[E-Book] Personality Development

“In this treatise, we wish to present certain concepts, tools and methods that will help the family to establish communication among its members; because next to Allah’s grace, it is communication that a family needs most to have mutual understanding, cohesion and success. And we would be unfair to ourselves if we find our families disintegrating before our very eyes, when there are several books and experiences that should have helped us to protect and make them choice families, happy and strong. I have tried to make this a good addition to what circulates around of literature on child upbringing available to parents. And because this work is addressed to a very wide audience, among whom are the educated and the semi-educated, I have striven to see that my expressions are as simple as possible; even though expressing ideas that have philosophical content in very simple language could do some kind of injustice to their meaning. This is why this attempt of ours is bound to still be imperfect; but sufficient it is that I have tried to aim clearly and closely as best I can.”

Let me say, with full conviction, that there is no chance for us, nor for any nation, to occupy a respectable place among the advanced nations without raising our cultural awareness – we are living in the age of knowledge, and we cannot do without information and books. Therefore, raising children who are really fond of reading is our first and foremost challenge – and it will take all our commitment to succeed there. Having this in mind I propose to tackle this issue in a book; and, as in the previous volumes in the series, I try to come upon solutions for the difficult dilemma – giving special attention to being true to the requirements of accuracy and reliability; maintaing, at the same time, an accessible and smooth reading. In which I hope to bring these concepts within the comprehension of a wide readership as possible.

The present volume of our series deals with adolescence and adolescents. It is true that much of what applies to a five-year-old applies to a fifteen-year-old, but it is equally true that adolescence does involve some real difficulties that are unique to this stage. It is as if an adolescent is passing through a violent storm that needs special training and skill on the part of the adults around him/her.

An adolescent is a child that is approximating or has gone beyond puberty. More specifically, adolescence covers three sub-stages: early-, middle-, and late-adolescence. Early adolescence starts at twelve or thirteen; middle adolescence starts at fifteen or sixteen; and late adolescence lasts until twenty one or twenty two. After this, an individual is a young adult. You can say that adolescence parallels three educational stages: middle school, secondary school, and college.