Comments on: The Controversial Case Against Adolescence

By: What to do with Emerging Adults? | Mere Orthodoxy

What to do with Emerging Adults? | Mere Orthodoxy — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:18:34 +0000

[...] hypothesis, and it’s a tentative one, is that the restructuring of American society around “adolescence” (including schools and colleges where the primary socialization happened within peer groups isolated [...]

By: Returning to the Young Evangelicals | Mere Orthodoxy

Returning to the Young Evangelicals | Mere Orthodoxy — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:13:02 +0000

[...] said, I am on board with destroying adolescence, and for that I think the sort of reactionism of the Brothers Harris less destructive than the [...]

By: 12 Best Nonfiction Books I Read in 2008 at Semicolon

12 Best Nonfiction Books I Read in 2008 at Semicolon — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:49:53 +0000

[...] The Case Against Adolescence by Robert Epstein. Quite thought-provoking. Recommended by MatthewLee Anderson at Mere-O. [...]

By: Adolescence Obsolescent? at Semicolon

Adolescence Obsolescent? at Semicolon — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:46:22 +0000

[...] Matthew Lee Anderson on the Controversial Case Against Adolescence. [...]

By: Books Read February 2008 at Semicolon

Books Read February 2008 at Semicolon — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:51:41 +0000

[...] The Case Against Adolescence by Robert Epstein. Quite thought-provoking. Recommended by MatthewLee Anderson at Mere-O. [...]

By: Gleaned from The Saturday Review at Semicolon

Gleaned from The Saturday Review at Semicolon — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:50:29 +0000

[...] The Case Against Adolescence–Epstein Recommended by MatthewLee Anderson at Mere-O. Actually, I found this one in last Saturday’s Review. I am already attuned to what I think is the thesis of this book: that American adolescence is both artificial and prolonged. I must read it and see if my preconceptions are confirmed or challenged. [...]

By: Mere Orthodoxy » The Kid Nation that Isn’t.

Mere Orthodoxy » The Kid Nation that Isn’t. — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:14:25 +0000

[...] When I first heard about Kid Nation, the new reality tv-show by CBS, I was excited. Having been recently been made aware by Dr. Epstein about the ways our culture’s infantalization of young people can restrict their growth, my thoughts were similar to those which he recently expressed: The show itself is amazing. CBS took 40 young people between ages 8 and 15 and gave them an old abandoned ghost town in New Mexico to run entirely on their own – no adult supervision at all – for about 6 weeks. As horrifying as this concept may sound, when I heard about it I knew immediately that these young people would do beautifully…[Kid Nation] is a potent, incredibly graphic reminder about the extraordinary abilities of young people, abilities we have increasingly buried while trapping millions of young Americans in the bizarre, media-driven world of “teen culture.” [...]

By: Matthew Lee Anderson

Matthew Lee Anderson — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:11:02 +0000

Nobody,

“but I take it Epstein would argue that schools become that way because of their authoritarian element which, by the few adults assuming all responsibilities, encourages irresponsibility in the students.”

To be clear, Epstein doesn’t actually argue for the end of compulsory education. He just wants it dramatically restructured and its limits curtailed (reading, writing, arithmetic and citizenship. In his words, “more than we require of immigrants before we grant them citizenship, but not much more.”

Clearly, the authority is part of the problem. I didn’t quote Epstein much in my review, so I will here: “I am not advocating more “freedom” for teens…The corrective for infantilization is responsibility, not freedom.…The freedom adults appear to have is actually authority, not freedom. Adults can’t do anything they please; they can simply exercise authority in various domains in which they must also accept various forms of responsibility.”

Epstein goes on to say that ideally, people who are given authority also have responsibility, and vice versa. If students demonstrated the appropriate competencies, they should be able to gain the authority and responsibilities that are associated with those competencies.

Nobody, I think your point about government is also fair. When government becomes the enabler and steps in to protect them from themselves, it treats its subjects like children. And as a result, its subjects will act like children.

Beth,

We all make a hasty generalization now and then. Sometimes we like making them, in fact! : )

By: beth

beth — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:34:34 +0000

Ah…Logic 101 taught it well; hasty generalizations are informal falacies. My own upbringing, however, and those of the children nearest me did leave me wondering whether we were prepared to interact with the world, not just at a civil level, but in a manner that would show and actually give them Christ. Perhaps though the doubt comes from my own feelings of inadequence which, I’m told, is perfectly normal in this stage of development…or is it? Man, I need to read this book.

By: Nobody

Nobody — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:54:36 +0000

I am challenged by Epstein’s thesis to the extent that I had assumed large public schools were proof that societies of children tend to degenerate toward Lord of the Flies (cf. Mean Girls) rather than become Boystown, but I take it Epstein would argue that schools become that way because of their authoritarian element which, by the few adults assuming all responsibilities, encourages irresponsibility in the students.

Such an argument seems fair enough to me, and I think it can even be extrapolated to the macrocosm of society at large: Government infantalizes its citizens the more it micromanages their behavior, which is being done now almost exclusively under the banner of “health” in both the US and UK, from criminalizing smoking in public places to restrictions against Fast Food. As Dennis Prager often says, health is the new morality — which makes sense if the physical world is the extent of reality.