Blog Post 2

Blog Post #2

3 stereotypes

“Adolescents were awkward, vulnerable creatures, innocent victims of raging hormones, rampant insecurity, and fervent idealism (which often bordered on arrogance), characterizations that were apparently linked to puberty and a lack of experience”

The statement above is stated in the reading by Bogad,  “Framing Youth” writing “youth in social context. I think that  “categorizing” every adolescent in the statement is not appropriate. The adolescents are described as having “lack of experience”. This statement made me think about a childhood experience. My older cousins thought less of me because I was the youngest one out of them all. In reality adolescents know more than what people think that they do. As a youthworker it is important that we do not view adolescents that way.

#2. Author : Steinberg ,Redefining the Notion of youth.

(page 3) “No one likes teenagers. Only someone with something wrong inside wants to be around them that much.”

The statement above is a stereotype about teenagers. The statement is false , because it is stating that everyone thinks that no one likes teenagers. Of course, not every individual in the world thinks that! The statement is referring to every individual that do likes teenagers “having something wrong”. As youth workers, we can not have that mindset because that means we are “judging” without knowing. Assuming something about a teenager before knowing them is not “okay”, that means we are “judging a book by it’s cover.”

#3. “We come to know youth as incomplete, in-transition, finding themselves, hormone-driven,

emotional, in-experienced, and always in opposition to the adults in their lives.”

The statement above, was stated in Bogad’s article. I agree with the quote stated above because I think that most people view the “youth” as … incomplete, emotional, inexperienced etc. As youth workers we need to understand that the youth are still growing physically, emotionally and mentally. The youth may not always make the right decisions and they’ll continue to make mistakes , but that is part of life. In order for everyone to grow we have to continue making mistakes. Hopefully we’ll eventually learn from our mistakes at in some period in our life. That does not mean that youth are in-experienced and all over the place.