125 years ago teenagers didn’t even exist. How times have changed! Here’s a four-minute video briefly chronicling how teenagers were born.
History of adolescence
27 Monday Aug 2012
Posted adolescence, teaching, youth ministry
in27 Monday Aug 2012
Posted adolescence, teaching, youth ministry
in125 years ago teenagers didn’t even exist. How times have changed! Here’s a four-minute video briefly chronicling how teenagers were born.
27 Monday Aug 2012
Posted adolescence, bookshelf, teaching, youth ministry
inI recently talked with a 40-something year old man who was considering going into high school teaching. The one thing, however, that was holding him back was fear. He said a room full of teenagers was a scary thing. That sentiment is shared by a lot of adults; they view teenagers as a different breed, part of an entirely different culture and world. That’s why Chap Clark’s book When Kids Hurt is so important. This book is a follow-up on his more in depth book Hurt and more recently Hurt 2.0.
Beneath this entire book is the concept that today’s adolescents live in a different world and experience adolescence differently than previous generations ever have. Added to that, Clark argues (based on his extended research) that the biggest problem facing today’s adolescence is “abandonment” by adults. “To become adults,” writes Clark, “adolescents need adults, but when adults are not present and involved in their lives, they are forced to figure out how to survive life on their own” (34).
Over and over again, Clark states that adolescents need adults to invest in their lives – to show up, to be present. It doesn’t mean that adults need to be BFFs, but it does mean that adults need to communicate to teens, with words and actions, that “they matter.”
You can find more information at http://www.parenteen.com.