Themes connected to Growing Up

Growing Up is a very broad and general theme so it can also be related to a number of connected themes, which may or may not be in focus in the work you are doing in class.

In this section you can find mini-guides to some of the most popular themes that are often used in combination with Growing Up. Depending on your teacher’s chosen focus, some of these will be much more relevant than others. Many of these themes can also stand alone or be used in other combinations, they do not always appear in the context of Growing…

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Bullying

Bullying refers to the fact that children, teenagers - or even adults - may sometimes engage in behaviour where they deliberately torment others physically or psychologically.

Most people have encountered bullying at some point in their lives - either as bullies, victims or bys…

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The Generation Gap

The generation gap refers to the idea that there is a significant difference in the attitude and worldview of people within different generations. This may, for example, be reflected in people’s attitude to politics, religion, relationships, sexuality, technology and media.

When working with this theme, you may be asked to work with fictional texts that feature some kind of conflict between generations a…

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Identity

Identity is the connected theme most directly related to the overall theme of Growing Up, as growing up is very often described as a search for one’s identity. Any story that features a character experiencing an inner conflict, trying to decide what kind of person to be, can be related to the theme of Identity. You may also encounter Identity as an entire …

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Racism

Sometimes Growing Up is combined with the theme of Racism (though Racism may also come up as a theme on its own - or in connection with many other typical themes you may encounter in your English lessons).

When Racism is combined with Growing Up, the typical focus is fictional texts that describe children or teenagers from different ethnicities that grow up together and their relationship to one another…

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Social Media

Social Media is a very popular theme in English lessons. Sometimes it is used in connection with Growing Up, but it may also stand alone.

When combined with Growing Up, the focus is usually on the way children and teenagers in particular use social media like Snapchat, Facebook or Instagram. Sometimes the so-ca…