ISSN 1089-5701

Volume 8 Number 3 Fall 1999

• Table of contents
• Lead article: To Reclaim or Discard? - Larry K. Brendtro and Scott J. Larson

To Reclaim or Discard?

Larry K. Brendtro and Scott J. Larson

The centennial of the juvenile court comes as the United States is locking up more youth than any nation of the world. Citizens are searching for answers about why, even in communities of privilege, so many youth are alienated and angry and are rejecting adult values. The editors introduce this special issue by looking at the challenges of giving our youth the values and relationships that will enable them to find purpose and meaning in their lives.

When the young generation is inspired with teeing of having great acts to do, a new century begins.
- Ellen Key, 1909

The 20th century opened with a spirit of great optimism about the future of youth. Many sociologists and psychologists predicted that science and technology were about to create "The Century of the Child." But the 1900s would end with a rash of youth violence and school shootings that threatened children of poverty and of privilege.

In earlier times, wayward youth were given the same harsh penalties as adults -they were locked away in prisons or poorhouses, or even executed. In 1899, a group of remarkable Midwestern women working with the Chicago Bar Association created the world's first juvenile court. From its inception, the goal of the juvenile court was to salvage rather than discard our most needy and troubled children. No one would have predicted that a century later, hundreds of thousands of children would be incarcerated. Amidst a furious debate about what went wrong, adults all over the world are about to enter the 21st century fearing for the future of their children.

Segregating Youth From Elders
Throughout most of our history, humans have lived in small, intimate, cross-generational communities. Survival demanded that everyone in the village, even small children, contribute. Older youth took responsibility for their younger siblings, and everyone shared in the work of the family or tribe. Cultural values were passed from elders to the young through natural interactions during work, sports, and ceremonies, and at school. The transition from childhood to adulthood was seamless as young people were "apprenticed" into the adult world of responsibility and work.

From the time of the Industrial Revolution on, children and adults have been increasingly segregated from each other. Work was removed from the home. Compulsory education formalized learning. Schools designed like large factories separated youth by age and diluted the bonds between student and teacher.

As informal childrearing systems declined, formal youth organizations emerged. Scouting, sports, and an array of youth programs replaced the natural relationships that had transferred values in tribal cultures. Teaching and youth work were specialized, and adults related to youth in narrow, professional roles. The juvenile court emerged as a "substitute parental force" when families did not provide children with protection or corrective guidance.

Today, the majority of young people do not have to struggle for basic sustenance, and "chores" have replaced real work. Although many teens hold jobs, they often use their considerable earnings to subsidize consumptive lifestyles. Many youth spend less time with caring adults and more with their peers. Most youth are well aware of their unimportance and devalued status in the community.

The Invention of Adolescence
Psychologist G. Stanley Hall (1904) is widely credited with creating the concept of "adolescence." He popularized the Freudian notion that sexual stimulation was the most powerful factor in the development of a young person. His early psychological writings display a pessimistic view of the adolescent experience: "Every step of the upward way is strewn with wreckage of body, mind, and morals. There is not only arrest, but perversion, at every stage, and hoodlumism, juvenile crime, and secret vice" (p. xiv). Sigmund Freud described adolescence as a kind of stress disorder triggered by sexual urges, and Anna Freud stated that normality during adolescence was itself an abnormal state of affairs.

Although elders in every generation are critical of their offspring, youth bashing reached its worst height in what was supposed to be the century of the child. In 1966, Fritz Redl would declare that the United States was an "underdeveloped country" because of its hypocritical philosophy of "love of kids, neglect of children, hatred of youth" (p. 4). He called for a shift in focus toward recognizing the strengths of youth, contending that even children considered to be delinquent have virtues that can be nurtured and developed.

At century's end, Males (1996), a social ecologist, carefully documented what he called "America's war on adolescents." He described how schools, churches, and courts tended to devalue and disrespect teens and then rail about their lack of responsibility. He decried the hypocrisy of adults who modeled and marketed violence, sexual promiscuity, and drug abuse and then purported to be shocked at these behaviors in youth.

If children do not learn from elders, a civilization can founder in one generation. But the values and knowledge of a culture can only be transmitted from elders to the young within a climate of mutual respect. In the words of the ancient teacher Confucius, "A youth must be respected. How do you know that his future may not exceed your present?"

Nurtured By a Youth Subculture
With the diminished influence of extended families, churches, and neighborhoods, great stress has been placed on the isolated nuclear family. This is not just a problem for disadvantaged or single-parent families. Rampant materialism may be the most serious new threat to children. As Ellen Key warned a century ago, parents who direct their whole energy toward attainment of wealth have children who are as degenerate as if they had been addicted to alcohol or opium.

This may be the first generation that is growing up without the oversight of adults. Without adult attachments, bonds to peers are stronger than in cultures where families still raise their kids; however, when the primary source of values comes from the youth subculture, our children are left without a moral compass. Into this "values void" moves the entertainment industry to provide "maps" for lifestyles - albeit questionable ones - that many kids aren't getting from home, schools, and churches.

The relationship between youth and the media is symbiotic. The media need the billions of dollars young people spend on entertainment, and kids in turn are looking to the media for nurturance and guidance. For example, a 16year-old youth described his attachment to music in this way:
If you relate to these people, the music they sing will have a greater effect on you. I have listened to their music for the last few years, and it seems like they are singing about me and the situations in my life. I know a lot of kids who use music as a counselor or therapist. Some music has a negative effect, like songs about killing your mom, killing your dad, killing God, and eventually killing yourself. But some songs are about how to make it through life even if you were dealt a bad hand. My favorite musician is Jonathan Davis, who is lead singer in the band known as KoRn. As a young kid he grew up abused and neglected and is now trying to make something out of his life. These people affect my life a lot. It shows me that even though I didn't grow up the best way, I can still make my life into something.