The Failure of Adolescence
October 26, 2016 11:39 PM Subscribe
"Progressive societies cared for their children by emphasising play and schooling; parents were expected to shelter and protect their children’s innocence by keeping them from paid work and the wrong kinds of knowledge ... adolescence soon became a vision of normal development that was applicable to all youth – its bridging character (connecting childhood and adulthood) giving young Americans a structured way to prepare for mating and work. In the 21st century, the bridge is sagging at both ends as the innocence of childhood has become more difficult to protect, and adulthood is long delayed."
All quotes from Aeon piece linked above:
"Hall’s book would provide intellectual cover for the two most significant institutions that Americans were creating for adolescents: the juvenile court and the democratic high school. Hall made the transformational period of adolescence as important as childhood, but adolescents were also viewed as more problematic than younger children, and their potential for misbehaviour more dangerous."
"On a much grander scale than the juvenile court, the publicly financed comprehensive high school became possibly the most distinctly American invention of the 20th century. ... By the early 1930s, half of all US youth between 14 and 17 was in school; by 1940, it was 79 per cent: astonishing figures when compared with the single-digit attendance at more elite and academically focused institutions in the rest of the Western world."
"If high schools helped parents to handle their teenage children, the peer society of school helped adolescents handle their parents, since it provided them with an excuse for staying out after school and on weekends. "
"High schools, long a glory of US education and a product of democratic culture, had lost their central social role. Graduation, once the final step for most Americans on the road to work and steady relationships leading to marriage, no longer marked a significant end point on the way to maturity."
All quotes from Aeon piece linked above:
"Hall’s book would provide intellectual cover for the two most significant institutions that Americans were creating for adolescents: the juvenile court and the democratic high school. Hall made the transformational period of adolescence as important as childhood, but adolescents were also viewed as more problematic than younger children, and their potential for misbehaviour more dangerous."
"On a much grander scale than the juvenile court, the publicly financed comprehensive high school became possibly the most distinctly American invention of the 20th century. ... By the early 1930s, half of all US youth between 14 and 17 was in school; by 1940, it was 79 per cent: astonishing figures when compared with the single-digit attendance at more elite and academically focused institutions in the rest of the Western world."
"If high schools helped parents to handle their teenage children, the peer society of school helped adolescents handle their parents, since it provided them with an excuse for staying out after school and on weekends. "
"High schools, long a glory of US education and a product of democratic culture, had lost their central social role. Graduation, once the final step for most Americans on the road to work and steady relationships leading to marriage, no longer marked a significant end point on the way to maturity."
"The snow’s melted, we can go outside again!posted by y2karl at 6:14 AM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
. . . Oh, I don’t like the looks of those teenagers.”
Abe Simpson
I don't know - I see "adolescence" partly as an attempt to secure for working class people some of the advantages of elites - time for more schooling, for instance. Elites already had a kind of adolescence for young people, especially young men - time for extended schooling, travel and a certain amount of license. Even when you read about late medieval, Renaissance or early-modern elites, many young men continued their training/travel/study into their twenties, despite the shorter lifespan and the limited higher education infrastructure.
You have only to read, for instance The Intellectual Life of the British Working Class to realize how stifled people were intellectually because they finished school so early and went to work so young. If you don't have some breathing room for younger people, the only intellectuals you'll have will be from the upper class, which is a state to which we are rapidly returning.
In fact, I'm just a teensy bit skeptical about the skepticism of adolescence, precisely because I see the concept as a strategic way to push back against the abuse of working class people (families too; it's no fun to send your kid out to work in a factory at 14) using the conceptual tools available.
It's like "we were born this way" as a justification for gay rights. In a sense, we aren't born this way - there's a substantial cultural aspect to sexual identity. But if you have to fight for yourself in a conservative world where mere liberation is discredited hippie nonsense and neuro-biological determinism rules all, that's what you do.
posted by Frowner at 6:33 AM on October 27, 2016 [34 favorites]
You have only to read, for instance The Intellectual Life of the British Working Class to realize how stifled people were intellectually because they finished school so early and went to work so young. If you don't have some breathing room for younger people, the only intellectuals you'll have will be from the upper class, which is a state to which we are rapidly returning.
In fact, I'm just a teensy bit skeptical about the skepticism of adolescence, precisely because I see the concept as a strategic way to push back against the abuse of working class people (families too; it's no fun to send your kid out to work in a factory at 14) using the conceptual tools available.
It's like "we were born this way" as a justification for gay rights. In a sense, we aren't born this way - there's a substantial cultural aspect to sexual identity. But if you have to fight for yourself in a conservative world where mere liberation is discredited hippie nonsense and neuro-biological determinism rules all, that's what you do.
posted by Frowner at 6:33 AM on October 27, 2016 [34 favorites]
Actually I should specify, "many young men in England, Germany, France and some other parts of Western Europe, plus the US after 1776" - I should be trying to avoid suggesting that this experience is somehow "universal" even to Europe, never mind Africa or Asia or the Americas.
posted by Frowner at 6:40 AM on October 27, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 6:40 AM on October 27, 2016 [5 favorites]
Thank you Eyebrows McGee, I really enjoyed this article.
I don't have to agree with every point made in it to know that adolescence as defined in the 20th Century in America (and other developed countries) is a great idea in theory, but as we've all seen documented time and time again in the news, has been failing in practice to an ever greater degree.
Putting aside failing schools, and an often corrupt and juvenile justice system that repeatedly fails its original purpose for the moment, I think we are faced with the truth that adolescence and young adulthood as we've defined it over the last century is not a one-size-fits-all institution. And while that's easy enough to say, in practice how many parents do you know that would actually let their kids deviate from its script in any significant way? Parents get CPS called on them for letting their elementary-aged kids walk to or from the park alone. Not going into higher education of some sort is seen as a major failing. Teenage sex, and even sex education has been demonized to an insane degree.
I want to be able to have children, and raise them with eyes open to their abilities and maturity level. I want to be able to give them tasks that are just a bit beyond those levels to help them mature, and teach them the value of being able to fail and pick yourself back up. To give them some beer or wine with dinner once I judge they're ready. Etc...etc.. And I don't want to be judged a horrible parent for doing these things.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 7:04 AM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]
I don't have to agree with every point made in it to know that adolescence as defined in the 20th Century in America (and other developed countries) is a great idea in theory, but as we've all seen documented time and time again in the news, has been failing in practice to an ever greater degree.
Putting aside failing schools, and an often corrupt and juvenile justice system that repeatedly fails its original purpose for the moment, I think we are faced with the truth that adolescence and young adulthood as we've defined it over the last century is not a one-size-fits-all institution. And while that's easy enough to say, in practice how many parents do you know that would actually let their kids deviate from its script in any significant way? Parents get CPS called on them for letting their elementary-aged kids walk to or from the park alone. Not going into higher education of some sort is seen as a major failing. Teenage sex, and even sex education has been demonized to an insane degree.
I want to be able to have children, and raise them with eyes open to their abilities and maturity level. I want to be able to give them tasks that are just a bit beyond those levels to help them mature, and teach them the value of being able to fail and pick yourself back up. To give them some beer or wine with dinner once I judge they're ready. Etc...etc.. And I don't want to be judged a horrible parent for doing these things.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 7:04 AM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]
Metafilter: a structured way to prepare for mating and work.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:41 AM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:41 AM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]
Ohhh...that's a good point! Has any mefite paid for an account for their older children?
posted by sharp pointy objects at 9:03 AM on October 27, 2016
posted by sharp pointy objects at 9:03 AM on October 27, 2016
Sharp pointy objects: I bought my daughter a metafilter account for her 16th birthday last year.
posted by mothershock at 4:23 PM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by mothershock at 4:23 PM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
NW European working class folk c1400-1700 (preindustrial) also had a kind of adolescence - it was a working adolescence (as apprentices, servants in husbandry - like farm labourers but with more protection, etc), but it was a stage of life distinct from childhood and adulthood. Working class women, for example, didn't marry on average until their early 20s. Men and women took this time to work away from their home village, get skills, build capital for their adult life - and date/court each other.
Of course, it wasn't the luxurious life of the upper classes with their Grand Tour, and it didn't provide much social mobility (unlike education).
posted by jb at 4:55 PM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]
Of course, it wasn't the luxurious life of the upper classes with their Grand Tour, and it didn't provide much social mobility (unlike education).
posted by jb at 4:55 PM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]
Interesting article! Relatedly, in the U.K. this week there has been a call from MPs to deal with criminal offenders aged 18-25 differently as their brains are still developing and they have a better chance of rehabilitation.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:19 AM on October 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by ellieBOA at 12:19 AM on October 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
NW European working class folk c1400-1700 (preindustrial) also had a kind of adolescence - it was a working adolescence (as apprentices, servants in husbandry - like farm labourers but with more protection, etc), but it was a stage of life distinct from childhood and adulthood. Working class women, for example, didn't marry on average until their early 20s. Men and women took this time to work away from their home village, get skills, build capital for their adult life - and date/court each other.
I feel like I've read that this was partially the result of the labor shortage caused by the Black Death - working class people had more power as a result and could move around more, defer marriage, etc.
I feel like we tend to get a version of adult life that is "until [very recently] almost everyone married in their teens and had kids right away", when there's really a lot more variety in response to social and economic conditions.
posted by Frowner at 6:31 AM on October 28, 2016
I feel like I've read that this was partially the result of the labor shortage caused by the Black Death - working class people had more power as a result and could move around more, defer marriage, etc.
It wasn't just that: NW Europe was also weird for not having multigenerational households, and this may predate the Black Death. (demographic research is harder before c1550, but seminal article on how the English were never peasants found them less oriented around specific land and extended families than most classic peasant societies).
Household structure is really significant. If you aren't going to live with your parents after marriage, that means you have to get a place of your own - and maybe your own farm or trade or something to support yourself and your family. You're not going to marry a young girl either; you'd be better off marrying a slightly older woman (eg early 20s) with more skills for running a household (bc mom won't be doing it for you), and maybe with some money she's saved up to help establish the two of you.
But yes, I totally agree: people keep trotting out the 1950s or 1850s as if "it were always thus", when patterns of adulthood and household formation have always been much more diverse and interesting. Ignoring the variety means we misunderstand how economics and other forces shape these things.
posted by jb at 7:38 PM on October 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
It wasn't just that: NW Europe was also weird for not having multigenerational households, and this may predate the Black Death. (demographic research is harder before c1550, but seminal article on how the English were never peasants found them less oriented around specific land and extended families than most classic peasant societies).
Household structure is really significant. If you aren't going to live with your parents after marriage, that means you have to get a place of your own - and maybe your own farm or trade or something to support yourself and your family. You're not going to marry a young girl either; you'd be better off marrying a slightly older woman (eg early 20s) with more skills for running a household (bc mom won't be doing it for you), and maybe with some money she's saved up to help establish the two of you.
But yes, I totally agree: people keep trotting out the 1950s or 1850s as if "it were always thus", when patterns of adulthood and household formation have always been much more diverse and interesting. Ignoring the variety means we misunderstand how economics and other forces shape these things.
posted by jb at 7:38 PM on October 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
« Older Kesha, Interrupted | The Weaponisation of the Working Class Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by XMLicious at 2:11 AM on October 27, 2016 [18 favorites]