Dear Editor,
The recent proposal to create a curfew for youth is just one part of a puzzle in a safe and healthy community. The April/May 2007 issue of Scientific American Mind ran an article entitled “The Myth of the Teen Brain” by Robert Epstein.
Epstein found that there is no ‘teen brain’. In traditional cultures around the world, and historically, we do not have examples of ‘kids gone wild’. There is no antisocial behaviour and most of these societies don’t even have a word for ‘adolescence’. What’s the secret? The answer is quite simple. They are too busy working alongside adults (about 60 percent of their time), gradually taking their place in society.
Issues of self-esteem, depression, suicide, etc are almost non-existent in these cultures, unlike the industrialized west where teen violence, drug abuse, depression and suicide peak in the teen years.
According to Epstein’s research the problem of teenage revolt is that our society has created an ‘artificial extension of childhood’, isolating them from adults and passing laws to restrict their behaviour. He states that some US surveys show that youth are subject to over 10 times as many restrictions as main stream adults. Other research indicates that the more kids are infantilized, the more psychopathic their behaviour.
He notes that many studies of the human brain and body reveal that teens are often superior in intelligence, perception and memory than adults; that human eyesight reaches stages of acuity in those late adolescent years that slowly decline after – and in fact we are ‘wasting’ an excellent resource by keeping our youth out of the active workplace alongside adults.
Kids who grew up on the farm know what that’s about. Everyone works – and everyone is respected for it.
Maybe what we need to do instead of restricting kids even more, is to provide opportunities for them to assume responsibility. Instead of fund-raising for a place to put ‘them’ – provide them with an opportunity to make something for themselves or others.
There is a great need for modest, low income housing in Alberta. Many empty store-front locations could be renovated in downtown Ponoka to provide suitable student or starter family apartments, modelled on a concept similar to that of North Bridge Suites. How about a “Habitat Housing by Teens” project; or the literal building of a ‘Teen Town’ by teens?
Other research and work with youth shows that when people are occupied with their hands, it positively affects their brain. And once you start making things of value, you lose your desire to destroy or vandalise that of others.
Maybe it is time for our community groups to come together and see how and who could lead these types of projects, provide a framework of adult supervision, provide the municipal approvals and some resources, and channel that powerhouse of energy into building a ‘team of youth’ who will be part of rebuilding Ponoka - a legacy that will be theirs.
Michelle Stirling
Ponoka