Thought of the Day - 6/28/10

Teenagers are so emotional and so unpredictable, and movies and video games are so permeated with violence that it is no wonder teenagers reach for a knife or gun when frustrated. I know of instances where teens killed parents for refusing to allow them to attend a rock concert or for making them go to church. Then there are the school shootings that seem to occur with sickening regularity ever since Columbine. I am convinced that all this youthful anger is a symptom that something is wrong, but I am not sure exactly what.


Maybe teenage boys should be sent off to live in a hut with tribal elders until they are deemed fit to marry and assume their place in society, as is the custom with some primitive tribes. Send the teens to some wise shaman who would teach him the secrets of manhood. Like most kids, my son is finding it hard to take advice from his mother when his mother is the very same person he is trying to separate himself from in order to establish his own identity.

There has to be a better way than the present system of intense peer pressure in junior high school/middle school/intermediate school/high school with the stress of academics and puberty.