Videos or Articles About Adult Opinions of Teenagers
August 24, 2013 2:23 PM Subscribe
I'm going to have my students create a mixed-media project that shows what it's like to be a teenager now, and I'd like to start the project with some videos or articles that show the stereotypical way that adults view teenagers. The more offensive and stereotype-laden the better, and bonus points for fear-mongering oh-noes-the-death-of-civilisation-at-the-hands-of-teens.
This will be the lead-in to the project. The "Why This Is Important" part to give them an idea of what people think about teens and inspire them to do better.
Tips on what to include or how to execute the project part are also appreciated.
Other details that may prove relevant (or not):
--The big-picture dream is that we'll use this to create a resource for teachers to better understand the lives of their students, and encourage them to assign it and upload their own projects to the site.
--I teach English 9 at a small arts-driven high school in the SF Bay Area.
--The access to technology is limited to a few computer labs, student devices, my two Mac laptops and my person iPad and iPhone.
--My pedagogy is flipped learning mixed with student-centred project-based-learning. There's a link to my blog and twitter in my profile if that's helpful.
This will be the lead-in to the project. The "Why This Is Important" part to give them an idea of what people think about teens and inspire them to do better.
Tips on what to include or how to execute the project part are also appreciated.
Other details that may prove relevant (or not):
--The big-picture dream is that we'll use this to create a resource for teachers to better understand the lives of their students, and encourage them to assign it and upload their own projects to the site.
--I teach English 9 at a small arts-driven high school in the SF Bay Area.
--The access to technology is limited to a few computer labs, student devices, my two Mac laptops and my person iPad and iPhone.
--My pedagogy is flipped learning mixed with student-centred project-based-learning. There's a link to my blog and twitter in my profile if that's helpful.
are kids today (tweeners & teens) way worse than your generation?
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers. Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato, according to William L. Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277 (1953)."
posted by blob at 3:46 PM on August 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers. Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato, according to William L. Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277 (1953)."
posted by blob at 3:46 PM on August 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Thais may be dated, but what happens when the voting age is lowered to 15? Teens get Wild in the Streets and everybody over 30 is sent to LSD reeducation centers.
posted by Rob Rockets at 3:48 PM on August 24, 2013
posted by Rob Rockets at 3:48 PM on August 24, 2013
There is a washing machine ad out right now that has a teenage girl fussing about her jeans. The over the top stereotyping in it drives me nuts.
Is this the kind of thing you're looking for?
posted by SLC Mom at 8:41 PM on August 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Is this the kind of thing you're looking for?
posted by SLC Mom at 8:41 PM on August 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Not to be the "just google this" guy, but, well, just google "milennials" because every single time I see that word mentioned in a headline, it is the most "these kids are destroying everything" thing I've read that day.
posted by sleeping bear at 9:20 PM on August 24, 2013
posted by sleeping bear at 9:20 PM on August 24, 2013
It's foolish to ask, but in what way does affirming the stereotypical BS actually help kids to grow up with an open mind about their ability to integrate into an older society successfully? I'd seriously like to know why so much of the teaching is so negative, so depressing, so hopeless. We struggled to keep my granddaughter from caving in to the idea that the future was bleak and pointless, the world disintegrating in front of her eyes, etc. all through her years in school. She's working on her Masters degree now and has a pretty decently balanced idea of the world around her, but the "balance" part of her education didn't come from school.
Sorry about the derail. It would seem to me that the "inspiration to do better" would come easiest if the student thought there was a point to what they were doing in the first place. I wish someone could explain this to me.
posted by aryma at 12:30 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Sorry about the derail. It would seem to me that the "inspiration to do better" would come easiest if the student thought there was a point to what they were doing in the first place. I wish someone could explain this to me.
posted by aryma at 12:30 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oh, and just for the record, this 67-year-old woman thinks teenagers are terrific. I love their sharp minds and the quick brightness they bring to our mundane world. I interact with them every chance I get - and we laugh together a lot.
posted by aryma at 12:33 AM on August 25, 2013
posted by aryma at 12:33 AM on August 25, 2013
Response by poster: @sleeping bear - part of the reason I asked here was so that people could recommend stuff they've seen that's good, instead of me having to spend hundreds of hours watching every single video and reading every single article Google suggested. I've done lots of searches, and watched tons of videos and read tons of articles; through that, I've found some stuff. I was hoping people had more.
@aryma - um...yeah. I always model the skills I want students to learn. So by showing them examples of how adults view teenagers and collecting those examples in the format we're expecting students to produce, it not only models the product, but gives them the counterargument to their project. The whole point is to produce a guide to popular teen culture that emphasises all the reasons that teenagers are awesome, rather than the tired old "teenagers will ruin the world" bullshit.
And let's not pretend that all adults (or even most adults) see teenagers as "sharp" and "bright" and "terrific." You know what the most common response is when I tell someone that I teach public high school? Something like, "Oh, wow. I could never do that. Teenagers would drive me crazy. How can you stand them? You must have the patience of a saint." I teach teenagers because I love teaching teenagers - there is nothing else in the world I would rather do. So I don't have a repository of resources that explain the ways in which other people see them, which is largely negative in my experience. That's why I crowdsourced the question, and it is probably my fault for not articulating all of these things more clearly.
@SLC Mom & @blob - those are on the right track. Thanks!
I'm done threadsitting. Thanks for everyone who suggested resources! Would love to see others...
posted by guster4lovers at 3:06 PM on August 25, 2013
@aryma - um...yeah. I always model the skills I want students to learn. So by showing them examples of how adults view teenagers and collecting those examples in the format we're expecting students to produce, it not only models the product, but gives them the counterargument to their project. The whole point is to produce a guide to popular teen culture that emphasises all the reasons that teenagers are awesome, rather than the tired old "teenagers will ruin the world" bullshit.
And let's not pretend that all adults (or even most adults) see teenagers as "sharp" and "bright" and "terrific." You know what the most common response is when I tell someone that I teach public high school? Something like, "Oh, wow. I could never do that. Teenagers would drive me crazy. How can you stand them? You must have the patience of a saint." I teach teenagers because I love teaching teenagers - there is nothing else in the world I would rather do. So I don't have a repository of resources that explain the ways in which other people see them, which is largely negative in my experience. That's why I crowdsourced the question, and it is probably my fault for not articulating all of these things more clearly.
@SLC Mom & @blob - those are on the right track. Thanks!
I'm done threadsitting. Thanks for everyone who suggested resources! Would love to see others...
posted by guster4lovers at 3:06 PM on August 25, 2013
Something like, "Oh, wow. I could never do that. Teenagers would drive me crazy. How can you stand them? You must have the patience of a saint."
I wonder how much of this attitude is due to people seeing teenagers the way they've been taught to see them - as trouble, trouble and more trouble; that's stereotyping, and it's wrong no matter which direction it comes from. Are you sure you aren't just reinforcing that "adults see teens negatively" with your project? In my own opinion, teens usually expect adults, especially old people, to look down on them, have no patience with their clothing/metal/music, etc., even be afraid of them just because they're teenagers. My question is, simply, how much of this is taught? Most kids feel as if they haven't done anything personally to warrant the negative attitude of adults/old people, so it's unfair, but then the result is that the teen approaches the old person with the same sort of negativity, which completes the loop.
Stereotyping is at the root of racism and division of every kind. It's wrong every time.
posted by aryma at 10:34 PM on August 25, 2013
I wonder how much of this attitude is due to people seeing teenagers the way they've been taught to see them - as trouble, trouble and more trouble; that's stereotyping, and it's wrong no matter which direction it comes from. Are you sure you aren't just reinforcing that "adults see teens negatively" with your project? In my own opinion, teens usually expect adults, especially old people, to look down on them, have no patience with their clothing/metal/music, etc., even be afraid of them just because they're teenagers. My question is, simply, how much of this is taught? Most kids feel as if they haven't done anything personally to warrant the negative attitude of adults/old people, so it's unfair, but then the result is that the teen approaches the old person with the same sort of negativity, which completes the loop.
Stereotyping is at the root of racism and division of every kind. It's wrong every time.
posted by aryma at 10:34 PM on August 25, 2013
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posted by MonkeyToes at 2:48 PM on August 24, 2013