I'm back! Sorry I haven't published any content for so long. Here is the first part of the final treatise that I will write this school year. It has been a wonderful year doing this writing project and I hope that you have enjoyed coming to this blog and have found value in the content presented here.
Until next time,
Dallin D. Shumway
P.S. Happy reading!
I’m a teenager. And naturally, as I’ve gotten older, I’m constantly having adults ask me; “So what grade are you in?”, “What high school do you go to?” or, “Do you go to Layton High?” (The local high school). Once I get past explaining what grade I’m in, and that I’m not a formal high school student, I answer questions like; “So what’s your favorite subject?” Once they’re satisfied that I am getting a real education, they ask questions like; “So how do you get a social life?” I explain that I’m involved in private programs where I’m around other teens. Beyond that, as I’ve gotten older I’ve been able to connect more easily with friends of friends and the like and branch out my social circle that way.
When I’m in a situation where I’m about to be introduced to an adult I just know that these questions are bound to come up. And as each one gets asked the thought “here we go again” runs through my head and I sometimes even imagine myself rolling my eyes.
There’s another question that sometimes comes up in conversations whether I’m with adults or teens and it revolves around the subject of work. Even among some of my closest friends, I still have to remind people what I do for a job. “I run a debate program for my homeschooling community,” I tell them. It’s interesting to note the reactions I get when I mention this. In the end, people are impressed and think it’s cool that I bear the title of “teacher” at such a young age, but at the same time it can be difficult for them to wrap their heads around such a concept. And, I’ll be honest, it has been difficult for me to comprehend it at times.
Now stop for a moment, and think about the paragraphs you just read. Why do those questions get asked? and why do people react the way they do about my job?
It’s because of a mentality that our society has developed over the last century about the period of time known as “youth” or, more commonly, “teenagehood.” It is a deeply rooted societal paradigm that says the following two things:
- Teenagers should be doing everything they can to have the funnest time of their lives.
- As a consequence, teens are automatically irresponsible and focus all their attention on the opposite sex, social media, and pop culture.
I just opened a new tab on my Chrome browser and typed in the following google search words:
“teens and....” Here are the suggestions that came up:
- Teens and social media
- Teens and sleep
- Teens and drugs
- Teens and technology
- Teens and alcohol
Doesn’t this go right along with our societal image of a teenager? Constantly on social media, constantly sleep deprived or oversleeping, perhaps into drugs, very tech savy, and perhaps into drinking.
I went back and added a d to the sentence; “teens and d....” Here’s the suggestions I got:
- Teens and drugs
- Teens and depression
- Teens and distracted driving
- Teens and dating
- Teens and divorce
What else do you think of when you hear the word teenager? When I was younger, the word teenager made me think of a gang of long-haireds with bandanas around their heads. They would probably have skateboards and be swearing all the time.
There’s a reason why adults like to ask teens about what school they go to and what they’re doing. To begin with, it makes the adults think about their own teenage years giving them some time to reminisce about what they think were the best years of their lives.
At the same time, they’re excited for these teenagers to be able to enjoy these years themselves. But, when they talk to me, and I tell them I’m homeschooled, they suddenly get very concerned. They worry that I’m not meeting people (especially girls) and having the chance to interact with them.
And all because of the notion they have that the teen years are a time to spend having pure fun. Fun, fun, fun. It’s a time to play, take a break from life, goof off, and do as much of these things as possible before the pressures of adulthood come along and all of these “joys” are lost.
I was on group date (yes, I do go on dates in case you’re wondering, I’m not that weird of a teenager) once where about half of the people there I didn’t know. One of the young men in the group really illustrated this idea of what teenagers look like. It was interesting the contrast that existed between him and me. I talked about school, and how busy it keeps me, and how I don’t focus on other things as much because of it. He was shocked that I would rather focus on education than typical interests of teenage boys. Just after I finished a sentence about school he said to me: “No, no no. You’ve to it all wrong, let me teach you something...” He then proceeded to count on his fingers and said, one finger for each word: “Girls, cars.....” He went on nameing things that he thought I should focus all my attention on. He then told a story about how he went to Spain the previous spring and got bribed by his school teacher to kiss a bunch of teenage senoritas. “It was really fun” he said. I felt so bad for this guy because he seemed locked into a mentality that those were the main things he should be focusing on.
And the reason why he’s locked in such a mentality is because that’s what society tells him to focus on. Whose idea was it to go kiss a bunch of girls he didn’t even know anything about? His teacher’s.
This leads to the other question: why do people react shocked when they learn what I do for a job? Because that’s not something teenagers do. They aren’t responsible, can’t function professionally, and are immature. Or so society tells us.
I chose to write this treatise because I’m growing up in the midst of a pathetically apathetic age group. Society tells us that teenagers are, or aren’t certain things because it’s true. Or at least it appears to be true. Society can’t make stuff up, so it gives us information based on what it has observed. And it has observed that teenagers act in the way I have described.
The long and short of it is, most people’s teen years are a waste - an utter and complete waste.
“Now wait a minute Dallin,” you might be saying, “they’re not a waste if people spend them partying and having fun. ‘Cause if people do that, then they’ve made the most of these years before adulthood.”
This is true, if you believe that the most important thing in life is pleasure. Many is the person whose top priority, outside of making a living, is just find pleasure and fun. Think about the people you know who can only think about going to the bar after work on Friday night, and spend their entire evenings watching TV after a long day. They get their pay check, pay their rent, pay their bills, and buy their groceries. The rest of their money is squandered on beer, video games, and nicer, newer devices.
In my last treatise, the one about education, I said that education should prepare people for their unique purpose in life. If it does not do this, then by definition, it has failed in its purpose.
This same principle applies to teenagehood in general. Childhood (including teeagehood) is the time when people should prepare for adulthood. I don’t think anyone would disagree with me on that point. If this point is true, then, by definition, teenagers should be doing more than just playing around.
On top of that, if you do believe that there is a greater purpose to life than just enjoyment and staying alive, then you should be able to easily see how the teenager who has spent the years between 12 and 18 only partying has wasted a whole six years.
While society has created this image of a typical teenager, many adults have developed a picture of what a truly ideal teenager’s life looks like. Their ideal teenager is studious, always getting straight A’s, and she must, of course, get a very high score on the ACT/SAT.
She is also very talented. She plays the piano, and is successful at many extracurriculars. She might be big into drama, or soccer, or debate. She’s the captain of whatever team she’s on, and the the president of at least one class she’s in.
And of course, she listens to her teachers and is more responsible than her peers.
She goes on dates very often, and enjoys a very healthy, parental approved social life.
Does this ring a bell? I used the word “she” to describe this ideal teenager, but it could just as easily be substituted with the word “he.”
I know of many homeschooling parents that seem to try very hard to make their children out of this mold. But, are even these things what teenagehood is really about? Being seen as the best of the best?
In 2008 a website was created by two 19-year-old boys: therebelution.com. It started out when these boys, twins named Alex and Brett Harris, were 16 and had a whole summer ahead of them. They weren’t sure what to do with it. This is a common trend among teens when summer rolls around.
To help remedy the problem, their father came into the kitchen one morning and presented them with a stack of books. They would spend the summer reading them.
The books they read included The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, and The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene.
These books awakened them to a sense of the rapid change that our world is undergoing. They further realized that even though the books were written for adults, the people who really needed to hear the book’s ideas were teens. I mean, who would be leading the world at the time these rapid changes took their toll? The teens of today.
This inspired the Harris’ boys to start a blog where they could share their thoughts with those who might stumble across it. And of course a good blog needs a good name.
After some thought, they settled on the name The Rebelution. The word rebelution is one they came up with. It is a synthesis of the words rebellion and revolution, and it literally means a teenage rebellion against low expectations.
The Harris’ twins, like myself and others, noticed the label of low expectations that society places on teens. They called this label The Myth of Adolescence. They wanted to stir their peers up to rising above this label. The blog featured articles that discussed society’s low expectations for teens and the importance of overcoming such expectations.
In October of 2005, not long after their first blog had been launched, the time came for these twins to be tested; to see if they could practice what they were preaching. Their blog had garnered attention that they had probably not anticipated. New York Daily featured an article about the blog just three weeks after it was launched.
The test came when they were invited to apply for an internship with the Alabama Supreme Court. The staff attorney in charge of the intern program for one particular Supreme Court Justice had been reading their blog and was impressed by what the boys had done.
Alex and Brett’s first reaction to this invitation was that the staff attorney didn’t know how old they were. This, however, turned out to be wrong. The attorney was very much aware of the boys age. He wanted to take them up on their premise that teens waste much of the potential they have. He asked the justice he worked for if he would waive the usual age requirement for the boys and the justice agreed. Rather than look at age, he decided to look at whether or not these two high school aged twins were mature enough to do the job given them.
The Harris’ twins weren’t exactly gung-ho about such a proposition, but they decided to take a shot at practicing what they were preaching. Their applications were accepted, and they spent the few months of their internship learning, growing, and having a good time.
The justice they worked for was definitely impressed because later they would be asked to lead his re-election campaign.
Their blog continued growing, and in 2008 the Harris’ twins decided to upgrade from their humble Google hosted blog to a full on website of their own.
This fall it will have been 10 years since their blog was launched. During those years, two boys, now in their late-twenties, have worked to change the lives of countless youth, teaching them to rise up to the level of potential within them.
Their story is very inspiring, and their lives give even more examples that I could use in this treatise, but, for the sake of time, you’ll just have you find out more for yourself. They’ve published a book, entitled Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. Check it out on their website.
To be continued.......
