The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager

Talking Points:

This week’s reading was helpful to put into perspective the views of a teenager now in comparison to views from years ago and to realize that unfortunately attitudes of what a teenager is have not changed.

· “Youth is seen, especially by adults, as a time without compromise…”This part of the reading really connected because that is the attitude that parent’s believed about their teenagers. They think that their kids are irresponsible and don’t care about anything besides their “world” but the reality is that most teenagers feel compromised by their behaviors and it reflects later on in their lives.
· The stories of the young girls who gave birth and killed their babies were horrific and a great signal of the pressures of pregnancy of that time and lack of communication of relationships and sexuality. “She proved herself physically capable of bearing a child, but not mentally, emotionally, or morally mature enough to handle it. She had, in a word, shown herself to be a teenager.” Furthermore, this example shows how adults over generalize that teenagers lack emotional, moral and mental maturity.
· “Sometimes young people could display learning skills, or religious inspiration that would force their elders to acknowledge maturity.” This happened to me when I became a religious leader in my town. It was a stressful stage because I had to keep up with expectations.
· “The weakness we see in youth are our own, and we know it.” I believe this is one of the explanations why adult are so contradictory on their understanding of what makes a teenager. They measure teenagers to what their personal experiences as a teenager regardless of the differences.