The End of Teenagers

Newt Gingrich recently wrote a column for Business Week calling for an end of adolescence. He calls for them to take on more responsibilities as young adults instead of prolonging childhood. When I first read it, I thought that is nice idea. I was not sure how you would really implement such an idea.

However I started thinking about it some more shortly after when I went to the FTL boat parade. There was a family sitting near me with a teenage daughter. She was wearing expensive designer jeans, a "hoodie" from another jeans company (whose name is a bit offensive in my opinion), sun glasses (and remember this started at 8pm), and more bling jewelry than her mom. She sat there apparently bored out of her mind through the whole parade while her mother repeatedly chased her other two very young children around.

At some point, people have to take on responsibilities. The adolescence model seems to have delayed that and extended childhood. As a result, they are not prepared for life on their own once they leave home. This is a change from the past when you were either a child or young adult. You were given roles and responsibilities.

This is not a call for teenagers to drop of school or skip college to go into the work force. It is a call for them to be responsible for what they do. If they mess up, they need to pay the consequences. If they want something, they should earn it. They need to learn about responsibility.

Growing up my parents did not give me whatever I wanted. I worked part time and summers to earn money to help pay for a car and computer. I was fortunate that they were able to help with college but I also worked hard at academics to get over half the costs covered with scholarships. I also had chores around the house. Those increased through my teenage years.

To paraphrase Gingrich we need to engage the youth to challenge to take on real roles and responsibilities. One example he proposes are college scholarships for high schoolers who finish early.

Unfortunately I am afraid that many parents today do not see this as a problem. They also do not seem to instill the same values as when I was young. They continue to treat them as children. Teenagers look at Hollywood (and advertising) on how they should behave and what they should expect out of life instead of getting this from their parents. As a result, we see generations of young adults moving into society (a.k.a. real life) ill prepared.

As young adults, they need to learn life skills while they are still at home from work responsibilities to relationship skills to money management. Without this, they fill their time with other things that include paths to destruction and misery. I have heard Bob Barnes of Sheridan House say this for several years, but now I am starting to understand why. I am seeing more of the results around me everyday.

This change will only start with families at home. This is not something that the government, a school or a church can enforce. It has to come from the parents. Otherwise someone else is instilling values in them. Is that what we really want?