Being a Teen in American Society

Both of the articles for this week bring up some important issues regarding American teens. Some of the problems that American teens are viewed as having including sex, drugs, alcohol, violence, and eating disorders to name a few. I agree to an extent that these are major issues. I think it is interesting, however, that adults are so surprised that teens have these issues. To me I think they stem out of the mainstream culture. Sex and violence are everywhere in media. It should be surprise that American children who are exposed to this at a very young age grow up almost thinking that these activities are normal and not exactly undersanding the full picture. It's unfortunate that teens are blamed for these problems that adults have influenced upon the teens and also are resonsible for the majority of the issue.

In the article "Nymphet Fantasies" I thought it was really interesting to look at how these young beauty queens are often made into "mini adults" by their parents. It;s their parents dream and these young girls do not get the chance to be little kids. This phenomonon has also been put into many tv shows in the last few years who show how crazy these moms (and sometimes dads) are . They create little 3 year old girls to look like they are twenty and its just weird and creepy. Although I know there are young girls who dream of being in paegents, this craze has gotten way too out of hand. We have to think about what the implications will be when these little girls grow up to be teens and later adults.

It is a hard and confusing time for children in America to grow up in. One one hand they are seeings and hearing things in the media and all around them but if they act upon them they are suddenly in the wrong. It is important to think about what a student deals with in their personal life at home and what society is like for them to really understand them. It is also important not to be too judgemental when working with students. Maybe they have a violent past but you do not necessarily know the circumstances or what they have been through. To them it may seem like survival. Teenagers are teenagers and shouldn't be feared because the media puts bad images on them, after all they are only modeling what has been set up for them to follow.