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Apr. 2, 2008
Teen Rebellion Part 2 - Let's Smarten up on Teen Rebellion
Below is a great article by Michael Smith from the HSLDA! I agree that teenage rebellion can nearly always be avoided, particularly in homeschooling families. My brother and I NEVER went through any type of rebellion. Yes, we were homeschooled, but even if we hadn't been my parents would never have "allowed" us to be rebellious. It just simply wasn't permitted, and we knew it! Were we encouraged to develop independence through supervision? Yes. But we did not feel the need to showcase a rebellious attitude, which by the way is NOT biblically permissible. Was rebellion accepted in Bible times? In the Old Testament children were to be stoned for rebellion...wow, now that's harsh! I just don't see God as being accepting of our children being raised to disrespect their parents in any way. Remember God is loving, but he also wiped out entire people groups for their rebellion to him and prevented an entire generation of Israelites from seeing the Promised Land because of their whining, doubts and rebellion. God DOES love us, but he also wants us to obey Him and to raise our children for him. It *is* possible! Adolescence is a "new" thing to our American society!
~ Lisa Metzger
Let's Smarten up on Teen Rebellion
J. Michael Smith - HSLDA President
We all have heard the term "teenage rebellion." It's conventional wisdom that
teens go through a period of turbulent adolescence before-it is hoped-they
settle down and become mature, productive adults.
Recently, the media and sections of the scientific community have concluded that
because brain scans show the teen brain operates differently than the average
adult brain this explains the behavior. It's all in your head, therefore, the
acting out and rebellion are just a normal part of growing up.
At the Home School Legal Defense Association, we have been skeptical of the idea
that there's an inevitable teenage rebellion. Through anecdotal evidence, we
knew many parents with homeschooled teens were not experiencing the traditional
teen rebellion.
Furthermore, the 2004 study "Homeschooling Grows Up" shows that homeschooled
teens are successfully integrating into society. There was little evidence of
teenage rebellion and significant numbers of students demonstrated their
maturity by being involved in community activities. They also reported generally
good relationships with their parents.
Teens are much more intelligent and capable than we realize. We need to have
greater expectations for teens by giving them greater responsibilities.
Most homeschoolers have consistently maintained that the institutional school,
with its necessary one-size-fits-all approach to education, constrains the
teenager's natural ability to learn and advance rapidly and, at the same time,
exposes them to negative peer influences. The environment of the institutional
school might be the place to start looking if we are trying to uncover some of
the causes of teenage rebellion.
Homeschoolers are not alone in their skepticism of the current explanation for
antisocial teen behavior. A challenge to the conventional wisdom also has been
offered by psychologist Robert Epstein, whose work was published in the
April-May 2007 issue of Scientific American Mind.
His main point is the way teens are treated in society, by parents,
institutional schools, the entertainment media and other government agencies is
more likely the cause of the observable differences in the way the teen brain
operates. He asks the question-"Did the brains cause the turmoil, or did the
turmoil shape the brains?"
****He points out that if teen rebellion was simply a function of the brain we
should see the phenomenon across all cultures and all time. This isn't the case.
The majority of pre-industrial cultures, where teens spent most of their time
with adults, didn't develop a word for adolescent and most of the young males in
these cultures didn't display antisocial behavior. Also, a series of long-term
studies began in the 1980s show that delinquency increased when Western-style
schooling, television and movies were introduced to non-Western countries.*****
He also suggests that if the "answer" to behavioral problems is to restore
"normal" brain chemistry, the pharmaceutical industry would actively support
this position due to the increasing use of drugs to address behavioral problems.
If society is the main culprit driving teen behavior, however, then the
solutions are very different from administering more drugs.
It is our view that teens have been shortchanged. So much more can be
accomplished by teens if they are allowed to flourish in a home-based
environment. They have so much potential, but unfortunately have been
constrained by a system that doesn't serve them well.
Homeschooling has begun to give the wider society a glimpse of what can be
achieved by simply returning to an individualistic home-based model where teens
spend most of their time with adults learning how to become mature citizens.
We encourage parents of teens to carefully consider homeschooling because
history shows teens are very capable and that we are at risk if we don't prepare
the next generation adequately for the challenges we all face every day.
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For more homeschool news visit
http://www.hslda.org
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