Reality Check Nation Times have Changed - Teenagers Haven't!

Times have changed, but teens still need someone on their side. Today’s teenager is said to love luxury, have bad manners, have no respect for elders, don’t take school seriously and have contempt for authority. “Times have changed,” it has been said, and today’s teenagers have changed to reflect the changing times. Before we take a look at today’s teenagers, let’s look at the influences acting on the adolescent stage perhaps since the beginning of the human race. These influences were present on our grandparents and parents when they were teenagers. Times have not changed the following observation: Adolescence seems to be a time of seeking status as an individual, an attempt to emancipate the youth from childish submission to parental authority. It is during this time that the teenager is asking in a serious manner, “who am I and how am I different from my parents and perhaps from every other teenager?” Adolescence tends to be a time when group relationships become of major importance. The adolescent is very anxious to attain status with and recognition by his age mates. He tends to desire intensely, to conform to the actions and standards of his peer group. There is much security in conformity. Adolescence is a time of rapid physical development and growth. Teenagers must adjust to changes in body image, primary and secondary sexual development, coordination, increases and decreases in appetite, quick shifts in need for rest and physical activity. Much physical and psychic energy is spent trying to cope with school, with peers, and with parents. School is viewed as a very artificial environment for the teenager. It is physically restrictive and unnatural to their desires for activity. Of course, they must also accept pubertal changes and adjust to psycho-sexual needs within the framework of societal expectations. Adolescence seems to be a time for complex intellectual and cognitive development. Believe it or not, teenagers are capable of mental functions equal to most adults, and better than some adults. They lack experience, however, to go with their new found intellectual capacity. Unfortunately, they often reject the experience offered by adults. Within the development of thought and thinking, many adolescents lack immediate motivation for academics, studying and performing “up to their capacity in school.”