TEENS AREN'T ALIENS

So over the summer I took a class with Dr.Bogad called teenagers in the media. She was right when she told us all that by the end of that course our view on teenagers would change. I now realize how damaging our attitudes and beliefs towards teenagers can be, and also how important the language is when talking about them. We also read this text in my summer course, and I think it’s a great read. Bogad writes about the LIFE magazine cover with Katie Holmes on it. We talked a lot about this cover in my summer course. She says, “there is an emphasis that suggests that young people are self-indulgent and uninvested in more sophisticated ‘adult’ concerns (such as work, health, money, etc) “(Bogad, 2002). If we as youth workers assume that teenagers are lazy, and treat them that way then we are not setting them up to be successful leaders. Teenagers often get tagged with all these labels that are usually not positive, or empowering. 

“These historical roots that emphasized the separation of youth from other groups in society and young people’s inherent inferiority charted an influential course for public attitudes and scholarly investigations of youth” (Bogad, 2002). Why do we often treat teenagers like they are an alien species? This was one of the themes in my summer course. The us vs. them mentality can very dangerous. Instead of looking and treating teenagers as a different species we should be treating them like individuals with respect. One of the main mantras in youth development is “leading with”. I love that idea so much and I believe it is also the most effective. Even the playing field, and youth will be more successful leaders.