Ironic maturity

[easyguy]

Let me tell you a little story for you to think about and to voice your opinions about in the general scheme of things.

 

Three years ago I was a junior in high school. I took two semesters of Chemistry. I think it was during my first semester that my class and another period of the same class got involved in a local community project; one that combined high school students and the voices of others outside of school.

 

There were two meetings discussing the proposal for land use which was going to transform a vacant grocery store into a skate park our neighborhood. The second meeting was at the vacant store. It included both adults from the community as well as students from the school classes. At the head of all this was (I think) the director or lead planner for the proposal.

 

Anyway, this meeting was for the community to voice their concerns, offer constructive critisism, and basically help them help us. Us high school students were part of it. But one thing that I noticed as the meeting went on was that, for the most part, we handled the meeting more maturely than a lot of the adults did. Be it yelling, rude remarks about whatever, and just acting out of line (one person got kicked out). Now, I find it sad and ironic that people more than two or three times our age showed more disrespect than a group of teenagers.

 

Maybe it is just me, but it seems like, from meeting different adults over the years (and watching local network TV meetings), there is this negative (sometimes completely unnecessary) behavior or approach that grown men and some women have developed when it comes to dealing with issues that can influence their community as a whole. I don't know whether it is ignornace, anger, or delusion... or all three, but it just boggles me that there are a lot of teenagers and young adults who handle certain situations better than someone of older age and experience in the world.

 

Just had that on my mind at the moment.

[Dako]

Good point, and I've noticed the same thing.

Some older people have a sense of entitlement.

[Heretic]

 

Anyway, this meeting was for the community to voice their concerns, offer constructive critisism, and basically help them help us. Us high school students were part of it. But one thing that I noticed as the meeting went on was that, for the most part, we handled the meeting more maturely than a lot of the adults did. Be it yelling, rude remarks about whatever, and just acting out of line (one person got kicked out). Now, I find it sad and ironic that people more than two or three times our age showed more disrespect than a group of teenagers.

 

Yeah and I know teenagers who shoot each other over $15 bucks. I think what you fail to realize is there are all types in all walks of life. You gathered together a group of students who all had certain level of maturity and then invited anyone who opposed your view to come and speak their mind. Then when people who didn't want the skate park show up to argue it you sit back and judge them.

 

If you ask me you're sounding VERY arrogant right now. Maybe you don't see it but you're generalizing and entire age group based on the actions of a handful of them. If you were acting this high and mighty at the meeting I'm not surprised people were cursing.

 

The problem most adults have with teenagers is they assume they know everything and that they always know what is best. You've acted according to those expectations. You believe you are better in some way because you handled yourself well on this occasion, I'm here to tell you, you didn't.

 

Being a mediator isn't about being right it's about understanding. It's not about finding a solution it's about discovering the problem. I can't believe you don't see that.

[Haven]

There are many possible explanations for what you observed at that meeting. You can't base a conclusion on an entire population group based upon your observations of, say, no more than 100 people. You have to consider that the people you have seen are a very, very small section of the population.

 

There's also a common fallacy -- if you believe that two variables are related, then you will find and remember more of their co-occurrences, even if the two variables are completely random. Thus, you may have seen many adults who act maturely and many teenagers who are disrespectful, but you pay attention only to the times when the adults are immature and the teenagers are respectful.

 

People often try to find relationships between completely unrelated variables. A disrespectful or immature attitude may result from a bad personality or just a bad day - not necessarily from age. I'm not sure why you felt justified in stating that "grown men and some women" have "negative behavior." If you think back to that meeting, how many adults behaved badly? Now how many *didn't* behave badly? Were there as many students as there were adults? Maybe the students who cared enough to show up were the kinds of students who respected adult authority and thus adjusted their normal behavior appropriately. Maybe the adults just had more invested in the problem, or maybe they were under more stress than the students, and thus were more prone to losing their temper. I think I'm starting to ramble, but I'm just pointing out a few of the many factors that could have contributed to what you saw at that meeting.

[Timebandit]

As for your general observation that many grown-ups has not really grown up, I can only agree. Maturity is not something that comes automatically, and some people keep acting like small whiney children all their life.

 

But that young people should be particular mature compared to older? I think not. Some are and some are not. On average young people act like what they are, ie. as young and not particular mature people.