It’s hard to be left alone to deal with one’s troubles, let alone when one is going through demanding life stage of adolescence. To meet someone who can help to provide direction, someone to cry tears of relief with, is a balm for adolescent soul.
In order to keep the program running like clockwork, it is good to determine some basic rules of behaviour. Then everyone can fully enjoy all the activities in a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere.
The program called “Troubles of Growing Up” is perfect for seventh-graders who are currently going through puberty in full swing. It lasts two hours and to an outside observer it might seem that the children are going through a group therapy session under the sensitive guidance of the Healthy Youth worker Ivo Neuvirt. This is really just an appearance! But the psychological relief that children can experience on the program is absolutely real and tangible.
At the same time, there is a lot of great practical advices for life, along with stories that illustrate the individual topics: problems with parents, responsibility or peer relationships. Everything is tinged by discussion about questions such as “What is it like to be considered an adult?” or “Would you like to be a child again? And why?” or “Are you looking forward to being an adult? Why?”
“Do you need some trouble to be discussed in more depth? Without the rest of the class present? I am certainly at your disposal,” the HY Worker Ivo Neuvirt offers his help to the children.
It is clear already from the context alone that adolescence is a very specific period of life, and if you do not have a loved one to discuss all the changes with, you are missing something important. Although two hours on the program cannot fill this need, what Ivo offered the children was of inestimable value to them. He very sensitively yet casually opened various challenging questions and gave the pupils space to talk.
In this atmosphere, I was not even surprised that the three students started crying one after the other. One of them – a thirteen-year-old boy – came up to Ivo after the program and thanked him to acknowledge and internally experience some of the issues in his life.
“What is it like to be considered an adult?” Ivo is interested in how the students experience this transition period from childhood to adulthood.
The topic of growing up can be conceived in different ways: as a show, as a delivery of a package of important information or as a persuasion of the attendees on how they should and should not behave in life.
The program under the baton of Ivo Neuvirt was neither of these cases. But in terms of effect on the present listeners, in my opinion, it was the best they could have experienced.
Martin Stavjanik, the Authorised Supervisor of the HY Program workers
