Teenagers : The Rite Of Passage In America

I think I speak for many people when I say high school is a critical point in one’s life. Coming into high school, things seemed to be tightly-knitted between my peers and I; those of us who had just

When freshman enter the high school for the first time it's a new and scary experience for them. It's a time where they can learn what they are interested in but at the same time it's a time where peer pressure can get the best of them. Therefor we need to get these teenagers a good grip on their morals and lives so they don't stray from the path.

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

Once you’ve been in school for nearly 12 years of your life you think you know all of the tricks to conquering the school year. When a problem arises you think you know the easy way out of it or the perfect way to avoid it. Some kids probably believe that as you continue on through your education these problems will just simply decrease. As a junior in high school, I’ve come to find that that assumption couldn’t be more false. High school came as a scare to me and I felt that I was the only one going through those typical teenage problems; however, after reading How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, by Paul Tough, I began to gain some of my confidence back.

Americans today tend to believe that there is something that holding back teenagers in high school from achieving the proper education. The article “What’s holding Back American Teenagers?” states that “American high school, in particular are a disaster. What is it that makes these high schools a disaster?

Alcohol, drugs, and sex: this is the “recipe” for a typical teenager in pop culture. Stereotypes of high school students appear in countless movies, books, and television shows. Based on media sources, a prevalent opinion of teenagers is that they are extremely rebellious, selfish, and irresponsible. Society has become used to a negative image of adolescents; many just ignore how teenagers actually act. Despite the fact that many consider these visual representations of high schoolers are true, only a few of these representations are correct. However, there may be more variables involved. For example, these young adults may be facing stressful decisions or handling immense family situations. Although each individual high school exhibits unique characteristics, high school students can be split into three distinct classifications: brainiacs, jocks, and underachievers.

The adolescents of America do not realize how lucky they are to grow up in such a stable society. The opportunities available to American teenagers differ significantly compared to those of teens from many other countries in the world. Poor income countries do not have the resources to exceed the amount of opportunity, like America does. Although there are some areas in America that still do not meet the high standards set by our country, compared to most other countries, American teens are raised in economically stable families, have access to a high level of education, and live in a country that provides them freedom and possibilities for their future.

The media a lot of the times seems to portray high school as something completely far off from the truth. High school students are usually portrayed as immature and irresponsible people who are filled with raging hormones, who are either overly sexual or stoners. On the same note, high school is often portrayed the way we see on television shows or movies, think of Mean Girls, an environment where there are distinct cliques that revolve around drama and gossip. Although this may be true to the smallest extent, as a high school teenager, a can state from my own experience that the media does not do a good job in portraying what high school is really like today.

High school is a harsh environment where not conforming to certain standards results in being socially out casted. As insecure students trapped in an institution plagued with ridicule, high school remains a void that sucks in those that are unsure of their identity, forcing the individual to conform to the majority. Typically after leaving high school people develop a sense of self and are able to recognize and create their own individuality. As an individual currently enrolled in secondary education I’ve seen the impact first hand. High school dictates what clothes you wear, the music you listen to, and who you can and cannot be friends with. The social hierarchy and the need to conform in these settings remain in place as the consequences of atypical behaviour are unfavourable, thus students conform. In some situations this conformity results in a lack of moral judgement as teens are pressured into what is considered cool or popular. As a result of lack of morals and need to fit in and be accepted students may start smoking, skipping school or doing drugs. Not only does this negatively impact grades but it also introduces the idea that these children are going need to conform for the rest of their life and will never have the opportunity to find their own unique identity. An example of the struggle associated with choosing between conforming and

Being a teenager in our times is both tough and great, depending on the current state of each individual. It is extremely tough on one side, due to the surroundings what’s around us both local and international, what’s going on here at home and around the world. As I am aware of personally, it is the toughest times I’ve seen in my short sixteen year life, for both the teenagers and generally for all types’ people. As we see today the world is going through so much trouble, crisis, lack of safety and even wars in some countries overseas. Meanwhile here home we have our own types of trouble, we see police brutality and police killing of innocent black people, labeled as racial profiling, you have that Black Lives Matter movement going on. Something that was not far from us was the recent presidential elections, where there was one of the candidates who was very controversial, and now is the elected president Mr. Donald J Trump. He has made a lot of controversial remarks including vowing to build a wall on the Mexican border, deporting Mexicans, monitoring Muslims, not letting Muslims leave the country, calling Muslims terrorists and a handful of other comments and agendas. In the meantime immediately after he won the elections, mass anti trump protesting broke out nationwide and among those were a lot of students, teenagers and youngsters. Teenagers are the most easy to influence among people in all types of things and today we have some many different types of things, teenagers are easily to get exposed to, we have drugs laundering around everywhere, radicalization, gangs,

High school has always been kind of rough. For some people it’s even worse. Some people feel like they don’t fit in, or they don’t know what to do or maybe just don’t know how to deal with things such as drama, boys/girls, teachers or just life in general. Others, like Julia have to deal with anxiety and awkwardness. Some people fit in, like Logan they know how to do stuff and what they want to do while in high school, maybe even after too. Then there are those 3 people that just know what to do, how to, when to but just don’t have the motivation to do it. They seek long and hard for that motivation, they think they find it but then it turns out as another mistake. They think it’s a person but then what if it’s an object or maybe a skill or

High school often times has a drastic effect on many students. From freshman to seniors, everyone looks at high school with a different perspective. Some love it, some hate it, and some just go because they have to, or the exact opposite; they don’t show up because “high school is not important.”

I was often told that the high school experience is all about “finding out who you are.” When I started my junior year, I realized I did not have it figured out. I found myself surrounded by toxic people, and eventually felt a lack of dedication for everything. I felt empty and let my feeling of defeat and lack of value affect my relationships and schoolwork.

It is not easy for youth to imagine a realm that is existential outside of parental control. Little do they know that each time they close the door to their mothers’ mini vans or step off of the bus and on to school grounds, they enter one. Of course, there are adults present on the campus as well, but even their ascendancy is rendered useless in the stratified hierarchy that the students have constructed. Within the walls of a high school, there is an entire power structure that exists unbeknownst to those who have out grown it, despite living through it themselves. While the exact details and levels of these hierarchies may vary from school to school, the overall effect is the same: teens discover an outlet to demonstrate authority and find

Botstein begins his argument by listing various forms of student culture that are both harmful and pointless. The first of these high school rituals is the “untouchable” category that consists of coaches and athletes whose elite standing is based off of the team’s success rather than their educational achievements. Secondly, Botstein accesses teachers and curriculum that “hold so little sway” over the minds and manners of students because the average student is concerned with puberty, popularity, and peer groups. Moving forward, Botstein states that the “primary reason” high schools are dysfunctional is that teens in the twentieth century mature “substantially earlier” than in past decades. Finally, Botstein formulates a new plan for teenagers by cutting out the 10th through 12th grades, in essence making high school obsolete. According to Botstein’s plan, teenagers will choose to join the workforce, armed forces, specialty training facilities, or attend college after they finish their secondary education. Ultimately, Botstein argues that high