Beautiful Brains

By David Dobbs

“Yet we can and do help. We can ward off some of the world’s worst hazards and nudge adolescents toward appropriate responses to the rest. Studies show that when parents engage and guide their teens with a light but steady hand, staying connected but allowing independence, their kids generally do much better in life. Adolescents want to learn primarily, but not entirely, from their friends. At some level and at some times (and it’s the parent’s job to spot when), the teen recognizes that the parent can offer certain kernels of wisdom—knowledge valued not because it comes from parental authority but because it comes from the parent’s own struggles to learn how the world turns. The teen rightly perceives that she must understand not just her parents’ world but also the one she is entering. Yet if allowed to, she can appreciate that her parents once faced the same problems and may remember a few things worth knowing”

-Dobbs

My Response:

I know nothing about raising children. What I do know is that I was once a child, and that my mother raised a fine man. I wasn’t kept in a bubble; but my mom kept me under her radar to make sure I wasn’t doing anything wrong or dangerous. I made my own decisions, and made plenty of mistakes. My mother allowed me to see the world for what it was; she provided guidance. She didn’t force laws or opinions on me.

Visiting Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic played a big role in molding my state of mind. Experience molds people. Experience, and stepping out of the box or the bubbles we live in, can open our minds; as well as open doors for opportunity. Not enough experience, traveling, or not socializing with diverse groups of people, during adolescents all the way through adulthood, can lead people to live in boxes that limit a person’s ability to grow as a conscious human being.  What one person gains from an experience will be different for another; but the point is that everyone deserves to experience what the world has to offer. Stepping out of our comfort zone is the best thing we could do to grow as people and as a society.

As educators, parents, or future parents, it is our duty to make sure that the youth have an understanding of morals, good or bad; and that we do not shelter them from truth. Any truth. Adolescents copy everything we do. They are sponges. Keeping these “sponges” in a bubble is dangerous for our society. We have to allow our youth to travel through the storms to see the sun.
-Nathaniel Jimenez