Teenager: part 4

Back to the teenager.

But I ask, is the word even useful anymore? “Teenager” is still common, but the cracks are showing. We’ve carved it up into “tweens” and “Gen Zs,” “Gen Alphas” and more. We sometimes prefer “adolescent,” because at least it names what’s really happening: a body growing, changing, becoming. But even that is messy.

What I’ve noticed — from teaching and from reflecting on my own teenage years — is that young people are far wiser and more grounded than we give them credit for. Often the “bad attitude” we pin on teenagers is more a product of culture and consumerism than their actual selves. In fact, many are more self-aware than adults, who can lose themselves in busyness and distraction.

Not that long ago, 16-year-olds married, worked, provided for their families. They were recognised as young adults. Today, we extend childhood artificially, holding them in the cultural whirlpool of “teenagerhood.” And the cost is high: bullying, social trauma, a drawn-out, confusing initiation into adulthood. Other cultures design initiations that honour growth; ours leaves scars.

So maybe it’s time to ask: should we retire the word “teenager”? Should we recognise our young people as young adults instead?

And while we’re at it, let’s be brave: maybe even abolish high schools! What has become slices of subjects, bits and grabs of knowledge, a culture of testing and survival — this isn’t serving our young people. Do they really work anymore?

What if instead, an emergent being went from primary school straight into a first degree?

What if they could chose arts or sciences as their entry point?

What if young adults were invited to “go deep”. That is, learn history, languages, maths, physics, literature, and philosophy in ways that connect and reinforce each other. This way they could finish their first degree by 18. They could then move directly into their “second degree”. Rather than 28 this first degree begins at 18.

Let’s stop wasting years in the half-light of “high school,” a system designed for a world that no longer exists.

It sounds radical, but young people are ready. They already lean one way or another. They are capable. They are wiser than we think. Perhaps it’s time we caught up.

While radical, this model recognises the capacities of young people as “young adults” rather than constraining them within a culturally constructed and market-driven notion of “teenagers.”

In doing so, education could shift from sustaining a consumerist identity category to cultivating agency, depth, and meaningful participation in cultural and intellectual life.

Until next time,

Dr. Mon x