Interesting article on teenage brains

[Peela]

well, I found it interesting, :001_smile:

 

http://www.kindredmedia.com.au/info/into_the_mystery_of_the_adolescent_mind/103/1

[H.S. Burrow]

Wow! Very interesting article. I have a teenaged brain in my household and can definitely see that most of these points are true!!

 

Thanks for the article.:)

[Moira in MA]

Thanks for sharing, I especially like this:

So let's take a walk through the brain and mind of your average adolescent. Now this is dangerous territory indeed. It's not just the likelihood of

<snip>

encountering an obsession with privacy that would baffle the most secretive hermit or the risk of being crushed by the wild pendulum of mood swings.

 

My teen to a tee!

[periwinkle]

"Expecting teenagers to show a lot of forethought, planning, consideration and impulse control is like expecting a goldfish to recite Shakespeare."

 

LOL! Yep, that describes my teenagers!

[Gwen in VA]

I like to think that arguing with a teenager is like mud wrestling with a pig — you both end up dirty but only the pig is happy!

 

I love it! My happy pig is now off at college continuing his political arguments with someone else.....

[Michelle in MO]

I like to think that arguing with a teenager is like mud wrestling with a pig — you both end up dirty but only the pig is happy!

 

I love it! My happy pig is now off at college continuing his political arguments with someone else.....

 

to my oldest dd? We must be distant cousins somehow! :D

 

I love my oldest dearly, but the article and your post describe her to a "T"! Only, my dd doesn't argue about politics that much, but more inane issues.

 

This was hilarious! Thanks for the laugh. I need to keep my teens and their wild emotions in perspective. I've got another one coming up in just a couple of years.

[Kareni]

Thanks for sharing, Peela! It was an enjoyable article and I've mailed the link to some family and friends who might also appreciate it.

 

I particularly liked this line: "Some parents kind of forget this. They wouldn't dream of giving their teenager free access to their life savings but they will reasonably frequently leave them in charge of a $200,000 house full of fine furniture and still be stunned by the results!"

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Grace is Sufficient]

And yet, unless I have bought into some kind of urban legend, until the 20th century these very same 'teenagers' often managed to integrate into society and function as adults.

 

This causes me to wonder whether their brains are affecting their abilities, or if the unnecessarily and artificially extended childhood called adolescence is actually affecting their brains.

 

Considering that we expect (and receive) less maturity and responsibility from people in their early twenties than earlier generations expected from 14 year olds, I find the article difficult to entirely accept. I wonder if we're just making excuses for our societal dysfunction?

 

No tomatoes, please. Just $.02 which you are entirely free to ignore.

[Guest tylerupchurch]

And yet, unless I have bought into some kind of urban legend, until the 20th century these very same 'teenagers' often managed to integrate into society and function as adults.

 

This causes me to wonder whether their brains are affecting their abilities, or if the unnecessarily and artificially extended childhood called adolescence is actually affecting their brains.

 

Considering that we expect (and receive) less maturity and responsibility from people in their early twenties than earlier generations expected from 14 year olds, I find the article difficult to entirely accept. I wonder if we're just making excuses for our societal dysfunction?

 

No tomatoes, please. Just $.02 which you are entirely free to ignore.

I concur with your suspicion. Intriguing results, but one has to wonder how the fifth commandment would temper any interpretation or application of this data.

[Maverick]

I found the article very interesting, and while there were many observations I concur with (I am a teacher and work with other teens besides my own) I also wonder if this is a bit of a "chicken and egg" situation. Have our social values and parenting styles led to less mature teens or vice versa?

[Laura Corin]

And yet, unless I have bought into some kind of urban legend, until the 20th century these very same 'teenagers' often managed to integrate into society and function as adults.

 

 

A 14yo in traditional British society would have been an apprentice, either to mother/father, or in service/learning a trade. Whilst they were expected to work hard, there was also a lot of supervision.

 

There's a Dorothy Sayers book (1930s) in which a girl gets pregnant outside of marriage. The local vicar's wife says that 'she wasn't really steady enough' to go and work in a shop, and should have been kept at home, or put into service (sent to train as a maid in a big house). She needed a lot more structure, in other words, even though expected to earn her own living.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

[Peela]

A 14yo in traditional British society would have been an apprentice, either to mother/father, or in service/learning a trade. Whilst they were expected to work hard, there was also a lot of supervision.

 

There's a Dorothy Sayers book (1930s) in which a girl gets pregnant outside of marriage. The local vicar's wife says that 'she wasn't really steady enough' to go and work in a shop, and should have been kept at home, or put into service (sent to train as a maid in a big house). She needed a lot more structure, in other words, even though expected to earn her own living.

 

 

I have been thinking about this today and I wonder how free and independent and adult they really were. I am pretty sure society would have supported them- families were closer, apprenticships are a form of guidance. My 14yo dd is working part time, and can certainly do a good job- the man she works for (she is doing bookwork for a friend who runs a gardening business) wants to pay her an adult wage, because she works better than adults he has had do the job- but it doesn't mean she is mature across the board. (She isnt :001_smile: )

 

Perhaps teenagers in the past did their maturing in a different place- the world, the workplace- rather than school- but that doesn't mean that the maturing didn't still need to occur. Being able to hold down a domestic or other job is hardly a sign of complete maturity.

 

I often think of the Romans/ Greeks whose young men in their late teens and twenties were learning- that "rhetoric" stage seems to have happened at the age our kids are in university. They are not ready for it before then.

I tend to think we keep maturing long after childhood, anyway. Or, at least some people do. Others don't.

 

On the other hand, perhaps we do mollycoddle our teenagers too much. Its the other side of providing that guidance and structure- I certainly don't want 14year olds out on the roads driving, personally, even though they are technically capable.

 

It still seems the most healthy way is to hand over the reigns slowly during the teen years. If it is a luxury our middle class affluent society extends to our teenagers, to give them support and time to mature, I am still all for it.

[Guest tylerupchurch]

I tend to think that it is when parents give their children the benefits of adulthood( ie. a car, cell phone, even an apartment of their own ) without ever requiring them also to embrace the responsibilities of adulthood ( steady work, budgeting, self-discipline, &c ) that children remain children. Otto Scott said that humans are "bad weather creatures" and flourish best when allowed to struggle a bit. But I am only 19 and can only go on what I've seen. ~ $0.02

[Andrea in Dutchess]

thanks for this!