EDU 270 Blog Post 7

Teens are commonly held to the same consequences as adults for their poor decision making skills. The fact remains that science has proven that even though teens may look fully grown to the outside observer, their brain is still very much developing. I first heard of this concept when M.A.D.D. came to ASU while I was a student there. They had simply put up a booth and had several mothers and reseaarchers talking to students on campus and I honestly wandered over there in hopes of a free pen. What I found out is that there had been research done on the brains of young adults from ages 16 to about 27 and that the parts of the brain responsible for making decisions and risk taking did not get done developing until people were 25. I was only slightly surprised as I was in my mid-thirties going to a university full of 18 to 21 year olds. On Monday afternoons I would listen to stories about my lab partners drinking, drug use, and one night stands while shaking my head in disbelief. Except I did believe them and remember back to my own drinking binges, drunk driving, and more risky behavior I'm not going to admit. I think seeing the fMRI scans solidified the crazy behavior that myself and many others have participated in during our youth. Fortunately most of us make it out of this phase relatively intact, but some do not.

For those who make really bad decisions and commit crimes, many are held to adult consequences. Legally, in the U.S., we are declared adults and responsible for ourselves at the young unripened age of 18. With half an adult brain we are released into the wide world, and it is the responsibility of the educators that have these young adults in the years just before this to attempt to instill some sense of what good decision making looks like. The first thing that this means for me as a teacher is to set the example. By making good decisions in front of my students, I am demonstrating what that looks like, as many students may not have a good role model elsewhere. I will also make sure that my students have someone to talk to about their lives that can give them some direction and some questions that they should consider before making an important decision. Having someone to guide them through the thought processes that should happen prior to making important decisions can assist teens in learning how to make better decisions. I also plan on giving the students a chance to think about their decisions before adult level consequences are put into the equation.

For those of us who have made it through this age of having a developing mind, it may not be news that young people are generally poor decision makers, but if the adults in their life help them along maybe we can have fewer binge drinking 21 year olds.