(6/2004) - Our lives change constantly. We never know with precision what we will face tomorrow. So when tomorrow comes, we have to be ready to confront the need for a new approach openly, creatively, and willingly. If we are stuck and cannot respond, determined to hold onto yesterday's solutions, we are in trouble.

How can we make certain that the future leaders of our country will be able to manage a changing world successfully? How do we help students develop both the skill and the inner strength to be fluent, indeed inspired, in the task of evaluation, response, and innovation?

When we are teaching adolescent girls about change, we do not have to create clever lessons based on simulations and change models. The curriculum is constantly present, staring girls in the face. Ready or not, their bodies, minds, emotions, relationships, and ideas shift dramatically and daily.

So, change for adolescents is a certainty. How well they do it, though, is another matter. Both ends and means are important. On the one hand is the goal of becoming a healthy, effective person, but on the other is the quality of the change process itself. It is the way in which the challenges of adolescence are met that forms the underlying pattern of adult coping skills.

Kurt Lewin, a founder of modern social psychology, identifies three phases in change cycles that are analogous to the phases through which a girl travels as she says goodbye to the child she used to be and begins to form the young woman she will become. There is a time of unfreezing, then changing, and finally a girl resets.

The pre-teen girl knows herself well. Hello Kitty, butterfly clips, and Beanie Babies define her world. Then, one morning, it's over. What made sense for so long doesn't anymore. A girl is beginning to let go of the younger child, a friend she knew well.

The growing girl will, at this point, change everything from friendships to her mind as she tries on different roles for size and fit. Gathering data on what to incorporate into her emerging young-woman vision, she scans the horizon for role models. Joan of Arc? Britney Spears? Aunt Nancy? And what about her life's work? Biochemist? Poet? Entrepreneur?

She may announce her career choice to the world at lunch only to change her mind by dinner. In the right environment, though, she will have the feeling that she is searching, not being whimsical or silly. She learns then that change is a part of life, not a threat to it. She sees that she is doing important work, not just pretending. Changing is difficult and best done in a confident community. Surrounded by steady and wise adults, a girl is reassured that her own inner testing and doubt do not shake the foundations of the community around her.

Finally, a girl begins to reset, that is, she begins to integrate her new ideas and perspectives into a new self-concept. Teachers everywhere are familiar with this phenomenon, which is why we are not surprised to notice, in about January every year, that seniors suddenly seem grown up and ready to leave, distinctly more mature than ever before. High school has served its purpose. Girls are ready to take their new selves into the world.

The emergence of a new grown-up persona is only part of the success. Secure in what she has accomplished, a girl now knows that she can manage change with resolve. She has found a creative style. She will approach other challenges purposefully. Most importantly, she will embrace change, her life-long companion, with the confidence that only early success can bring.

How can we make certain that the future leaders of our country will be able to manage a changing world successfully? Encourage them to take healthy risks, be there to listen, share coping strategies, and express certainty about their ability to succeed. From this secure base, they will sense that life is about growth, not defensive posturing. They will trust that the sky is not falling when hard times come along. If we, the adults in girls' lives, have patience for the journey and reverence for the process, girls will become the courageous innovators our world needs them to be.