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Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today

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Re: Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today

#51

Post by tokenadult »

dsspence wrote: post #30
tokenadult wrote: post #4

What my son has wanted for as long as he has been a teenager is a chance to have grown-up responsibility. That's why he loves working on his start-up project. An actual profit-making business proposal gets evaluated by investors with no "grading on the curve" or concern for "self-esteem." He can deal with that. He found school environments that attempted to coddle teenagers (he wasn't in many such environments, but e…

I realize this is a site dedicated to startups, but business proposals and investors for children? As long as he likes it I suppose and doesn't rationalize happiness = money.

He has been quite motivated in his learning as considers the problem of how to use his teen years to get ready for running a business in his (soon) adulthood. That's been good for my younger children to see his thought process in making the teen years count for adult independent life. The essay pg wrote about this

http://paulgraham.com/hs.html

has been helpful in our family's thinking about this issue. Perhaps endure school-like experiences, but look for the most adult-like learning experiences possible.

Re: Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today

#53

Post by philwelch »

gojomo wrote: post #39
hugh3 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that odd?

You're right that it's not that odd. I was pandering a little to readers who might otherwise be open to Po Bronson and alternative child-rearing theories, but have biases against Gingrich based on a partisan caricature of him. But, Gingrich is a former college professor and sometimes-member of a political establishment which usually emphasizes more high-school-graduations, and more people going to college. So it is a…

One thing I've noted is that a rare number of politicians, like Gingrich and Al Gore, have the ability to see above and beyond the short term political context and the courage to act on what they see. Both of them have an uncommon amount of wisdom and intellect and an inclination to break from conventional thinking.

Re: Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today

#54

Post by quellhorst »

cj wrote: post #31
iamdave wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case: 6 AP courses, start your own business after school, or drop out and start your own business. I like option C.

Or take 3 APs and start your own business at the same time. It's doable if you're motivated enough.

It maybe doable, but your business isn't as likely to be successful.

Re: Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today

#55

Post by ams6110 »

timwiseman wrote: post #15
viraptor wrote: post #9

Interesting... however I would really like to know how could anyone convince the teenage me that moving to yet another step of school doesn't really matter - that I should think about actually starting to do some serious freelance work in microcontrollers / electronics instead, which is what I liked to do. In the end, it didn't matter that much what I did during the studies - being good enough to pass, or even puttin…

Good points, but remember it isn't an either or. I had several friends in high school who worked in addition to class. And yes, most of those were "McJobs" but for at least one young lady I know that "McJob" brought in a nontrivial portion of the income for her entire household. And another ran his own business. Granted it was just a lawn maintenance business, but it was his and helped him start saving. In college it…

Despite the derisive use of the term in this piece, there's nothing wrong with experiencing a "McJob". Two good things that could come from it are: you learn that this is NOT where you want to work for the rest of your life (or even another month) or you follow the path to franchise ownership that is available in most such jobs.

Even if you don't go all the way with it, a hard working entry-level employee at a "McJob" can quickly advance in to management and learn quite a bit about how business really works. And get paid for it, rather than forking over tuition to learn about "stars", "cash cows", "question marks", and "dogs"

Re: Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today

#56

Post by dsspence »

tokenadult wrote: post #51
dsspence wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize this is a site dedicated to startups, but business proposals and investors for children? As long as he likes it I suppose and doesn't rationalize happiness = money.

He has been quite motivated in his learning as considers the problem of how to use his teen years to get ready for running a business in his (soon) adulthood. That's been good for my younger children to see his thought process in making the teen years count for adult independent life. The essay pg wrote about this http://paulgraham.com/hs.html has been helpful in our family's thinking about this issue. Perhaps endure…

I understand your rationale and sounds like everything is going swimmingly. In my eyes some things aren't meant to be 'optimized' or taken so seriously, like when you are teenager. Or maybe I'm just playing Devil's advocate.

Re: Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today

#57

Post by euroclydon »

limist wrote: post #8

With more context and eloquence, John Taylor Gatto has been saying this for years: adolescence is artificial, and dangerously so. See his sketch of the future Admiral Farragut, who took his first command at age 12: http://johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/1q.htm ...and of course, Ben Franklin: http://johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/1r.htm

Another big point JTG makes is that the current crop of wealthy producers have no need for 80% of the smart people out there who might get an education. So why not keep them in school and hence not in competition with the established producers, for as long as possible?

Re: Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today

#58

Post by Jd »

electromagnetic wrote: post #26
reader5000 wrote: post #2

Not only are kids expected to stay in school until their early/mid 20's, depriving them of necessary real-world developmental experience as discussed in the article, they are expected to accept decades' worth of debt to pay for it. The American education model is poison.

I believe it's the worlds greatest deception. At 16 I was working as a reviewer, I worked as an assistant (note: not apprentice) electrician for a couple of years doing identical work to my father who was certified (on several jobs he did solely the testing to pass the work as legal) and right now I'm working in windows and siding. I presently earn more than any of my friends, and job prospects still land me at the h…

If you want to an Ivy League college you probably would not probably be able to say you are earning more than all your friends. I'm certainly not.

Re: Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today

#59

Post by madmanslitany »

I do think that some more real-world and unstructured experience added into standard schooling would do some good, but I sometimes think there's an odd anti-schooling bias on HN, maybe because we all hated high school.

Another common theme on HN is how the lack of basic science knowledge amongst the voting population negatively impacts funding of and perception of science policy. Is advocating that we abolish general schooling and have everyone just learn what they need for their jobs a good idea? How does that fix that problem? Doesn't it just make it worse?

Tweak the schooling model, yes, but I've not been convinced yet that any of the radically different alternatives I see proposed here would still accomplish some of the important things that general schooling DOES do. Everyone hates certain subjects, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be forced to learn them at least once in your life.

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