Teen Angst and other unnecessary problems

I’ve been taking advantage Education Week’s ‘Open House’ period where all their articles are available without subscription. While most of the articles just have me shaking my head at the futility of seeking the magic silver bullet that will teach all children all things at all times equally, there are a few gems on the site.

One article I read this morning struck me as particularly interesting. Robert Epstein, former Editor in Chief of Psychology Today, proposes abolishing High School.

He says, while our society sees adolescents as angst-ridden, unreliable and irresponsible, the exact opposite is true. In fact, there is next to nothing that adolescents cannot do that their adult counterparts are capable of.

The problem with adolescents is that we’ve created them at all. We’ve put so many restrictions on young people that they can’t live up to their potential. In fact, they can’t do anything except be the kids they’ve already grown out of being. Epstein writes:

Surveys I’ve conducted suggest that teenagers today are subject to 10 times as many restrictions as are mainstream adults, to twice as many restrictions as are active-duty U.S. Marines, and even to twice as many restrictions as are incarcerated felons.

One thing I’ve noticed about the homeschooled teens I’ve encountered, is that they blend into the adult world seamlessly. They have no problems conversing with adults in a mature manner, and no problem dealing with ‘adult’ problems and issues on their own.

These kids, compared to the local public and Catholic school students I’ve interviewed for summer job positions, are radically different. And I mean radically.

I’m sure there are exceptions in both groups, but my limited experience leads me to agree with Epstein that, instead of forced attendance until a certain age, a competency-based limit would be far more effective.

Lets let intelligent, motivated teens move on with their lives. Let them do more than hang around the skate park trying to injure themselves. Let them pursue jobs that involve more than asking, “Do you want fries with that?”

The social-emotional turmoil experienced by many young people in the United States is entirely a creation of modern culture. We produce such turmoil by infantilizing our young and isolating them from adults. Modern schooling and restrictions on youth labor are remnants of the Industrial Revolution that are no longer appropriate for today’s world; the exploitative factories are long gone, and we have the ability now to provide mass education on an individual basis.

Tags: high school, education, robert epstein, schooling, education system, adolescents, teenagers

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Homeschooling, Random Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.