Mandatory schooling and adolescence

Abstract

The author analyses both adolescence and ESO as an inseparable binomial, which interrelates and may provoke some conflicts. The need of a universal schooling for adolescents comes together with the change of the educational role of the school —from just a cultural transmitter to an agent of socialisation, and it becomes a stimulus for the processes of transition to the adult life— making easier the self-construction of the autonomy of students. Adolescents are seen as a new social category, both massive and diverse, with an own and particular way of life. The author thinks over some of the conflicts that may appear between school and adolescents and tries to solve them through a tutoring function. An adult tutor as a bridge between both of them can help and guide students because he/she understands them as a whole.