Adolescent Wisdom & Intelligence
Turning 30 was cool. In my world, it meant that I was finally intellectually and educationally legitimate. I was no longer some punk-ass 20 something with a college degree. People would listen to what I had to say, I had clout. My knowledge and my degree were worth something. Ok, mildly delusional, but a girl can dream.
7 years later, sliding down the backside of 30 toward 40, I know not a smidgen more than the day I turned 30. I am unable to impress the Offspring, who the hell is going to take me seriously if I can't engage my 10 year old?
Americans have some unique fixations. Numbers, statistics, all things "quantifiable", regardless of whether you can ACTUALLY quantify the activity. Categories, boxes, definitions, statistics, movie stars, CEO's, Executives, Ivory Tower Academics...the list is long, mind numbing even. In our hyper-focus of all things random and ultimately unimportant in the schema of life, we lose sight of what is looking us straight in the eye. We are endlessly excited to "stream-line" everything, make it more efficient and cost effective. We seldom stop to really UNDERSTAND, to think, (I know it hurts, but invest a little effort) of the long term implications of our actions. Remember what we all thought of Welfare Reform and NAFTA? What about Reagan? Anyone want to re-think their original opinions?
Welfare Reform, oh, maybe a good thing? NAFTA, not so bad. Reagan, good-looking, but perhaps he wasn't as Republican as we'd like to think. Right now, I'm holding out hope that someone will impress upon the next Oval Office Occupant that NCLB may be one of several of the most moronic of King George's ideas. (Let's not even get started on Rumsfeld, Iraq, Iran....Cheney)
Our government has proven time and time again it's stellar adeptness to take the most simple social program and royally fuck it up. Helpful Bureaucracy is what we call an oxymoron. And Efficient? Please. When is the last time you sat in a "free" health clinic? Tried to enroll in a program such as WIC or Food Assistance. How about trying to renew your drivers license? Would you call the experience a good one? Was it efficient? Quick, easy? Hmmm, none of those words coming to mind? (You wonder why I question our enthusiasm for a Universal Health Care System, I might be skeptical...)
One of our biggest failings, the public education system. We contain 44 million children in a factory system of schooling. As if this process is like an assembly line in a Ford plant. "Open 'em up, stuff it in! One size fits all!" And, to exacerbate our moronic efforts, we apply arbitrary rules of engagement. "You must ask permission to succumb to bodily functions such as elimination."
It should come as no surprise (although it does) that when our youth reach 14, 15 and 16 they seem, well, immature. We break the best of children in this system, they disintegrate morally, becoming dependent on group approval. We ask them to be "schooled" not educated. We imbue a sense of inability and wonder why they don't "act their age".
Adolescence. That time between 10 and 24. Yes, it, adolescent development, covers that much time, that many years. A time of growth, experimentation, of becoming. A time when we are smarter than the world will give us credit for and yet more guileless, more nescient, than we would like to admit. Uneducated, but not stupid. Dieter very adeptly articulated his frustration saying "I hate that my opinion is discounted when people learn my age." Touche, my friend, touche. And it is true. We with hold credit from those individuals who fall between 10 & 24.
New flash - "I'm not as think as you dumb I am". As I watch the teens I so fiercely love and cherish (Blondie, Sparky, Dolly, Dot, Lover Boy, G.Q., Sundance Kid, Deiter, Train Girl, Trixy, Sarcastic Sam, Blissful Blond....) share the opinions that they have with the world, I realize, they may lack the articulation and the experience, but they are anything but stupid.
If you are a "grown-up" and you think that you can listen to a teen express his opinion, think again. What we fail to understand, is that what we see as "life experience" or "wisdom" is imparted on an observing teen as nothing but condescension. You are just another patronizing adult.
Adolescent adults are intelligent, articulate, insightful, wonderful human beings. They have such potential. And they teach me, educate me, everyday about the joy and wonder in this world. About optimism. I can't wait to see where they take this world, I see nothing but a bright future. We need only hold out a hand and lend a true listening ear.
7 years later, sliding down the backside of 30 toward 40, I know not a smidgen more than the day I turned 30. I am unable to impress the Offspring, who the hell is going to take me seriously if I can't engage my 10 year old?
Americans have some unique fixations. Numbers, statistics, all things "quantifiable", regardless of whether you can ACTUALLY quantify the activity. Categories, boxes, definitions, statistics, movie stars, CEO's, Executives, Ivory Tower Academics...the list is long, mind numbing even. In our hyper-focus of all things random and ultimately unimportant in the schema of life, we lose sight of what is looking us straight in the eye. We are endlessly excited to "stream-line" everything, make it more efficient and cost effective. We seldom stop to really UNDERSTAND, to think, (I know it hurts, but invest a little effort) of the long term implications of our actions. Remember what we all thought of Welfare Reform and NAFTA? What about Reagan? Anyone want to re-think their original opinions?
Welfare Reform, oh, maybe a good thing? NAFTA, not so bad. Reagan, good-looking, but perhaps he wasn't as Republican as we'd like to think. Right now, I'm holding out hope that someone will impress upon the next Oval Office Occupant that NCLB may be one of several of the most moronic of King George's ideas. (Let's not even get started on Rumsfeld, Iraq, Iran....Cheney)
Our government has proven time and time again it's stellar adeptness to take the most simple social program and royally fuck it up. Helpful Bureaucracy is what we call an oxymoron. And Efficient? Please. When is the last time you sat in a "free" health clinic? Tried to enroll in a program such as WIC or Food Assistance. How about trying to renew your drivers license? Would you call the experience a good one? Was it efficient? Quick, easy? Hmmm, none of those words coming to mind? (You wonder why I question our enthusiasm for a Universal Health Care System, I might be skeptical...)
One of our biggest failings, the public education system. We contain 44 million children in a factory system of schooling. As if this process is like an assembly line in a Ford plant. "Open 'em up, stuff it in! One size fits all!" And, to exacerbate our moronic efforts, we apply arbitrary rules of engagement. "You must ask permission to succumb to bodily functions such as elimination."
It should come as no surprise (although it does) that when our youth reach 14, 15 and 16 they seem, well, immature. We break the best of children in this system, they disintegrate morally, becoming dependent on group approval. We ask them to be "schooled" not educated. We imbue a sense of inability and wonder why they don't "act their age".
Adolescence. That time between 10 and 24. Yes, it, adolescent development, covers that much time, that many years. A time of growth, experimentation, of becoming. A time when we are smarter than the world will give us credit for and yet more guileless, more nescient, than we would like to admit. Uneducated, but not stupid. Dieter very adeptly articulated his frustration saying "I hate that my opinion is discounted when people learn my age." Touche, my friend, touche. And it is true. We with hold credit from those individuals who fall between 10 & 24.
New flash - "I'm not as think as you dumb I am". As I watch the teens I so fiercely love and cherish (Blondie, Sparky, Dolly, Dot, Lover Boy, G.Q., Sundance Kid, Deiter, Train Girl, Trixy, Sarcastic Sam, Blissful Blond....) share the opinions that they have with the world, I realize, they may lack the articulation and the experience, but they are anything but stupid.
If you are a "grown-up" and you think that you can listen to a teen express his opinion, think again. What we fail to understand, is that what we see as "life experience" or "wisdom" is imparted on an observing teen as nothing but condescension. You are just another patronizing adult.
Adolescent adults are intelligent, articulate, insightful, wonderful human beings. They have such potential. And they teach me, educate me, everyday about the joy and wonder in this world. About optimism. I can't wait to see where they take this world, I see nothing but a bright future. We need only hold out a hand and lend a true listening ear.
posted by Molly Sue at
2:31 AM
3 Comments:
Just telling you I stopped by at 6:01 mountain standerd time
:)
Smart Ass!
Ok, now I'm going to comment. :) I didn't have time to read it yesterday.
I just wanted to say, EMMA, has profound things to say. I think it's the old, don't shoot the messenger. WE have to learn to listen to what's being said, not at who is saying it.
Parker blows me away somtimes. He's so observant, and tells ya like it is. Sometimes, that bad, but then I sit back and realize, my 10 yr old just said that...I can't wait to see what he'll do, when he can actually articulate it!
Thanks for another thought provoking post!
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