Beyond Adolescence
arun on Sep 18 2007 at 5:09 am | Filed under: early teens, late teens, looking out, parenting | Click here to go HOME | or find out about SUBSCRIBING TO THE PIT |
Thanks to Marion who emailed me a link to this interview in Psychology Today with Psychologist Robert Epstein.
According to the article teaser:
- “Epstein argues in a provocative book, “The Case Against Adolescence,” that teens are far more competent than we assume, and most of their problems stem from restrictions placed on them.”
What I liked about this interview was the way he undermines the very concepts of “adolescence” or “the teenager”. Epstein questions the usefulness of such terms and charts their development as a social constructs.
He discusses the impact of child labor laws, compulsory schooling and juvenile justice systems as effectively isolating teens from adults and creating a “peer culture”. He claims that teens in the US are in touch with other teens on average for 65 hours/ week compared to preindustralised cultures where it is more like 4 hours. He also notes that many preindustralised cultures do not even have a term for adolescence and young people are more integrated into adult society.
Epstein notes the huge amounts of restrictions on teens:
- “American teens are subjected to more than 10 times as many restrictions as mainstream adults, twice as many restrictions as active-duty U.S. Marines, and even twice as many as incarcerated felons.”
He then argues that these have a psychological cost and puts forward his suggestions:
- “I believe that young people should have more options—the option to work, marry, own property, sign contracts, start businesses, make decisions about health care and abortions, live on their own—every right, privilege, or responsibility an adult has.”
Ive not read Epsteins’ book but I found this article to be a useful reminder of the restrictive attitude towards young adults and how such approaches have literally been historically and socially created rather than passed down from the heavens.
I was uncomfortable with some of his ideas – he proposes entry into an adult world based on competency tests rather than age. I can not imagine what or who would decide “competency” – actually im really just scared id fail it even now 
I also think he is a little naive about the exploitative nature of industry. I agree with his sentiment but am aware that unregulated business is no natural friend to young people. This does not mean young people should be restricted… rather business practice can be to prevent a second class and underpaid work force.
Not an unschooling article by any means but one that raises questions in the psychological mainstream around the capability of young people and the problems with trying to define, restrict and limit them.
Wow, that book sounds fascinating, and pretty on par with my opinion on our treatment of young people. It took me a long time to feel like I was an “adult.” Actually, certain people in my life STILL feel the need to treat me like a child and sometimes I wonder what the magic age is in order to be trusted to be a grown-up these days…
Thanks for your supportive blog! I do hope that people will actually start reading (and buying!) the book rather than just my interviews! The book is far more thorough and persuasive, and I have no control over what a journalist includes in an interview or even how I’m “quoted.” As for competency tests: I’m sure people in the 1930s would have been uncomfortable with the idea that we’d soon be requiring testing or licenses for driving, hunting, fishing, and the right to become an electrician, plumber, or psychologist! But competency tests are easy to develop, and they’ll provide a safe way to allow young people to enter the adult world as soon as they are ready. The alternative is to keep them trapped in the idiotic world of teen culture, with more than 5 million of them in counseling, more than 7 million of them binge drinking, etc. Please read the book!!! Thanks!
Interesting, makes me very curious about reading the book. I know that in my own teen years I felt very pulled apart. I was treated like a child, yet expected to act like an adult. That helped fuel my own “Oh yeah, watch me!” attitude.
I’m also opposed to the “peer culture”, which is one of the reasons I homeschool. I’m often confused that the peer culture is one of the reasons given for not homeschooling, because it seems absurd to me to restrict a group of people to their own “kind”. Whether that is age, class, or social group.
How utterly wonderful! (Also, reminiscent of Escape From Childhood…)
My oldest child is ten and in the past year I have been amazed by his transition from childhood to something much more resembling adulthood, in terms of his emotional maturity and his cognitive awareness. He is more confident in himself and more ready to engage with the world than many adults I know (who I suspect were stunted in their development at some point) and certainly more than I was as a teen just out of high school. He can converse with adults as thoughtfully and intelligently as they can. He is capable of driving (he’s been practicing out in the middle of nowhere, shhhh) and he’s had two jobs already and is set to begin another. It’s not that I’m saying that he’s the same as me. Of course he’s not, any more than I am the same as a 20-year-old or a 60-year-old. But whatever it is that links us together as being “adult” he shares also, aside from sexual development.
It’s certainly something that homeschooling (or rather, not going to school) is protective of, because our school system and schoolish culture do artificially prolong childhood.