You may have noticed a flurry of articles and books over the last few years devoted to exploring the theme of What Is Wrong With America's Youth? Books like Queen Bees and Wannabes, and Reviving Ophelia (click the links to find these books in the CCLS catalog, or click here to read reviews debunking them -- read both & decide what you believe!) lump teens together as violent, mindless, self-hating, and materialistic. Some current neurological research purports to prove that teens are incapable of advanced rational thought. My own view as someone who works with teens every day is that most of the teens I know are kind, thoughtful, well-adjusted, and interested in the world around them, so it was both refreshing and disturbing to read this recent New York Times op-ed piece, This is Your (Father's) Brain On Drugs by Mike Males.
On the one hand, I was happy to read that not every brain-imaging scientist thinks teens are mindless risk-takers. On the other, Males's argument and supporting statistics (he loses points with me for failing to cite them -- boo!) that it's actually Baby Boomer parents who are the mindless risk-takers is really very alarming. Males is the Principal Investigator & Content Director for YouthFacts.org, an organization "dedicated to providing factual information on youth issues such as crime, violence, sex, drugs, drinking, social behaviors, education, civic engagement, attitudes, media, and whatever the latest teen terror du jour arises." I like what he's trying to do -- provoke adults to think more carefully about your generation before we pronounce you broken -- but the way he's doing it is a little suspect.
It's Monday morning food for thought, at least. Happy reading!
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