(no subject)

[moominmolly]

From the NurtureShock article Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today:

Here’s a Twilight Zone-type premise for you. What if surgeons never got to work on humans, they were instead just endlessly in training, cutting up cadavers? What if the same went for all adults – we only got to practice at simulated versions of our jobs? Lawyers only got to argue mock cases, for years and years. Plumbers only got to fix fake leaks in classrooms. Teachers only got to teach to videocameras, endlessly rehearsing for some far off future. Book writers like me never saw our work put out to the public – our novels sat in drawers. Scientists never got to do original experiments; they only got to recreate scientific experiments of yesteryear. And so on.

Rather quickly, all meaning would vanish from our work. Even if we enjoyed the activity of our job, intrinsically, it would rapidly lose depth and relevance. It’d lose purpose. We’d become bored, lethargic, and disengaged.

In other words, we’d turn into teenagers.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Comments

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

I have to say, parts of it trigger my bullshit detector:

The newer explanation is that their brains simply aren’t developed yet: their prefrontal cortex hasn’t converted from gray matter to white matter, their amygdalas have a surfeit of oxytocin receptors, and their reward centers have a paucity of dopamine receptors. Few can say for sure yet how these anatomical features actually interact and create modern teenagers, but the gist of it is quite simple – until their brains are finished, they’re not ready for real life.

“Most parents will tell you that this idea of the immature teen brain is one of the few notions that truly provides them comfort,” says Allen. “They feel like it gets them off the hook – that it’s biological, not a fault of parenting.” But Allen speculates that our parenting style may indeed be causing their brains to be this way. Brains of teens a hundred years ago might have been far more mature.

I mean, maaaaaaybe, but there's a pretty massive burden of proof to be shouldered there - and if he's just speculating with no evidence whatsoever, as he seems to be, then I for one am prepared to fervently disbelieve.

All that said, I do agree with his larger point. High schools are terrible environments which exist purely due to social inertia. And I've long argued that North America should import the UK notion of a "gap year" in the late teens, generally immediately after high school, during which you work or travel or both, and acquire a few life experiences, before commencing the next phase of your life.

[underwatercolor.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I firmly believe young people can handle so much more than they are generally expected to. "Students will rise to the level of expectations" :)

*hugs* :)

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

I don't think that was how I felt about being a teenager! Among other things, I was doing a lot of real-life experimenting with relationships and identity and other big shit like that. But also, even things I can look back at and think "yeah, I was practicing X/replicating Y" were actually things that were, at the time, new to me. Long division is not news to anyone, but I remember being super-excited when I suddenly grasped how it worked :)

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

I recently had cause to make almost the same comment on a completely different post.
One of the few true regrets I have is that I did not do more to help a friend who was in an abusive relationship our senior year of high school. I don't know that I could have helped her more than I did, and I don't blame myself for what happened, but I do think that if anyone had given me the novel idea that it was okay to take myself, my friends, and our problems seriously before the age of 22 I would have tried harder.
Bullshit about physical brain development (which is fantastically plastic, but which probably hasn't changed that much in the past couple thousand years) aside, we do teenagers a disservice both by sheltering them, and by telling them they're sheltered and letting them believe that life doesn't start until later.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I want to say some stuff, but I haven't formed solid concepts yet. I like the idea of transforming secondary-level education.

I'd be happier if we had not only a gap year but a gap five. You could get out of high school with your hormones raging and instead of spending that time partying punctured by cramming sessions and all-night essay binges, you'd work as a journeyman.

This would be modern apprenticeship. If you're interested in the sciences, you'd work at a lab or a hospital. If you're into engineering, you'd schlep with surveyors. If you want to write, you'd work at... oh wait, we don't have newspapers anymore. Maybe you'd work at a firm as a technical writer or web author.

We did something like this when I was in high school and it really made a difference for me. Unfortunately it was too short -- one summer right before senior year. I learned that I didn't like civil engineers but I really liked computers and new tech. If I could have spent the next couple years just working with computers in the real world, I would've saved myself nearly a decade. Instead I had to do it on the sly until I gathered a crazy number of skills but had no paper proof.

What about all of those hormones? Work doesn't involve cramming when you're off the clock. Youth would be able to go out but not incur hundreds of thousands in debt for the privilege. Let's have them live in dorms but not at schools. The dorm life is vital for mature development (you have peers instead of parents, for example).

Summary: After high school move out after high school and live in a dorm with other young adults. Perhaps that move-out age should be 16. Go to work, hang out after work, do some volunteering. It'd still be a little more supervised than normal adult work: the job slots would be transitional and involve orientation, the dorm fees would come from the work, you could transition to a different career if you find one doesn't suit you, et cetera.

If after a couple years you find a real match, then you'd go to college. You'd be a little more mature, you'd've worked out some of your issues and you'd know exactly whey you're in school.

This is just a loose theory and it needs beating up. Thank you for getting me thinking about this.