Newsweek: Why teenagers are growing up slowly

[SFG75]

This article is by Po Bronson. I haven't read any of his works, but I have heard of them. This article is a good one as it allows us old curmudgeons to comment on how wayward and lazy young people are today. I remember reading that Meriwether Lewis fought off an Indian attack by himself on horseback with a rifle. Today, a 15 year old is lucky to play outside in the yard by himself as he might trip while walking and chewing gum, or be kidnapped.

“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. Without painful real-life experiences, modern teens’ brains never learn to tell the difference between what they should fear and what they shouldn’t. Without real consequences and real rewards, teens never learn to distinguish between good risks they should take and bad risks they shouldn’t. “We park kids on the sidelines, thinking their brains will develop if we just wait, let time pass, as if all they need is more prep courses, lessons, and enrichment courses. They need real stress and challenges.”

Yes, I know...teenagers...not tennagers. Ahhhhh