In Age of Opportunity (Houghton Mifflin, 2014), Temple University psychology professor Laurence Steinberg makes it clear he isn't pulling any punches. Take his opening sentence: "When a country's adolescents trail much of the world on measures of school achievement, but are among the world leaders in violence, unwanted pregnancy, STDs, abortion, binge drinking, marijuana use, obesity, and unhappiness, it is time to admit that something is wrong with the way that country is raising its young people."
Our confusion about how we collectively raise our children is evident in what we let them do and not do. As Steinberg points out, we try 12-year-olds who commit serious crimes as adults because they are old enough to "know better," but we tell 20-year-olds they can't buy alcohol because they are not mature enough. We let 16-year-olds drive cars (about the most dangerous thing they can do, ever) but not let them watch an R-rated movie, which Steinberg notes is "an innocuous activity if there ever was one."
Steinberg asks: How did we get so confounded about adolescence? Why are our kids less healthy than they once were? Why are mental health issues at an all-time high? Why is our academic performance mediocre while our dropout rate has soared? And what can we do about it all?
Steinberg wants us to respond by putting more weight on objective, scientific evidence than on anecdote. His goal in Age of Opportunity is to "start, stimulate, and inform a national conversation, grounded in the latest science, about how to improve the well-being of American adolescents."
For educators, Sternberg says, this means a heightened understanding of social-emotional development, a commitment to academic excellence, a re-evaluation of all those ineffective programs on safe sex and preventing alcohol and drug use (not to mention abuse), a better understanding of the impact on health and environmental issues, as well as a concerted effort to help kids develop greater self-control.
What is perhaps most compelling about the book is Steinberg's steady belief that, given all the brain research today, that adolescence is, indeed, an age of immense opportunity - if we can just straighten out the adult role in guiding and teaching our children well. - Michael Brosnan
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