“Experience in adolescence may also provide turning points that deflect earlier behavioral trajectories, and the unfolding of adolescence may allow for the accumulation of prior life advantages and risks that send young people on divergent paths into and through adulthood.”
As an aspiring ENL teacher, I often read articles thinking in terms of how this information could apply to immigrants and/or English language learners. So, in the case of this article, I was wondering, if the adolescent years have the potential to shape a person’s future, what does that mean for people who immigrate to a new country and learn a new language/culture as an adolescent? Continue reading Wonderings about Immigration during Adolescence→
“People between 20 and 34 are taking longer to finish their educations, establish
themselves in careers, marry, have children and become financially independent…” (Cohen, 2010)
The most intriguing aspect of this quote has nothing to do with what it actually says and, rather, with the fact that the information here is used to describe the current generation’s (age 20-34) Peter Pan syndrome, as if all those choices are immature or childish and, therefore, lacking of all responsibility. I ultimately understand that the point of the combined readings of this section is to show the complexity of adolescence, which it is, but there seems to be a confusing disconnect between this “in-between” stage in the middle of adolescence and young adulthood. This is a fascinating topic to develop opinions around all on its own, but when we look at the implications it may or may not have on education, I think our old fashioned expectations of adulthood are only hindering those that are in that “in-between” stage simply trying to make the best decisions for their circumstances. A man by the name of Mr. Furstenberg from Cohen’s New York Times article (2010) even states himself that “we’re still living with the archaic idea that people enter adulthood in there late teens and early 20s”, and I couldn’t agree more. I’ve taught 18-year old students, and as amazing as they are, I’m scared for any society that believes those children are adults. I don’t know what 18-year olds from the 80s looked like, but it just can’t be the same.
About a month ago I went with my 12 year old sister and two cousins (14 and 10) to Six Flags. We take a standard selfie, all smiling, and I send the photo to a friend letting her know how much fun we’re having. In conversation when she asks how old they are she is baffled at the fact that they’re not between 18 and 22. Since this day, and so far in my student teaching placement around middle schoolers, I’ve had this burning question:
Why do pre-teens and teens not look like our idea of pre-teens and teens? More specifically black and brown pre-teens and teens.
The MVP passage I chose on p.274 bottom left portion brings up the point but I personally feel like the authors of this piece didn’t go as in-depth as I would have liked or at least enough to more sufficiently answer my question. I understand that this article emphasizes the changes in our world has changed the “ages” at when adolescences begins and ends. But, what I most wonder, sparked by experience and then this passage, is why this is so prevalent in black and brown communities in the US? I don’t understand why the authors would bring up such a specific and important point with such precision and then not refer back to it in the same detail in the larger subdivision that talks about puberty.
Although commonly seen as a meme-worthy joke, this shift has had implications that aren’t humorous at all. Aside from a simple age mix up in a photo, this has often been the cause of violence from law enforcement towards these minors. I see in my school how pre-teen students are spoken to so sternly and strongly because of growth spurts that make them look like adults when maybe they’re just 11 and 12 year olds goofing around.
I need a lot more information and this article leaves me with more questions than answers.
Meme compilation comparing teens from now to teens from before“Insights on Adolescence From a Life Course Perspective” (2011) p.274
“With the foundation in place, we look forward to the next decade or research, which will deepen our knowledge and understanding of adolescence and of young people in the life course within a rapidly changing world”. (Johnson et all, 2011)
I am a mother of two kids. A boy who’s twelve and a girl who’s 7, so this study, and particularly this ending, was simply a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from be cause I had to find hope. When the decade of research they are waiting for comes (keep in mind the research was published seven years ago), it might be too late to stop whatever it is I’m doing wrong! if there is such a thing. Not so great for a hopeful ending of the article.
Here is what I can connect, though: Whatever my twelve year old is doing, affects my seven year old in ways I cannot begin to imagine, but that I can see every single day, specially because lately, we only have the four of us. If I though it was scary being a teenager in my unmentionable second decade, I had no clue. Watching unstoppable adolescence come on the way of your offsprings and not being able to blink, that’s true suspense. Think about that when you throw harmless conditional sentences about becoming a parent to the air.
Social changes over the last several decades have also dramatically changed the transition from adolescence into young adulthood, and such change is reflected in policy discussions about key aspects of this transition (e.g., access to and affordability of higher education, the potential role of nonmarriage in poverty). As the manufacturing sector has given way to a service and information economy, jobs providing steady working-class incomes and benefits have been disproportionately replaced by low paying, unstable jobs without benefits (Morris & Western, 1999). Access to more secure and rewarding careers has increasingly required higher education. Indeed, wages for noncollege graduates have dropped substantially, resulting in rising relative returns to a college degree (Lemieux, 2006). Although adolescents and their parents are keenly aware of this trend and now almost universally aspire to earn college degrees (Bachman, Johnston, & O’Malley, 2008; Schneider & Stevenson, 1999), college enrollment and graduation rates have not kept pace (Snyder, Dillow, & Hoffman, 2008). That attainment has not increased more dramatically given the rising returns to and aspirations for college degrees reflects, in part, waning public financial support for 274 JOHNSON, CROSNOE, AND ELDER, JR. higher education. Specifically, tuition has risen substantially as tax dollars have paid less and less of the cost of education and the real value of financial aid options such as Pell Grants has eroded (Kane, 2007).
