Something We Have Forgottren

1. Something We Have Forgottren • Well into the industrial revolution children and adolescents worked alongside adults, the latter transitioning to adult responsibilities during the early teenage years. • Most North Americans lived on family farms with children working even before they became teenagers. • Most, especially girls, married soon after puberty. .

2. Segregation of Young People • Adult unemployment in the economic depression of the 1930’s promoted laws against employment of young people. • Increasing importance of secondary school education made attendance mandatory by law • Result was segregation of youth and emergence of “teen culture”

3. Cognitive Abilities of Teens • Cognitive abilities of teens, on average, superior to those of adults • Most memory functions peak in early teens • Intelligence peaks in early to mid teens • All of Piaget’s formal operations typically mastered by age 14 or 15 • Kohlberg’s stage of conventional moral reasoning typically achieved at the same age

4. Infantilizing Young People • Right to work now severely restricted • Required schooling into late teenage years for virtually all • Cannot vote, make contracts, marry without consent, buy or sell property, etc. • Adult pleasures, especially drinking and sexual intercourse prohibited

5. Fallout from Culturally Mandated Immaturity • The first is immature behavior itself! • The second is resentment. • The third is an adversarialrelationship to adult authority and resulting “oppositional” behavior. • The latter is expressed in doing what adults forbid them to do.

6. Respect and Meaningful Involvement • Young people respond positively when treated with respect. • A basic principle of respect is: Nada acerca de nosotros sin nosotros! • Beyond Zero Tolerance illustrates those principles by full participation of youth in drug education, including sharing personal experience and beliefs.

7. Is Adolescence a Life Stage? • It begins in puberty as teenagers become mature sexually. • It is not distinct from adulthood on any cognitive measure. • It was not recognized historically. • It has no end other than as defined by law and custom. • Defining the teenage years as the beginning of adulthood would lead to better policy and practice.