One of the biggest double standards of society today is the way in which many adults refuse to listen to the ideas and opinions of teens. So often teenagers are thrown into generalized categories such as “immature,” “ignorant,” and “foolish,” and meanwhile the standard of intelligence expected from us by the very same adults who think so little of us only goes up and up.
One of the biggest double standards of society today is the way in which many adults refuse to listen to the ideas and opinions of teens. So often teenagers are thrown into generalized categories such as “immature,” “ignorant,” and “foolish,” and meanwhile the standard of intelligence expected from us by the very same adults who think so little of us only goes up and up.
Teen voices are routinely silenced in our society, and it comes from all sides—school, home, work, and even in the activities we participate in outside of these. Teenagers are the next generation who will be running the world some day, so it makes no logical sense to suppress and question our rights to discuss the issues facing society today.
This mentality arises from the concept that age is directly proportional to one’s wisdom, intelligence, and the level respect they deserve, a concept so rot with logical fallacy that it should be utterly wiped from the mindset of American society. However, the ones who are pushing this mentality are the adult generations who expect us teens to kowtow to their authority with little more foundation than their age.
We are taught in school that we are the future and that we will one day have to make decisions for the next generations. This however is wrong. We as teens are not the future, we are the present. We are right here, right now. And we are upset at the way our world is being run.
Previous generations have hurdled our country into debt, crippled our economy, and seem to simply shrug their shoulders saying “Well the debt will only affect those who are young.” And while my generation faces the real possibility of another global depression, those who have the power to make a difference are not concerned with our opinions and ideas for change.
We are expected to simply accept the glares and snide comments shot at us when we discuss relevant political topics such as abortion, marriage equality, and the economy during our morning coffee runs. We are expected to sit quietly and nod when our teachers say things like “I have a masters degree, so I know what is best for you and your education.” We are expected to be silent and agree when our parents laugh at our political ideologies and brush our opinions off saying “you will see the truth when you are older.”
Teens should no longer have to endure this degrading and offensive oppression of our opinions and ideas. It is time for the generations of the past to start listening to the generations of the present, and stop this selfish brand of ignorance that has plagued their mindset for so long.
