1. To understand the psychological and physiological aspects of being a teenager.

2. To explore how teenagers fit into and shape American society and how they adjust to the pressures that are put on them by parents, schools, communities, and other institutions.

3. To study the effects of mass media and advertising in the electronic age on adolescents.

4. To identify ways that being a teenager is different in other cultures around the world.

5. To focus on being a healthy teen - how to eat, how to stay fit, how to balance the demands of life and manage stress while being successful and happy.

6. To understand the importance that teens place on appearance and the need for developing a healthy self-image.

7. To explore the teenager's unique spiritual and artistic search for meaning.

8. To discuss and understand the need for teens to develop personal moral values to guide and enrich life.

9. To examine the importance of human relationships in the teen years through connections with parents, teachers, siblings, and friends.

10. To discuss and better understand relationships between boys and girls and the dynamics of building healthy interactions between the sexes.

11. To explore maturation, "growing up," as the passage from childhood to adulthood.