Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager

The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager
by Thomas Hines

" The teenage years have been defined as, at once, the best and freest of life and a time of near madness and despair". Hines defines the teenager as "the symbol of Americans' rising aspirations, the repository of hopes, the one who will realize the American dream. And inevitably, the teenager is a disappointment, whose combination of adult capacities and juvenile irresponsibility sows personal heartbreak and social chaos". I agree with Thomas Hines when he says "young people today seem to be in a world of their own" because teenagers today feel that the rules do not apply to them. For instance, the example Hines uses about the teenage girl at the prom. As Hines says 'the young woman was unwilling to admit, even to herself, that her actions had consequences". Teenagers do not think that the rules apply to them. The statistic that Hines reports about in the article that "90 percent of adults said that young people are failing to learn such values as honesty, responsibility, and respect, and two thirds agreed that the next generation will be worse than the last" was surprising to me. As Hines gives examples of the horrible crimes that teenagers commit and teenage pregnancy it makes you wonder if this statistic is really true. Is the next generation really going to be worse then the present one?

1 comment:

  1. Good start but I want to hear more! Use the format in the syllabus to help you get into more of the details here.

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