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Youth in America Thomas Hine in his book The Rise and Fall of The American Teenager in retrospective describes the evolution of teenagers in the American society from the Colonial days till the present time. Thomas Hine sates that though the term teenager first appeared during the World War II, the phenomenon itself was not new. The author pictures American teenagers, describes the questionable and difficult behavior that is associated with this age, analyses the reasons of such behavior and methods of observing and correcting this behavior. The author also points out that such behavior is inevitable and very often becomes the unfortunate result of society's tendency to dismiss adolescence as an irrelevant period between childhood and adulthood. The phenomenon of adolescences or teenagers is the essential part of physical and emotional development of the person which indicates the stage between childhood and adulthood and characterized by unique physical and emotional state of a person.
This stage of development of a person has not been acknowledged by society until the twentieth century. In the run of history such inattentiveness brought many reactions from the youth and sometimes resulted in change of the course of the history. Teenagers played a great part in the development of the society and greatly contributed into the American Revolution and the history of the United States. In the middle of the eighteenth century in the days of colonialism children were dependant upon their parents and the majority of children worked. Child labor was not a social horror but a simple fact of life. (Hine, p. 30) Young people in their teens were integrated into everyday work, they had to provide for their families and contribute to their welfare. The families, in turn, strongly relied on the financial and economic input from their younger members.
This period of dependence ended only after marriage and young people were considered adults ready for marriage at the age of fifteen, and at that time marriage for youth was the only possible escape from the dependency upon their families and adults. The author offers the demographic statistics: before the American Revolution half of the American population was under sixteen, they were considered adults, had adult jobs and supported their parents or their own families. Thomas Hine also indicates that in 1834 Alexis de Tocqueville insisted that there were no adolescence in the early years of the American society. At that time very small number of young people attended academies and they also had to fit their studies between long hours of work. It is evident that youth could not overlook such treatment and was gradually preparing for reaction. Looking from todays perspective at the American colonial society before the American Revolution helps to understand the presence of severe tension in the society.
According to the statistics half of the society consisted of young people less than twenty years old who strongly depended on another half of the population. The first half in its turn subdivided into two groups: the bigger group of uneducated young people and the smaller group of educated young people. Young people who were simple workers could not distinctly formulate their demands, but here they were joined by the group of educated young people. "Young people are exposed to all the violence and economic insecurity of society at large, but, unlike their predecessors, have few avenues for bearing real responsibility to improve their situation. " As always, the game has changed. The reigns are getting tighter and kids are reacting the only way they can: Ferociously. (Hine, p. 216) Having the chance to live in the eighteenth century, the era of global revolutions and reformations, those young people for the academies were true children of their epoch. The contrast between the teaching of outstanding philosophers and unfair reality bothered their minds.
Both graduates and still students aspired for action. In 1760 s at Yale, Harvard and other academies students imbibed the Spirit of the times and inspired youth of all American colonies to join the rest of the young nation in fight for their ideals and liberties. Young people wanted to realize their philosophical, political and social ideals, as well as change the surrounding reality according to the ideals they learned from their teachers, from their books, modern philosophers of the eighteenth century and they seized other opportunities to prove themselves as academic adepts and skillful politicians. The educated men proved natural leaders and easily found support among the bigger number of simple workers, who were also dissatisfied with the state of things.
The American Revolution was fought for the ideals of young generation and primary by young generation. Thomas Hine gives the example of the Boston Massacre as one of the earliest events of youthful political actions. Later in the eve of American Revolution young people with pride gathered into village militias and acted as the symbols of new era and integrated their ideas into the life of adults through the Church, government and society. Thomas Hine proves that the actions of teenagers of any century rarely become results of hormones and unique physical state. Any action or reaction is the result of expectations turned on any separate individual or the whole generation, the result of emotional, educational or financial resources spent for modeling their future role in the society. Throughout the history, generations of young people have stood at the forefront of social changes, they took the risks, learned how to survive and thrive in the times.
Different tactics bring different result and the result of the attitude towards youth in eighteenth century, the tactic of neglecting their age and demands became the American Revolution, which was fought by youth for the ideals of youth. On the examples of teenage influence on the history Thomas Hine in his book The Rise and Fall of The American Teenager calls for remodeling of the contemporary education and finding the balance between treatment of teenagers as equal and at the same time not forgetting that they are yet to be prepared to meet the demands of the adult world. Bibliography Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. Prentice Hall, 2000.
Hine, Thomas. The Rise & Fall of the American Teenager. New York: Avon, 1999 Schneider, Barbara and Stevenson, David. The Ambitious Generation: America's Teenagers, Motivated but Directionless. Yale University Press, 1999.
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