Sometime around when I was ten years old, I dreamed I was a teenager. I don't remember much (it was about fifteen years ago when this dream happened), but I remember being really frustrated at everything in life. When I'd woken up, I recall being quite surprised by it, having recalled conversations with friends at some point earlier in life about what it would be like being a teenager (or, more accurately, how "cool" it would be to be one).
Predictably, that dream turned out to be prophetic. But of course, I was far from the only one who went through the massive ups and downs during this stage. Last year, while with AmeriCorps, I listened to a brain development expert in this area speak about the teenage years, and learned that the still-developing frontal cortex is the primary culprit. I came across this online article [“http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr07/teenage.html”] about teenage psychology that could sum up all the points better than I could in a blog entry. But I will say this: the frontal cortex is directly related to judgments that teens have to make, especially while driving. The hormone-related aggression is there, but the faculties as to how to deal with it are not.
If I ever have kids, I'm probably going to make them wait until at least 17 before getting their driver's license, like my parents did for me. Maybe I could even convince them that driving is useless, or even bad for the environment, like several of my Chicago friends embraced during their late teens and early twenties (at last check, I think they all have their driver's licenses now). Even more so, I might employ a strategy of finding all my kid's "new" friend's parents, connecting with them, and swapping information with them about our kids and their possible doings, at least as a means for having a plan to safeguard them as much as we can. But I will admit, that plan is quite ambitious, so we'll have to see if it ever happens. Of course, that's if I ever have kids.