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What Does It Mean To Be Free Essay

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For centuries, teenagers have fought with their parents over the amount of freedom they should have. Parents always fight to reel in their child’s freedom, while teens argue that they need more privileges. While parents certainly have an argument in protecting their kids from the big, scary world, ultimately teenagers need to be exposed to the dangers of everyday life in order to prepare them for entering it on their own. If they have no real-life experience, they cannot be expected to handle it well when they leave their parents’ houses. In order to teach kids responsibility and life skills, kids should be allowed freedom to work and be out on their own, but have certain restrictions on a case-to-case basis in terms of curfews and household obligations. …show more content…

Columnist Lenore Skenazy of the New York Sun decided to provide her child with freedom and responsibility. Her son asked to be left somewhere and find his way home. She provided him with little more than some cash and a subway map and decided to see if he could find his way home. She writes, “I trusted him to figure out that he should take the Lexington Avenue subway down, and the 34th Street crosstown bus home. If he couldn’t do that, I trusted him to ask a stranger. And then I even trusted that stranger not to think, ‘Gee, I was about to catch my train home, but now I think I’ll abduct this adorable child instead’ Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence” (The New York). This quote proves how important an independent experience can be to a child. If they can see that they can handle a dangerous, real world situation, they will be far better prepared to face those situations every day than a teen who does not have those

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