Holden makes this very clear with all of his struggles discussed in this story. He makes adults who forget how difficult their childhood was realize that their kids may be needing some slack because they have their own problems.
His main problem of growing up is school. He feels like Pencey is a horrible school for him, even though everyone else loves it. It is supposedly one of the best schools around. It is a private school. He has had a lot of experience with different schools, so I think his opinion being how Pencey is not all it is cracked up to be is accurate. Although I may agree with his opinion on that, I do not think he should just not do his work because he thinks it is busy work and pointless. Even though school sometimes, more than others, seems to be pointless and boring, he still has to complete his work to further his education and in the end it will be better. He just has to realize that. It is hard for everyone to realize this, though.
Another problem with growing up is friendships. Everyone he is "friends" with seems to be secretly hated by Holden. Holden thinks he is better than everyone else. The only person he really got along with in this story was Phoebe and Mr. Antolini, and with Mr. Antolini he started to hate him! So I guess it was only Phoebe that he truly did not complain about being around. With his old "friends" from Pencey, he always complained when he was around them. He never did like anyone from that school or any of his other schools.
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Print.
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