Adolescents understand more than we give them credit for. In the article called "A Middle School Curriculum: From Rhetoric To Reality, Bean outlines different problems that middle school curriculums often have and how these problems can be sorted through and adjusted.
There are certain aspects of of skills that are proposed by the curriculum that many educators feel that are over the heads of adolescents. However, the author states that they are fully equipped with the skills, however they do not always understand how to use them. It is through this curriculum that they can use trial and error to find a way to utilize these skills. In the curriculum now, they do not demonstrate the understanding of these skills because the curriculum does not allow for it.
"If we encourage early adolescents to be active democratic citizens, then we must engage them in looking behind the 'facts'" (Page 65). This allows them to question things around them. They are forced to look deeper into the information they are being fed by the current curriculum and question it.
This multi-dimensional curriculum incorporates personal and social concerns, skills necessary to explore these themes, and concepts of democracy, human dignity, and cultural diversity. In these intersecting themes, spring different possible units that can help aid adolescents develop the necessary skills to grow.
Each of these themes work together to teach. Now the curriculum is either geared toward elementary students, or adults. By focusing on the general education aspect that taps into the common and shared concerns of early adolescents, the more students will better understand the world around them and the issues that people in the world face.
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