Hines

Thomas Hine
The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager

What was understood:
I went into reading htis article with a bad taste in my mouth, because I think their is nothing worse in the world when people try to write about the time in life when they are not experiencing it then and there. Granted, yes, we all have or are teenagers at one point in our lives, but each generation goes through their own problems. I know my parents when they were around in their teen years was all peace, love, and beign a hippie. In my last eight or nine years of being a teenager myself, I had nothing to do with that. As i begna readin the article although, I started to rethink my idea of what I was reading. Hine makes some good points about how, yes, teenage years are the hardest for parents, and most dread them. I mean I know I didn't enjoy them all myself. I'm not quite sure if I fully agree with Hine one hundred percent but I can agree on one thing, and it was this one quote that stuck out to me.
"We want them to embody virtues we only rarely practice. We want them to eschew habits weve never managed to break" If only could have said that to my parents when I was sixteen (haha). I'm so glad an "adult" realize that. I think one of the main problems and adults have when interacting with teens is this pedastal. that they want them to be on, when in reality they themselves haven't even reached that pedastal.

What was not understood:

• I don't understand how adults and society can be so hypocritical about teaching virtues and morals to the youth, when they themselves can't function like decent human beings.
• Are teenagers throughout the ages always been considered a tortured time of life? when did being a teenager become so horrible?
• "Today's teenagers serve a sentence of presumed immaturity, regardless of their achievements or abilities." EW?!

Connections to other themes:

• I thought of Christensen when I read this and how, maybe if we weren't exposed as adolescents to the things we are shown, maybe when we became teenagers we woulnd't be so stubborn and annoying, as so many adults put it. What if we only changed our growing up process so when we hit those teenage years we could put a stop to the stereotypes, and become a whole new version of the teenager.

Question/Comments/Points to share:

• So when I got through reading this article, I realized while I was writing this blog on my Ipod came on Teenagers by My Chemical Romance and I looked up the lyrics and listened to it and I thought it was quite interesting how a band that is in a sense focused towards the teenage audience how they viewed them..here you go check it out

Teenagers (heres the music video)

My Chemical Romance
They're gonna clean up your looksWith all the lies in the booksTo make a citizen out of youBecause they sleep with a gunAnd keep an eye on you, sonSo they can watch all the things you doBecause the drugs never workThey're gonna give you a smirk'Cause they got methods of keeping you cleanThey're gonna rip up your heads,Your aspirations to shredsAnother cog in the murder machineThey said all teenagers scare the living shit out of meThey could care less as long as someone'll bleedSo darken your clothes or strike a violent poseMaybe they'll leave you alone, but not meThe boys and girls in the cliqueThe awful names that they stickYou're never gonna fit in much, kidBut if you're troubled and hurtWhat you got under your shirtWill make them pay for the things that they did