Beginning the Journey

In 1904 G. Stanley Hall coined the term adolescence. Chances are that if you are reading this you either are now or once fitted into Hall's classification of an adolescent and most likely you heard people say things like 'young people these days...' Most of us cringe when we hear this but as we get older are we any different or do we fall into the same traps?

It is easy to be critical of those who are finding their place in the world, a world that has very little interest in helping them but is more interested in keeping them down so that they will fit the mould and not rock the boat.

You may have heard some of the terms young people are described as, 'trouble', 'useless', 'bluggers', 'lazy', 'good for nothing' and my personal favourite, 'deliquent'. Startling really that all of us who are 'trouble, useless, bluggers, lazy, good for nothing, deliquents' grow into 'responsible member of society'! How do we do it? Do we give up what makes us individual? Do we give up the uniqueness of our generations perspective? Or do we simply find a way to fit into societies relentless pressure to conform? And even if we do all this can we really escape the labelling until we somehow reach the 'age' that society deems appropriate? Many of us find that society continues to move the 'age' to fit with what society chooses.

Years ago "Youth" was deemed as 12 to 25 years old, these days some writers think that "youth" is 10 to 30! What are we doing now that has led to such a long period of, as Hall would say, 'storm and stress'? What can people who work with young people do to support and advocate for the 'youth'? what do young people themselves think?

All this and more will be discussed over the coming posts! lets dialogue and help these young people so that they will be a light to a generation!