Teenagers are commonly known for making plenty of mistakes, but those mistakes are meant to be learnt from so you can use those situations in the future to guide yourself in the right direction. In the following books Mirror Game, Skud and Silent Summer of Kyle Mcginley it will be demonstrated how negative experiences can lead to a positive change in a teens life. When teenagers enter high school many of them are scared of isolation. They will be quick to do things that will help them “fit in”. Sometimes, the older kids will force the freshman to do things beyond their age restriction. Drinking alcohol and smoking are a few examples of what freshman are pressured to do. Teens would rather listen to their friends input on how to live their …show more content…
lives, rather than the input of their parents. When teenagers are by themselves, they think on their own, however, when they are with their friends, they are influenced to make decisions based on external factors. These external factors could result in impulsive and risky behavior, this is seen in the study done by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In this study, researchers found that when an individual is playing a video game by themselves they are very calm, and makes good decisions, but, when they are with a group of friends they become much more impulsive and do things that are difficult to control. In the play Mirror Game a boy named Luke was talking to a boy named Bob, Bob in the play is dating a girl named Maggie. In the play Luke attempted to pressure Maggie to have sex with him, Luke says: “I don't know but i thought it was pretty cool doing something like that…I know how to make you interested” (Foon 41). Luke is trying to pressure Maggie to have sex with him. Due to what Luke said to Maggie, she breaks up with her boyfriend stops talking to Luke and she moved on and learned from that negative experiences to help her cope with it in the future. Although you can be pressured to do bad things by friends, family and others may, that does not mean there are other people that will encourage you to do positive things. An example of a person that will encourage you to do good things are your positive role models. The number of offences committed by youngsters (Assault and Robbery) aged 10 to 17 in the last year was 277,989.
This is more than one every minute. In the book Skud there are four boys that are in their last year of high school and they try feel what it's like to really be a man. While Others are are worried about getting laid, two boys named Brad and Tommy try to show of their masculinity by joining a gang. Throughout the story Brad and Tommy are constantly getting into bad situations which ends leading to the death of one of their brothers. By the end of the story Brad and Tommy and the other realize that the things they are doing to make them look like a “Man” is not really helping them and only putting them into bad situations. From their experiences they realize that in order to be a man you don't have to be a “Bad guy”. Not only that but now the boys can deal through other situations without fear from their experiences “Andy looks me up and down. He’s thinking hard. I have no fear. Anything he throws at me i know i can take” (Foon 150). Just like in Skud teens lives are being ruined and wasted from the bad choices they are making. No matter what type of consequences the teen faced, no matter how bad it was, they can still turn their life around. Teens are young and have room for error in their lives so the best we can make from these mistakes is from learning from
it. Every year more than 3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States alone (citation), and although the parents of the victims claim their reasoning for this is for their own good, that is not a good explanation nor excuse. Abuse could also build up even more stress that teens already have from school, which could also lead to alcohol and drug abuse, and even result in addiction. In the book Silent Summer of Kyle Mcginley, Kyle goes through physical abuse from his father, Kyle is constantly being moved foster home to foster home, Kyle’s believes that his life is only going downhill and it won't get any better. When Kyle moves to the foster home of Scott and Jill life starts to get a bit better for Kyle. When Kyle’s father comes to pick up him up he refuses to leave. “I swallow, I'm not going dad, i say, his hands are on his belt buckle, Get in the car it's an order… I'm not going” As Kyle’s father finally leaves Scott and Jills house Kyle realizes how life is so much better without his father, and how from all of the negative issues his father brought toward him, Kyle leaving his father made all those issues go away and made his life so much more positive. “I know i'm happy. I know someday i might even be happier.. I think about Scott and Jill . How they're going to take me climbing. I think how they want me. I think about my paintings. How there such a surprise. I think about my father the most miserable man on earth. I jump down. I get my feet to the ground . I do shout then. I shout loud. I lift my arms up. Over my head. I do these jpy things. The Olympic gold medal things. I give the biggest YEEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAH! The biggest in all the world”(Andrews 198). The negative impact of drug, alcohol and physical abuse can lead to serious health issues such as death and depression.. While pressure is negative, it does result in positive change. Teenagers that go through pressure become role models for others. When teens go and break the law and face the consequences, they will guide others in the right direction. When a teen goes through drug, alcohol, and physical abuse, many will abuse the substance and are victims of the side effects, they will learn why they should not use the substance and how they can learn how it impacts a child's life from abusing a child. There are many challenges in a teenagers life that will have a negative impact, teens must learn from these experiences so that they can be role models for others. All teenagers face problems and adversity , so teens have to learn from these mistakes, because when they get older they will face even more problems and not know how to solve them.
It has not been too long ago that I still remember my adolescent years. I always remember the unintelligent things I did that I wish could change, but this Psychology class made me realize that all adolescents go through the same things I experienced. Adolescents are known to try to find their identity, go through peer pressure, make mistakes, and try new things. The move I picked that closely represented what adolescents go through was “Mean Girls”. Some of the scenes in the movie seem a little exaggerated, but it has happened in certain high schools even though I had not experienced it personally.
Criminal justice institutions in Oakland challenge masculinity as a means of rehabilitation. For instance, from a boy’s perspective, being a man involves standing up to peers who challenge self-confidence. This results in law breaking and violent fights, which can create opportunities for arrests. On the other hand, probation officers believe that being a man involves obtaining an education to support your family. However, by living in a poor neighborhood where punitive social control is ratified, the boys can hardly find employment. Thus, it generates hypermasculinity, which “often influenced the young men to perpetrate defiance, crime, and violence, sanctioning police to brutalize or arrest them” (p. 138). To reiterate, probation officers tell the boys to “get a job, do well in school and stay out of trouble” (p. 139). But the odds of succeeding are low, because “most avenues of legitimate success were out of reach” (p.
Many adolescent have to learn many things from the events in their lives. Freaks and Geeks show characters adapting to the changes in their life and learn to adjust them. Neal Schweiber, a freshman at McKinley High School and friends with Sam Weir in episode 12, learns that his father is having an affair with his mother. He reacts to this situation by lashing out at his friends and other family members. Neal finally comes to terms with the fact that his father cheating and adjust to life with it. This shows the changes in Neal family life and he learns to adapt to it. He develops into a mature adult and learn the lesson of life. This lesson is of people, like his father, who have a mid-life crisis and they tried many things to avoid the feeling of it. Another example is Sam Weir, in episode 17, breaks up with his long time crush, Cindy Sanders. Sam learns that Cindy is actually very shallow and boring and that isn’t what he is looking for. This strays from the stereotype of having the popular person always break up with less popular person and having people always think that adolescent always have true love in high school. Sam in particular learns t...
As a teenager we are all looking to be accepted by our peers and will do whatever it is they want us to so we can be accepted. That is to say the feeling of needing to be accepted by ones peers is done consciously; the person starts to do what their friends do without thinking about it. (Teen 3) In fact, teens are more likely to be affected by peer pressure because they are trying to figure out who they are. (How 1) Therefore, they see themselves as how their peers would view them so they change to fit their peer’s expectations. (How 1) Secondly, the feeling of needing to rebel and be someone that isn’t who their parents are trying to make them be affects them. (Teen 2) Thus, parents are relied on less and teens are more likely to go to their peers about their problems and what choices to make. (How 1) Also, their brains are not fully matured and teens are less likely to think through their choices thoroughly before doing it. (Teen 6) Lastly, how a child is treated by his peers can affect how they treat others; this can lead them into bullying others who are different. (Teen 3) Consequently this can affect a teen into doing something good or bad; it depends who you surround yourself with.
Conformity means a change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people. As a teenager, the pressure to conform to the societal “norm” plays a major role in shaping one’s character. Whether this means doing what social groups want or expect you to do or changing who you are to fit in. During class, we watched films such as Mean Girls, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Breakfast Club which demonstrate how the pressure to conform into society can change who you are. In the movies we have seen, conformity was most common during high school.
The teens live in an environment where drinking alcohol is the same as drinking water. They are allowed to drink as much as they would like, as long as they do not embarrass their parents. Many of the teens get drunk for the first time in the eighth grade. That is seven years before they legally should even have their first sip. “Rufus kept the beer flowing out of keg in the bathtub, getting many drunk for the first time” (Ziegesar). Also many of them come into school with horrible hangovers. This shows that these kids are way too young to be getting drunk, because they do not know how to handle themselves properly. Coming to school with a hangover can affect how they learn and keep them from getting the best education possible. This also illustrates how drinking seems so much fun for the kids, but it conveniently leaves out the consequences of this action. Furthermore, irresponsible teens do not think ahead for their future. They do not consider the health risks involved, such as alcoholism and liver
Growing up in the recent generations is very challenging. Children at such young ages, even younger than teens have been faced with such perilous decisions. It is especially hard for teenagers to find acceptance at this point in their lives. Here is an instance that is so common in this day and age, yet this particular case is only fiction. A teenage boy named Donny has been going through a few changes in his appearance. His parents, Matt and Daisy, are somewhat disturbed yet they don’t say much to him. Then one day Daisy gets a call from Donny’s school administrator and tells her that his grades are attitude are dropping scale. He eventually gets kicked out of private school and does poorly in public school. Daisy was concerned and decided to take advice from the school and psychologist to get help from a highly reputable tutor, Calvin Applebee. Instead of Donny’s parents talking to their son they hire Cal, which tries to handle Donny’s lack of emotion and performance. Donny’s performance didn’t change with Cal, at least in the school aspect, but Cal kept reassuring Daisy and Matt that it would change and to give it more time. In result, Donny runs away after being sent home because he was expelled for being caught with drugs in his locker and months later he still has not returned home. Who is to blame? Should Daisy and Matt been more disciplined on Donny? Well, in Anne Tyler’s short story the Teenage Wasteland this is just what happened. I really enjoyed this story because I feel it really focused on an issue that is so common in our generation. It was easy to read and was straight to the point. I especially enjoyed the role of the dumbfounded parents, Cal’s cynical character, and in result of the all their foolishness, the action Donny resulted in taking.
Being a teenager is hard, sometimes it feels as if the entire world is fighting against you. Every day the world seems to bombard you with stress, and you become irritated, frustrated, and enraged. In Edgar Allen Poe’s, The Cask of Amontillado, depicts a madman driven by his desire to get revenge. This madman becomes obsessed with this want, and lets it override his thoughts. By examining teenager’s life, while in class, doing homework, and working in groups, one can see that a teenager must remain calm and take negative aspects of life with a grain of salt, rather than to overreact.
Teens today mock this this type of peer pressure. Its comical to them because they all grew up
Peer pressure strongly influences teenagers to drink. During the teenage years it is generally very important for teenagers to feel they are one of the group and that they fit in and are not different. Teenagers who feel unpopular sometimes drink alcohol to fit in, even though they may not choose to do so otherwise. One example of this is binge drinking in college fraternities and sororities.
In this closing chapter, Alex and Brett review the main ideas they’ve covered. Now that the reader has a clear view of a new way of life, they offer some practical advice to get “from big idea to meaningful change.” They introduce three typical teens Noah, Serena, and Brandon and offer problem-solving ideas for how they can get past their distractions and obstacles. One more story is yet to be told “and that story is yours.” The five-step rebelutionary action plan is a great way to deal with things. Noah followed the 5-step plan. He sold his Xbox, which gave him a clean break from a distraction and a conversation starter with his friends. He changed it so he could focus more on his goal. Noah talked to his pastor about what he should read.
As dependents of their parents, young people do not understand the world they live in. Young people are always told to wait until they get into the real world to understand. Parents often shelter their children from the real world because they want their children to be prepared for it. Young people often expect many situations to go their way because of their viewpoints they hold. Sammy the main character of the short story “A and P” by John Updike, is a closed-minded teenager who becomes aware that childlike decisions have tough consequences in the real world.
To begin, peer pressure is often misinterpreted by older generations, who think it is teenagers strong arming others into doing things they should not be doing. The bully type attitude towards peer pressure is completely nonexistent in the world today, and the real problem lies in subtle influences that teenagers are exposed to. For example, going out to a party where drugs are present is likely to cause teenagers to become curious and feel the need to fit in with everyone else. While they are not being told to follow along, they do so anyways because of the belief that people are judging them. Nobody likes to be judged, and the best way to avoid that situation is to just follow along and become part of the crowd. Statistics show that teenagers are more likely to have friends with people who have the same interests as them. If one of those friends becomes interested in alcohol, the other person is more likel...
Teen rebellion is a problem that’s been around ever since teenagers have. Almost every teen goes through some sort of rebellious stage in or after the precious years of puberty. It’s a problem that’s caused by a number of attributes, the two main being teenage hormones and attitude. It’s a superiority syndrome that teens get to let the world “adults” know that their views and opinions are not to be reckoned with. And with such a stubborn mindset that teen rebellion comes with, it can sometimes be impossible to tell them otherwise or make them listen to reason. 98% of teens go through it, lots do it just to show off and some do it because of an incredible feeling of “self- righteousness”. With appropriate action, teen rebellion is a problem that...
Having friends is the best part of being a high school student, but choosing the wrong kind of friends to hang out with could cause trouble in the future. They are at the age of wanting freedom, enjoying time with friends, being adventurous, and having relationships with opposite genders. During the teenage years, there will be growth developments in their body and chemicals such as testosterone or estrogen that can affect their feelings. These age groups rely on popularity and want a certain status that makes their friends praise them. Playing sports is a great way to make friends and many teens who play sports tend to be very popular among their peers. There is about fifty percent of high school students who are taking drugs and drinking alcohol. This increases the p...