are impacted by high level of mobility in society; may become anxious and disoriented when peer group ties are broken because of family relocation to other communities;
   
   
5. Are often confused and frightened by new school settings which are large and impersonal;
   
   
6. Act out unusual or drastic behavior at times; may be aggressive, daring, boisterous, argumentative;
   
   
7. Are fiercely loyal to peer group values; sometimes cruel or insensitive to those outside the peer group;
   
   
8. Want to know and feel that significant adults, including parents and teachers, love and accept them; need frequent affirmation;
   
   
9. Sense negative impact of adolescent behaviors on parents and teachers; realize thin edge between tolerance and rejection; feelings of adult rejection drive the adolescent into the relatively secure social environment of the peer group;
   
   
10. Strive to define sex role characteristics; search to establish positive social relationships with members of the same and opposite sex;
    
    
11. Experience low risk-trust relationships with adults who show lack of sensitivity to adolescent characteristics and needs;
    
    
12. Challenge authority figures; test limits of acceptable behavior;
    
    
13. Are socially at-risk; adult values are largely shaped conceptually during adolescence; negative interactions with peers, parents, and teachers may compromise ideals and commitments.

5. Moral and Ethical Development

Middle Grade Students:

1. Are essentially idealistic; have a strong sense of fairness in human relationships;
   
   
2. Experience thoughts and feelings of awe and wonder related to their expanding intellectual and emotional awareness;
   
   
3. Ask large, unanswerable questions about the meaning of life; do not expect absolute answers but are turned off by trivial adult responses;
   
   
4. Are reflective, analytical, and introspective about their thoughts and feelings;
   
   
5. Confront hard moral and ethical questions for which they are unprepared to cope;
   
   
6. Are at-risk in the development of moral and ethical choices and behaviors; primary dependency on the influences of home and church for moral and ethical development seriously compromises adolescents for whom these resources are absent; adolescents want to explore the moral and ethical issues which are confronted in the curriculum, in the media, and In the daily interactions they experience in their families and peer groups.