As principal of Cape Town’s Fish Hoek High School, and well-known in educational circles, Gavin Fish takes a wry and caring look in this insightful collection of articles at the fraught business of living with and guiding teenagers in modern-day South Africa.
Acutely aware that modern teens need more than mere management, Fish also provides more than just a manual on how to keep teens docile, tractable and compliant at school. As a parent of teenagers himself, he leads us entertainingly through the hormonal stew that is the teenage psyche, showing through his anecdotes how to understand what’s going on under the baseball caps and beanies and how to turn surly, uncommunicative expressions to self-confident, goal-directed smiles of appreciation and personal success.