Dan,
My first reaction is to hope those NIMH researchers are wrong; I’d like to think those synapses can keep connecting in brains that are well into their 50s, at least. Otherwise, it might actually be true, as my wife and I like to joke, that the lyrics of old Kingston Trio tunes are crowding out things like our kids’ teachers’ names and the exit numbers on the Pa. Turnpike.
But I don’t want to be flip about the California shooting; that’s a tragedy of the first order for those involved. And as a parent of two soon-to-be teen-agers, it’s more than a little distressing to have to add this kind of thing to the list of potential horribles we carry around in our heads (fifth drawer on the left, just behind the Abbey Road drum solo …).
I guess one question I’d ask is whether it’s really accurate that teen-agers are getting more freedom and independence these days or less. Weren’t kids in the 19th and early 20th centuries sent out to work or given responsibility around the home much earlier than they are today? How does the “independence” of your neighbor on the skateboard stack up next to that of someone, say a century ago, who might have been at work on the farm or in the factory at 16 or younger?
I’m not there yet, so I can’t tell you quite how I’ll react when one of my kids takes off in the car for the first time, but my bias at this point is to encourage rather than discourage independence–hoping (maybe naively?) that responsibility will follow.
But I certainly agree that instability is largely a given in teen-agers and young adults. That’s why incidents like this simply underscore for me the insanity that allows guns to be so easily obtainable. It’s a stale story by now … without the gun, you’ve got a few bruised feelings. With the gun, a tragedy.
Meanwhile, did you notice Philadelphia hit the big time again this morning? The New York Times reports that there’s interest in moving the Barnes Foundation art collection–and maybe even the building itself–from suburban Merion, Pa., to Center City Philly! Would that be a coup or what? Don’t you think the Barnes is emblematic of this community–an unbelievably rich, immensely important art treasure hidden away, with a century of local feuds and dysfunctional management layered over it like cobwebs. …
Andy
