What Can Teenagers Do?

It is so common to consider teens in our society as people who do not need to be help up to high standards. We say, “kids will be kids,” and let them push aside their responsibilities. However, throughout history, teenagers have been shown to do amazing things! A boy named George was not expected to exceed, but he mastered calculus and became a major land surveyor by age 17, which was a difficult task even for the most experienced of people. I’m sure you have heard of him, as he grew up to be the first president of the United States of America, George Washington. A girl named Clara Barton used to be shy and nearly invisible. She stepped up as a young girl to aid soldiers in the American Civil War, and began teaching at 15 or 16 and later became the founder of the Red Cross. Teenagers can do big things.

I recently heard about the blog started by Alex and Brett Harris called The Rebelution which is “a teenage rebellion against low expectations.” These twin brothers were bored one summer when their dad gave them a huge stack of books to read. They ended up reading the books – having nothing better to do – and realized that they, along with their peers, have been holding themselves to very low expectations. They started a blog in August of 2005 with a challenge to their fellow teens to “create a community of young people where thinking deeply is the norm, and where achieving excellence is ‘cool.’” Only 20 days after starting their blog they were featured in the New York Daily News. Now, at 20, they are among the most widely read writers on the web and have won “Best Teen Blog” for two consecutive years. They recently published a book called Do Hard Things and on March 25 it was #5 on Amazon.com.

Now, if we know that teenagers can do amazing things, we should hold them up to high expectations. As a future teacher, I want to make sure that I provide my students with many opportunities to succeed, to think openly, and have big ideas. They can do hard things. We should continually provide them with tools they can use to succeed, as there are so many tools available online. I wonder what possibilities could be opened up for our students if they were continually told that they can do anything they put their minds to. The possibilities are endless, and I want that fact to be important in my future classrooms. Only 19 myself, the story of Alex and Brett encourages me to step out of my own comfort zone, and look for ways to make an impact on my world. We need to start a revolution in the way we think about teenagers, and hold them to high expectations. Let’s see what happens when we provide opportunities for teens to do whatever they put their minds to.

Tags: Alex, Brett, Do Hard Things, education, expectations, Harris, Rebelution, teachers