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Writer's Block: Leading a horse to water
Feb. 16th, 2011 10:02 am[Error: unknown template qotd]
Oooh, that's a difficult one. I feel both strongly "yes" and strongly "no".
The part of me that says "no" recognises that teenagers are capable of making decisions for themselves. The problem is that they usually don't make good decisions. A lot of teenagers live in the now and are focused - yay modern America - on instant gratification, without worrying about how their decisions will affect them next week, next year, or in the next stage of their life. But I do think they should still be held responsible for those decisions. I don't think it's right to establish a tendency of "oh, it's okay, you're a teenager so you're not responsible for your actions". Responsibility should start young, or it won't ever be learned - there can't be a get-out-of-jail free card (literally) for anyone under some randomly determined age. Teenagers should be held responsible for their own actions, at least to some degree.
On the other hand, I feel "yes" because I think parents should be guiding their children in the decision-making process and teaching them what is acceptable for the society they are being raised in. I think that a lot of people in this time period aren't really taking responsibility for raising their own children. Parents have a huge influence on the attitudes and beliefs of their children - the whole "nature vs. nurture" argument. Granted, there are a lot of other influences out there - yay peer pressure - but parents should be the primary influence. Just because they decide not to be doesn't make them any less responsible for the actions of their children. And that process of identifying good decisions doesn't end when we hit 20. A few years ago I asked a lawyer-professor of mine about how this works in court, and she told me that there is medical proof that the human brain doesn't stop developing and changing until about 25 - so until that point, our identity and our decision-making processes aren't truly set and determined. We're still learning.
Okay, it's 10am and I'm out of time, so that's gonna have to do as my answer. Ta!
Oooh, that's a difficult one. I feel both strongly "yes" and strongly "no".
The part of me that says "no" recognises that teenagers are capable of making decisions for themselves. The problem is that they usually don't make good decisions. A lot of teenagers live in the now and are focused - yay modern America - on instant gratification, without worrying about how their decisions will affect them next week, next year, or in the next stage of their life. But I do think they should still be held responsible for those decisions. I don't think it's right to establish a tendency of "oh, it's okay, you're a teenager so you're not responsible for your actions". Responsibility should start young, or it won't ever be learned - there can't be a get-out-of-jail free card (literally) for anyone under some randomly determined age. Teenagers should be held responsible for their own actions, at least to some degree.
On the other hand, I feel "yes" because I think parents should be guiding their children in the decision-making process and teaching them what is acceptable for the society they are being raised in. I think that a lot of people in this time period aren't really taking responsibility for raising their own children. Parents have a huge influence on the attitudes and beliefs of their children - the whole "nature vs. nurture" argument. Granted, there are a lot of other influences out there - yay peer pressure - but parents should be the primary influence. Just because they decide not to be doesn't make them any less responsible for the actions of their children. And that process of identifying good decisions doesn't end when we hit 20. A few years ago I asked a lawyer-professor of mine about how this works in court, and she told me that there is medical proof that the human brain doesn't stop developing and changing until about 25 - so until that point, our identity and our decision-making processes aren't truly set and determined. We're still learning.
Okay, it's 10am and I'm out of time, so that's gonna have to do as my answer. Ta!
