What do you think about this perspective re: teenagers?

[TXMomof4]

I was talking to one of the ministers at my church last night and he was talking about raising children in todays world. He has a son who just entered the youth group at church and he said he was amazed at the change that has occurred since becoming part of this group. They homeschool, and I've said since I met them, that if my kids grow up to be as sweet and kind as their kiddos that I would consider myself a success.

 

He said that until the Great Depression, kids in their teen years weren't "teenagers". They were children until they could enter the workforce, when they became young adults. Everyone worked, either at home with the family or as soon as they were able, they entered the workforce. When the Depression occurred, the young adults were forced out of the jobs because they were needed for older people, and a new category was created - viola - teenagers.

 

Now, they have they are their own group with their own marketing strategies aimed at them, their own movies, etc. According to the book he's reading (I can't remember the name) this era is what changed the look of American society and caused the youth of America to become so much more worldly at such an early age.

 

He said his son (12 yo) took a test to profile his worldview. Keep in mind that these are amazingly strong Christian parents. They were missionaries, now he's a minister. The top view in his son's profile was secularism (Is that a word?), followed closely by humanism, third on the list was Christian worldview. How is that??? The child is the homeschooled son of a minister!

 

I don't know, I'm just thinking about how I'm raising my kids. Obviously, taking them to church on Sunday isn't enough. Living a life for Christ apparently doesn't have as much influence on your kids as I thought it would. Now I've got something else to worry about at night!

[Tina]

I've heard that about teens. Very interesting -his son's results! You would think it would be different with that background..

 

It would be interesting to check my kids with that test. Was it from the book he was reading?

[Renee in NC]

I don't know about the worldview thing, but he is mostly right about the creation of "teenagers."

[Sophia]

I can't recall the source, so I realize I shouldn't even mention it, but I read this summer that very few Christians actually hold a biblical worldview.

 

This is weighing heavily on our minds, and dh and I will be participating in the Truth Project next month to learn more about passing on a biblical worldview to our dc.

[Crissy]

I think I'd want to know more about the test.

 

I am a Christian in the sense that I belive in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

But I don't fit well into the religious community. I cringe at some (many?) of our legalistic tendencies, and especially at the way many Christians treat folks of other faiths. I can't say that I see the world at large the way many of my Christian friends do.

 

If I were to take a test to determine my world view, it's quite possible that Christian would not be my top result.

That does not mean, however, that I am not His.

[JudoMom]

I can't recall the source, so I realize I shouldn't even mention it, but I read this summer that very few Christians actually hold a biblical worldview.

 

This is weighing heavily on our minds, and dh and I will be participating in the Truth Project next month to learn more about passing on a biblical worldview to our dc.

 

The Truth Project is awesome. So is Building on the Rock by Summit Ministries.

 

I think the key is to be deliberate about imparting a world view to your child. A vacuum will fill up with something. Teaching your child to not only know the "right" answers, but teaching them why they are the "right" answers is a necessity.

[8filltheheart]

I have my own opinion about "world view."

 

I am the youngest of 6. We were all raised basically the same (or as similarly as parents can raise kids anyway) and yet our faiths are now all worlds apart with one of my siblings being a vehement aethist.

 

Even within my own children I can see huge variances of faith.

 

From my Catholic perspective it is about how we actively respond to the graces we are given and whether or not we choose to use our free will to either embrace it or reject it. I do not believe it is dependent solely upon upbringing or exposure or what values are modelled. It becomes the personal decision of the individual.

 

As far as the "invention" of the teenager....I have read that before. But in actuality what I have read is the exact opposite in that the teenage era now prevents them from growing up as fast as they used to and attempts to force them into a period of non-adulthood.

 

Either way, I believe that regardless of whether they were holding "adult" jobs or being educated......those yrs are yrs of huge mental maturation and change and that navigating them as parents can be as difficult or as easy as the individual experiencing them. My 3 oldest have all handled them completely different.

[PariSarah]

. . . called Soul Searching, written by a guy that used to go to our church, which details his research (he's a sociologist) into the religious lives of teens. Very illuminating.

 

He's starting to work on "Emerging Adults" now--the long extension of adolescence into early adulthood. He wrote an article on it for Books and Culture recently. Again--very illuminating.

 

I'm trying not to think about this too hard, but I'm a few short years away from raising a teen. On whom it dawned only yesterday that I don't plan to vote for the candidate he assumed I supported. I think it just hit us both that communication of values and beliefs isn't necessarily obvious and smooth.

[Paz]

I think there comes a time when a teen takes all that we have taught them about their faith and personalizes it. We hope this happens but it is not a given. Some kids develop this gradually and some all of a sudden. Toward the end of my son's senior year he told me that he before, he went to church and believed things because we told him to but now things were different. He had experienced his faith in a real way and was excited to go to church and learn more. I am sure this changed his worldview also. I could also see it in the way he was living out his life. I think this is a special challenge for kids who do grow up in a Christian household because they are exposed to it all the time but need an experience for it to be real to them. I think the biggest things we can do as parents are provide them with opportunities to grow, live out our faith, and pray, pray, pray for them.

[8filltheheart]

Sarah,

 

Perhaps you can answer this question. I originally had a sentence in my post after the "world view" stating that I thought that that was a Protestant term b/c I only hear of it from Protestant friends and have never heard any of my Catholic friends use it.

 

Is that correct? Or am I just not picking up on it in other conversations?

[TXMomof4]

 

As far as the "invention" of the teenager....I have read that before. But in actuality what I have read is the exact opposite in that the teenage era now prevents them from growing up as fast as they used to and attempts to force them into a period of non-adulthood.

 

Either way, I believe that regardless of whether they were holding "adult" jobs or being educated......those yrs are yrs of huge mental maturation and change and that navigating them as parents can be as difficult or as easy as the individual experiencing them. My 3 oldest have all handled them completely different.

 

Do you think it's a good thing that they are in that "non-adulthood" period though? I have a friend who thinks I'm horrible because I have my 8 yo take on so much responsiblities. She thinks I'm not giving her enough opportunity to be a child. But I feel that she should start learning responsiblity as she is able to handle it and putting it off will just make life harder. So, if I start at 8 giving her responsibilty for her own belongings, helping around the house, helping care for her siblings (I'm just talking about watching the baby while I'm in the shower kind of help), but then tell her she's not grown-up til she's 18 - that leaves her in a kind of neverland for a whole lot of time.

 

I'm not saying I want her grown and gone - that is coming too quickly in my opinion anyway, but it does seem like that lack of definition of their role during the teen years will not be helpful to them in the long run.

[TXMomof4]

I think there comes a time when a teen takes all that we have taught them about their faith and personalizes it. We hope this happens but it is not a given. Some kids develop this gradually and some all of a sudden. Toward the end of my son's senior year he told me that he before, he went to church and believed things because we told him to but now things were different. He had experienced his faith in a real way and was excited to go to church and learn more. I am sure this changed his worldview also. I could also see it in the way he was living out his life. I think this is a special challenge for kids who do grow up in a Christian household because they are exposed to it all the time but need an experience for it to be real to them. I think the biggest things we can do as parents are provide them with opportunities to grow, live out our faith, and pray, pray, pray for them.

 

Very good point. I grew up in a Christian household, but don't think I truly knew my faith until I was grown and married. It was just what we did, not necessarily who I was. However, I know several people who never experience that transition. They were Christians of their own faith when they were young. I don't know....just wish there was a how-to manual on raising kids!

[PariSarah]

I've never really paid attention. I actually heard it an awful lot in college (I went to a completely secular school), and one of my professors (not a Christian of any stripe) tried to get people to use it instead of "philosophy" when they were referring to a person's . . . uh, worldview instead of to the discipline of philosophy. "Oh, my philosophy is, like, that people are basically, like, good? And that they will, like, do the right thing, if, like, people were just nicer to them." "No, Miss Pinkie, you don't have a philosophy; you have a worldview. Philosophy requires intellectual curiosity, discipline, and depth."

 

If I'm not mistaken, there's an important German philosophical term--weltenschaung? something similar?--that means "worldview," referring to the lenses through which people view and interpret the world, which may be the origin of the term as it's commonly used. I don't know the religious persuasion of the German philosophers who used it. (I don't even know which German philosophers used it!)

[8filltheheart]

My kids take on responsibilities as young as 3. My 3 yr old is expected to carry her dirty laundry to the laundry room (with direct request of course.....not expecting her to do it on her own). She is expected to help pick up her toys, etc.

 

My 14 yod could run our household. (she wouldn't want to!! but she could do it!!)

 

I think the answer to your question is yes, I am glad there is this period. Our 16 yos is incredibly immature. I can't imagine him being expected to be an adult. His liberties are limited compared to what our oldest had (for example, we won't let him get his driver's license b/c a car can be a deadly weapon with an inattentive teen behind the wheel) I think it becomes our jobs as parents to provide the best guidance we can for the individual we have before us.

 

We do not parent "equally." My kids know that fair is what fair does/is. Just like life. Some kids might be able to handle being "adults" younger. Our oldest was ready to be independent in 11th grade. Some simply aren't. There isn't a one size fits all answer here one way or the other. I think the reason adulthood is 18 is b/c like all things, there is an average age where mental maturity is demonstrated. It used to be 18. I would suspect that that age is probably not the equivalent of what it was yrs ago b/c teenage yrs are not what they were only decades ago.

[JudyJudyJudy]

He said his son (12 yo) took a test to profile his worldview. Keep in mind that these are amazingly strong Christian parents. They were missionaries, now he's a minister. The top view in his son's profile was secularism (Is that a word?), followed closely by humanism, third on the list was Christian worldview. How is that??? The child is the homeschooled son of a minister!

I think the reason is perhaps because children tend to be more open-minded than adults are. I think it's natural for humans to be open-minded, but we are often taught not to be.

 

As for the creation of teenagers, perhaps that's applicable to some parts of the country or world, but based on my knowledge of the rural South, the description doesn't apply, especially during the Depression.

[tinag]

my dh just taught on famliy worship and how important it is. I think that family worship time helps shape worldviews.

Here is a quote he used-

Spurgeon quoting Matthew Henry, “ I agree with Matthew Henry when he says, ‘they that pray in the family do well. They that pray and read the Scriptures, do better. But they that pray and read and sing, do best of all. There is a completeness I that kind of family worship which is much to be desired.â€

Wish I had time to read this thread!

[fivetails]

I think I'd want to know more about the test.

 

 

 

I wonder if it was This one - I've seen that passed around online for quite some time.

[Kathleen in VA]

This is the one that came to my mind:

 

http://www.nehemiahinstitute.com/peers.php

[Robin Hood]

This has been on my mind alot. In what I read here and what I see IRL, youth is different than when I was young. I realize that my kids are not going to be who I expect them to be. The world is different, way different, than it was when I graduated 35 years ago. My Kate just turned 10 and it hit me hard that she is on her way into that world that is so different. I recently found this article and was encouraged by these twin brothers just entering college. They have been mentioned here before, but my aging up dd is making me pay more attention.

 

http://www.therebelution.com/blog/2005/08/myth-of-adolescence-part-1/

[Plaid Dad]

I originally had a sentence in my post after the "world view" stating that I thought that that was a Protestant term b/c I only hear of it from Protestant friends and have never heard any of my Catholic friends use it.

 

 

I'm not Sarah, :) but this is something I've done some research about. Catholics tend to talk about "developing a Catholic conscience" rather than a "worldview." Although that conscience will necessarily be deeply formed by Sacred Scripture, I have never heard a Catholic talk about having, or desiring, a "biblical worldview." That phrase is associated (exclusively, as far as I've been able to determine) with Protestantism, particularly evangelicalism. At most, you hear Catholics comment that a particular idea is "not Scriptural."

 

There's a good book by an evangelical scholar about the term "worldview" and its use in Protestant discourse: Naming the Elephant: Worldview As a Concept by James W. Sire. The word does indeed derive from the German Weltanschauung, and it has its own interesting history. HTH!

[anissarobert]

I'm not sure about the worldview issue. At our house it is understood that our children have to figure out what they believe, because my dh and I come from very different points when it comes to religious belief. However, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the the creation of the "teenage" years

 

As the parent of an almost 15 year-old, this is a topic that has been discussed frequently in my house. It seems our culture, has created an atmosphere in which the "teenage" years are seen as a time to be concerned with trivial and superficial things. In fact, now we have to contend with a new invention the "tween" years, that as far as I can tell start about age 9.

 

My mind was opened to this about 5 years ago when I heard John Taylor Gatto speak at a conference. He has much to say on this issue. It is clear that much more was expected of young adults before the depression years.

 

It is an ongoing struggle to encourage my daughter to look beyond what the culture tells her is important, so she can see what truly matters. All around us newspapers, books (teen twaddle has been an issue here), magazines, and the television tell our teens that wearing the right clothes, dating the right boy/girl and listening to the right music are all that matters. Of course, this was true for preceeding generations as well, but it seems the pandering to the "teen" gets stronger through the decades.

 

We have had some success. A friend was surprised recently, when I said that my daughter could run our household in my absence. (Although, like the previous poster, she would not want to.) It is a real benefit, that as the oldest she has been given so much responsibility, because now she is working on her Congressional Medal and undertaking a very rigourous college prep program. There is no time for "home ec" right now. I have on her school schedule in the next month for her to read the "Do Hard Things" book written by the Harris twins that the other post referred to. I know I want my children to be better prepared for adulthood than I was at 18.

[8filltheheart]

I'm not Sarah, :) but this is something I've done some research about. Catholics tend to talk about "developing a Catholic conscience" rather than a "worldview." Although that conscience will necessarily be deeply formed by Sacred Scripture, I have never heard a Catholic talk about having, or desiring, a "biblical worldview." That phrase is associated (exclusively, as far as I've been able to determine) with Protestantism, particularly evangelicalism. At most, you hear Catholics comment that a particular idea is "not Scriptural."

 

There's a good book by an evangelical scholar about the term "worldview" and its use in Protestant discourse: Naming the Elephant: Worldview As a Concept by James W. Sire. The word does indeed derive from the German Weltanschauung, and it has its own interesting history. HTH!

 

Thank you Drew!!! I'm not crazy after all!!! (whew.....no kids looking over my shoulder to refute that!! :tongue_smilie:)

 

I have really wondered about this. As I written before I am always in a very small Catholic community and wondered if it was just the people I knew. I would hear the world view comments all the time from Protestant friends. I do not believe I have ever heard a Catholic use that terminology.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post.

[Rosie_0801]

A friend was surprised recently, when I said that my daughter could run our household in my absence.

 

My daughter is only one, but it seems to me our job is to bring them up to be capable of independence, because they seem to want to be long before we want them to be! I'm all for letting kids be kids, and accept that teens need bludge time just like I need bludge time, but why would we encourage them to tread water in the river of life, instead of at least crawling along? My relatives are always saying "they aren't babies long enough" which seems a bit odd to me. I accept that I might change my mind in a few years time, but it seems to me that babies are babies for just the right amount of time. The time it takes, as it happens, to get to toddlerhood. That's what is supposed to happen, isn't it? Anyway, if they don't grow up, we don't get grandkids!

:)

Rosie

[CLHCO]

I can't recall the source, so I realize I shouldn't even mention it, but I read this summer that very few Christians actually hold a biblical worldview.

 

This is weighing heavily on our minds, and dh and I will be participating in the Truth Project next month to learn more about passing on a biblical worldview to our dc.

 

 

I've been through the Truth Project with my 14 yo daughters and it was great. I would love to see a test like that sometime to see how they line up. I have to admit that I know a Christian worldview but there are times when, out of habit, decisions or beliefs about something specific do not fall nicely into one. It is very difficult to think against the very fabric of your society, even as a mature homeschooling mother. I'm sure it's even more difficult for a teen from any background so we cannot take the need for direct teaching for granted.

[Nestof3]

I don't know about the test, but I can say that agree with everything else he has said. We have raised our son from childhood into adult and never focused on the idea of teenage years or teenage culture. It's a really difficult thing to explain to someone else.

 

I do see so much teenage culture and teenage irresponsibility in our society. My brother and I were raised in this mindset and barely had to help out at all. My brother was still living at home in his early 20's and helped out absolutely none. There was way too much pampering. Way too much of us hanging out at the mall, doing stupid stuff while our parents worked their tails off. I am convinced that this just slows down the maturing process.

[tibbyl]

Some believe that the fundamental principles of humanism are compatible with christianity.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_humanism

[tibbyl]

Interview with author of "The Case Against Adolesence." Interesting perspective.

 

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070302-000002.html