15 - Nothing is promised

As most of you know I teach youth development classes at North Central University to a group of students who just beginning to emerge from the world of youth themselves. The irony is never lost on me as I begin to help them realize that they will be the creepy old person who likes to hang out with teenagers before they know it. Helping an adolescent begin to view adolescence from an objective point of view isn't the easiest task, but it is something I love and I always learn something from them.

Right now I'm teaching a few sections of Sociology of American Youth where we begin the class tackling the question what moralities can be taught in public schools in a pluralistic democracy, in a private property economy, whose goal is economic efficiency (thank you Dr. Walter Schultz for a great question)? So to start the conversation I played Taylor Swifts song "15" and asked the class to come up with what moralities the parent of a fifteen year old girl should expect to protect their daughter in the new social setting called high school. I was looking for act moralities such as honesty, physical protection, respect, responsibility, etc. What I got was surprising; "The parents should not expect anything." My students said that even expecting that someone won't be physically abused would be a silly hope. They were teaching me that the only thing a parent can expect is that maybe their child will treat others according to the values of the family, but to expect to be treated well by others is a silly dream.

This was so enlightening to me on many different levels. First, I learned that for our young teens, morality has been reduced to a nebulous concept that is not comprehensible. We could have the agent morality conversation that focuses on what makes something right or wrong, but we are just talking about principles for action that govern social interactions. I've never had to break down respect, honesty, or protection like I did with this group. The second piece that was enlightening was how much this conversation plays into Christian Smith's moral therapeutic deity and Chap Clark's cluster principles. This generation has learned that the goal is to protect yourself and do what it takes to make yourself feel safe. As Chap explains, they will hold a candle in the window of their life they think will give them the best shot at feeling safe. This is why issues of respect or honesty are mobile and hard to define in their lives. These issues change based upon how they feel it can be used to protect themselves.

My goal with my blogs is to throw out a thought so we can wrestle with it together. There is so much more I will be saying about this, but for now I want to throw this question out:  What are we promising our fifteen year olds? I wonder, what can we tell them to really expect from the adults in their community? Are their principles that we agree upon that we will actively work to enforce in their lives as they enter into adulthood? I'd like to say that together we will bring out the best in each other, respect the value of each person and we will treat each other with dignity and honor. Unfortunately, right now our fifteen year olds feel as if nothing is promised to them.