The American Teenager: On the Historical Tip

“WHAT IS LIFE?!!!” I guarantee you that at least three times per day I ask myself that question. Like daily meals or something. An adolescent’s desire to know the reason behind things is on high, and when you grow up in the Accelerated/Gifted Program during elementary school, that thinking begins probably around 5 years old. My story, at least. If I didn’t know why something was important to my goals or felt that a situation was not in my zone, pass. School, unfortunately, became something that did not meet my needs when I was 14. And if you know how 8^th grade goes, that’s REALLY bad timing to become indifferent to education. Still, I had to know, “What is life, especially when it comes to school?”

David Bakan, Ph. D., professor emeritus of psychology at York University (a.k.a. he’s big business at that school), wrote an article in 1971 that spoke on how the current status of the American adolescent is a direct result of the urbanization of the country. During the late 1800s and early 1900s the U.S. transitioned from farmlands as the primary economy to industrialized cities with production factories and suburbs—shout-out to the railroad workers for making that possible! With these changes happening, many more jobs were available to U.S. citizens, including “juveniles” (the term used for “adolescents” or “teenagers” in that era). These changes also brought forth three major social movements still pertinent today: compulsory education (required schooling), child labor laws, and separate legal procedures for juveniles. According to Bakan, what has kept these constructs intact for the past century is something called “the promise,” which states “if a younger person does all the things [s/]he is ‘supposed to do’ during his[/her] adolescence, [s/]he will realize success, status, income, power, and so forth in his[/her] adulthood.” Sounds familiar, yes?

There are so many issues kids face even in middle school that “the promise” seems to have been broken by that point. High school, while presenting its own plethora of problems, can however feel more promising as it becomes much easier to see the significance of schooling to adult life. Also, it helps to get involved in extracurricular activities as they allow you to “test drive” a real-world profession. Ultimately, it doesn’t suck to have these demands as an adolescent; just make sure that you’re open to asking “what is life?”—and that you’re even more so receptive of the answer.

- Brandon Avery