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Let Teenagers Try Adulthood Summary

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High school. The dreaded time and place that every young American has to suffer through. The institution where conformity is expected but individuality is preached from every impassioned liberal arts teacher. It is in high school that American teenagers are expected to make choices that will determine the outcome of their entire lives. They are expected to make good grades, fill their schedules with extracurriculars and still find time for family, a social life and a job. In the essay “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood”, Leon Botstein convicts the American education system of caging the independent nature of teenagers by placing them in hormonal crazed, clique obsessed institutions that are deemed to be places of educational standard past the point …show more content…

My brother is a nice young man. He truly is. But my older brother has made many mistakes. He often forgets to study, which results in him failing tests. He is forgetful, which results in him missing important opportunities that he could participate in. And finally, my brother has made some dumb mistakes. He’s gotten drunk on school nights. He’s forgotten to take his medication and as such has gotten dangerously sick. But, the lessons that my older brother has learned from all of these mistakes have propelled him towards a bright future. The merit of these mistakes is that, if my brother has made these as an adult, he could’ve lost a job, a home, a family, but, by making these mistakes in high school, where he is surrounded by other teenagers who have messed up like he has, he has learned his “lesson” without being rendered unstable and unsure. High school provides an environment that encourages mistakes so that students can be prepared from adult life as they have been educated about their mistakes and learned the consequences of these

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