We don't not need no education

Jim Leach had a very interesting interview on Tuesday with Barbara Strauch, medical science and health editor for the New York Times and author of the book “The Primal Teen.” Her book attempts to make physiological sense of teenagers’ often irrational and perplexing behavior by looking at the brain development and function of adolescents.

While I'm probably misrepresenting her work and I’m certainly oversimplifying it, the crux of her dissertation is that teenagers aren’t stupid, but rather they, like everyone else, are ignorant of many things. Well, some teenagers are stupid, but it’s hard to identify them as such until they turn 30 and we find that they’re still giving wedgies and hitting on high school chicks.

You really don’t need to be a brain surgeon (literally) to understand the frequent synaptic misfires occurring in an adolescent’s head. What sets the teenage years apart from childhood is that teenagers are increasingly asked to figure things out for themselves and to learn from their mistakes, and they just aren’t fine-tuned to do that with any degree of consistency. Erraticism is a sign of lack of development more than dysfunction and rebelliousness arises out of confusion probably as much as it does belligerence. Except for James Dean for whom rebelliousness had no cause.

Many people, mostly parents of teenagers, would probably be relieved if it were discovered that their children’s whacked-out behavior could be tied to some physiological cause they could be remedied with regular rounds of shock treatment. The cure however, in my humble opinion, is much less severe. This may sound hackneyed, but if they stay in school and remain diligent in their studies, they will soon be able to weather life's many storms with the deftness of a well-seasoned captain.

Anyone who has attended a liberal arts college, at some point in their matriculation, probably questioned the requirement that an English major take an economics course or that a math major be required to sit through a poetry seminar. What these budding Flauberts didn’t realize, and what I didn’t realize until well after graduation, is that we were never expected to find much use for Laffer Curves in our daily lives. In a liberal arts education, it is the journey, not the destination that is important.

The best definition of a liberal arts education that I’ve heard is that it "teaches you how to learn.” It presents you with subjects that you know nothing about and, in a semester’s time, teaches you how to apply logic and reason to its principles until you have a good enough understanding to pass an exam or write a passable essay. The more you do this, the better your brain gets at doing it. By asking analytically-inclined math majors to explore the visceral world of poetry, the brain is cross-trained and becomes even stronger. The applications for this in daily life are endless.

This type of learning can be honed outside the classroom as well. In earlier times, the ability to quickly make sense of the unknown and derive a favorable course of action was often the difference between life and death. Even today, in a more civilized time, learning is the ultimate survival skill.

That my parents raised 10 children on a single, modest income is a testament of their love, but it is also a demonstration of higher brain function developed as a means to get by. When the washing machine would break down, my dad would fix it, perhaps calling on some of the knowledge he gained fixing the dishwasher the week before or the car the week before that. When the first of seven girls prepared to head down the aisle, my mom made her wedding dress and the ones for those that followed. In today’s dollars, those gowns would be worth in the tens of thousands. In short, they supplemented the family income, probably a hundred-fold, by learning to do things for themselves. This is becoming a rare art.

People today are becoming more and more specialized, both in their professional and their personal lives. This has given rise to a large service industry in this country that has been a boon to our economy, but has stunted our ability to cognitively adapt. We’ve grown helpless in many ways. Not only do we have more plumbers, electricians, and mechanics, we also have professional organizers for those who lack the spatial awareness to arrange a closet or the inventory skills to make out a shopping list. Those with stunted interpersonal skills can seek out a dating service. Even such basic skills as cooking and cooking can be farmed out to someone else. As such, there’s just no incentive to grow beyond our present interests or develop new talents or proficiencies.

I attempt to expand my mind to new ideas by reading books that fall outside my normal interests and by tackling the occasional plumbing problem. But I fall short in many areas. I’ve yet to complete a tax return on my own, I’m befuddled by anything mechanical, and after many years, I still can’t play the guitar very well.

But back to those deranged teenagers, I think that it’s obvious they need guidance and direction to accompany their independence. They need to learn that if they go out and get drunk it isn’t the end of the world, but if they drive drunk it could be. They needn’t be chastised for dying their hair purple, but they should know that a tattoo is forever while Bre’anna’s love may not be. It doesn't take a neurologist to realize what's going on with teenagers, just parents who remember what it was like to be a teenager. But if you must consult a doctor for advice, consider these words from one of the wisest:

So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.