Psychology Today: Trashing Teens
- Quote: Teens in America are in touch with their peers on average 65 hours a week, compared to about four hours a week in preindustrial cultures. In this country, teens learn virtually everything they know from other teens, who are in turn highly influenced by certain aggressive industries. This makes no sense. Teens should be learning from the people they are about to become. When young people exit the education system and are dumped into the real world, which is not the world of Britney Spears, they have no idea what’s going on and have to spend considerable time figuring it out.
Note: Via George Siemens. Thought provoking piece that’s worth a read in the context of some of the other discussions we’ve been having.
– post by willrich
New to this site, I haven’t delved into the other discussions, but as a parent and teacher of teens, this article is very thought-provoking. The many conflicts that I and other parents go through because the teen is stretching, growing and asserting independence are tough. Yet, as parents, we are expected to keep our children under control, in school, naive, etc., when 100 years ago they would have been married, working at something, and starting their own families.
Perhaps education should be working more toward apprenticeships at younger ages (that also occurred years ago) or some kind of mentoring process. Technology makes time and distance of little consequence. Many kids don’t know what they want to do at 14, but they also don’t see themselves having the same job all their lives. Oldsmobile is gone and so is the job that lasts from graduation to retirement.