ABSTRACT
Adolescence is a period of growth and of physical, mental and emotional change. These changes take place against a background of family life, within a particular society and culture that has expectations of its young people. Young people often bring to school the expectations of their family which may carry both advantages and disadvantages. Disadvantages include parents living on low wages, or who are unemployed or instability within the family, any of which may portend poor career prospects (Child, 1993: 302). Some adolescents bring family pressures to succeed and a burden of high expectation. Yet others have disabilities, some mild and supportable by technology, e.g. wearing glasses, while other young people carry more serious disadvantages, such as dyslexia, less easily overcome.
