Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Toddlers on Steroids

The scientist and his books presented in this video are utterly destructive. It's no surprise to me that youth are "rebellious," anybody who is constantly bullied every day of their life by another group of people and are left completely defenseless to it by none other than the same group of people, would naturally start showing strains of resistance. To me, it's no surprise that young people act the way they do when adults get off insulting them with such childish schoolyard taunts as "they're like toddlers on steroids!"

Firstly, they act like children because they're treated like children. Society itself is set up to treat them like children. Don't take my word for it, noted academics such as Dr. Robert Epstein agree that the teen brain is structurally no different than the adult brain, based on years of empirical findings. They are more than equipped to handle responsibilities in the world, the only thing that is really holding them in a state of regression are ageist and adult-centric policies.

Secondly, the link between "hormones" and "teen mood swings" and "temper tantrums" is unfounded and misleading. It has been shown time and time again that hormone levels affect the growth of biological processes (bone growth, hair growth, reproductive growth...etc.). The myth that these biological processes "necessitate" this period of "storm and stress" goes back to the opinions of G. Stanley Hall, one of the founders of psychology as a science in the United States well over 100 years ago. Since that time, we've learned a lot, and the whole field of psychology has changed.

More recent studies (although not the ones that make the front page of parenting tabloids), suggest teen mood disturbances may have more to do with the fact that they aren't getting enough sleep, because adult society works on a different clock than teens are biologically set for...naturally putting them at a disadvantage and in a state of grogginess. Hormones play as much a role in teen mood disturbances as they do in adults, but don't take my words for it, the facts are out there.

Why do we never hear of this explanation for teen misbehavior? It mainly has to do with the fact that it's easier to just "blame teen biology" for their behavioral problems than it is to reorient teen life (to go to school in the afternoon and stay up later) so that they're better able to function.

They're like "toddlers on steroids?"

Adults are name calling now? Who's supposed to be more mature?

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