So i don't know about you but I really liked being a teenager. Sure I was as awkward as the kid I sat next to, but I really loved it.
I had a conversation with someone today about whether being a teenager is cool and we had an interesting dialogue on this, i share it here with you. So it came up that a teen might not like to be labeled as a teen because its just not that cool to be a teen. I replied that I just don't know if that's the case, I actually disagree. I think that this message of the teen not being cool is a huge problem. Far too often it is ingrained in the heads of our teens that this stage will be miserable, you just have to "make it through" high school so you can get to college, someday you'll be an adult, etc. Even the way we talk to teens about college being "the best four years of your life" clearly implies that these teen years are some hurdle you have to charge through in order to move on with your life. This sentiment makes me frustrated- what about reveling in the fact that you aren't in college or starting a career yet, that you are in a confusing and constantly changing stage, that you are smack dab in the middle of figuring out some pretty important things, you get the responsibility of your first job, oh and you see your friends every day from 8-3pm. I loved all of this. I was trying to figure out why someone might not think that being a teen is cool and a certain article came to mind- from the Rethinking Schools website: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_03/six233.shtml
This article "Six going on Sixteen" explores how are K-1st grade students are acting like middle schoolers- dating, going on myspace, caring about brand name styles, etc. Well if this is the case then it makes compete sense why being a teenager isn't cool when you actually are a teenager since you've been trying to be a teenager since kindergarden! Anyways when situating this teen-cool factor in the context of this article my thoughts are both more complex, but also more comprehensive.
So with all this preaching on my thoughts on teens and the cool factor, I pose a lasting charge: Lets slow down, I want us to acknowledge the uncertain yet thrilling experience of being a teenager, and I want that so much for the teens that I work with.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
hooray for teens! i couldn't agree with you more, elena. what an excellent way of describing the 'uncoolness' of being a teen. i always thought of middle school as the truly painful and totally unrewarding awkward phase, and how it was really then that i wanted to be a teen to be 'cooler'. and with kids starting at a younger and younger age at trying to be 'more mature' of course once you get there and look around you think to yourself, 'this is it?'
ReplyDeletei always used to avoid the whole college is the best years of your life mindset with teens when i worked with them. it seems to really put down where they are at right now. i always saw the teen years as an incredible opportunity to do anything you wanted and to have the complete safety net of being a teen, and that was what i tried to instill in my kids. the joy to just be a teenager. there's plenty of time to be a cranky grown up later. in fact, why don't we ALL slow down! let's make that the cyberped mantra.
YES YES YES. Guess who shows up to "teen programs" at the Art Institute? 11-13 year olds.
ReplyDeleteI think your work on this is really important because teens are so transitional and in such conflict with themselves and usually (it seems) their families of origin as they strain to make their own identity that we over-emphasize that transitional nature of their age. I will admit, though, that I wouldn't do 11th grade again for all the money on earth, and the teens I work with do struggle. I think it's hard not to feel empathy when you hear people speak from such a position, for me it's just important to remind myself that everyone's still an individual with their own perceptions and feelings-- kid, tween, baby, teen, or otherwise.