Tid bits

High schools were originally designed for
the most privileged sector of the population.
Even now they tend to serve well only that
half of the high school population that goes on
to college. Non-college-bound students often
tell me they feel like second-classc itizens, not
really of interest to the school. And in recent
decades a high school degree has lost considerable
value as a ticket to a stable job. Even
partial college work confers fewer advantages
than in the past. Because of these and other
trends, researcher Laurence Steinberg claims,
adolescence" has become a social and economic
holding period" (1992,30).
Parents are expected to do the holding. In
1968, two researchers commented that most
teen-parent conflicts stemmed from the fact
that "readiness for adulthood comes about
two years later than the adolescent claims and
about two years beforeth e parent will admit"
(Stone and Church \968, 447; emphasis
added). There is some evidence that the level
of miscalculation has widened for both parents
and kids.
From the point of view of parents, it is
more necessary than ever for kids to stay in
school rather than seek full-time work, and to
How History and Sociology Can Help Today's Families 9
delay marriage or pregnancy. After all, the age
at which youths can support themselves, let
alone a family, has reached a new high in the
past two decades. From the kids' point of
view, thougfu this waiting period seems almost
unbearable. They not only know a lot
more than their folks about modern technology
but they feel that they also know more
about the facts of life than yesterday's teens.
Understandably, they strain at the leash.
(The Way We Really Are, Coontz, Stephanie, 1997)

It's just interesting to see how the generations differ, and to think about just what is changing the world as we see it.