Friday, April 1, 2011

Hard Things

The family and I went to a DVD conference called Do Hard Things (and we also purchased the book) a couple of weekends ago. The authors, twin brothers who were in their teens at the writing of their book, challenge contemporary society's low expectations of teens. According to them, society expects the teen year to be like a vacation, with very little responsibilities. They claim that young people have great potential to do significant things but are simply living up (or down) to society's standards. Examples are given from the past where it was seen that people were either children or adults, and there was no such thing as the word "teenager". I have mixed feeling about this topic. Though I do feel strongly that society holds back youth from achieving, I think it is unfair to compare perceptions from the past with today's perceptions. We have a whole different set of challenges that could not even be understood in the past. With that said, I'm glad that the youth have something like this to challenge their thinking and to hopefully help them to achieve their potential. This piece was created with brush, pen and ink.

5 comments:

Barbara B said...

I like that you responded to this with a sketch. The whole thing about taking teenagers seriously is very complicated, depending a lot on whether they are in rural or urban settings, economic class, and other factors. It's tempting to generalize. My experience of U.S. teenagers is that most can't wait to leave home as soon as they can. But in Bulgaria and in El Salvador, it's not economically feasible to leave home until a person marries. Even then it can be tough. Meanwhile the young person is doing significant chores and making a financial contribution to the family.

David R. Vallejo said...

Thanks for sharing, Barbara. That is interesting how different factors such as culture or economics can impact a sense of responsibility.

Sandra said...

The drawings summed up the teen years.

Dan Kent said...

Excellent drawing - so good. It well illustrates what you were discussing.

nanke's stuff said...

Another wonderful drawing with a thought-provoking post. nancy