Adolescence is a Cultural Phenomenon

On Saturday, October 6th, there were two awesome conferences. One was a Women and Teen's conference at Hope Center with Laura Kaczor, I heard it was an amazing day! I can only tell you second hand though. The second conference was the one I was at which was a Bay Area Youth Forum in San Raphael with Youth Ministry expert Mark Oestreicher. Awesome, awesome stuff.

Here's a little of what he had to say:
"Adolescence is a cultural phenomenon." Meaning: it doesn't have to exist, it is not a right, it is not necessarily natural.

Timeline of Adolescence:

Year                       Age range                           Length of adolescence

1904                       14 ½ - 16                               18  months long

1970                       13-18                                     5-6 years

*why? Food, globalization different diet, physiological changes

*Mandatory law to secondary education

*Isolated from adults with peers

Average contact with adult world?

Markers graduated high school and turn 18, expect responsibility

2012                       10 ½ - 30?                            20 years (a quarter of a lifetime)

*fat and weight allows kids to go into early puberty

Adolescence no longer accurate, now descriptions of different “stages”. Breakdown of adolescence:

10 ½ - 14               Early adolescence

15 – 20                  Mid adolescence

21-30                     Emerging adult *That means I'm not an adult yet, protect your children!*

*no agreement on markers of adult

*extended adolescence syndrome

“remove natural consequences, protect them, keep them safe, 20’s called teens, 20’s called children”

So that's the problem, what are the solutions? Well let's meet up and talk about it. If you are ever interested in talking about this material, or just want to meet up - I would love to! Let's talk about how to make Lighthouse even better for your student, let's talk about how parenting is going, let's talk about how the Giants and Niners are going all the way! Shoot me an email and we can work out a time.

We still are doing Off Campus Lighthouse this week, please have your teen contact their small group leader to find out when and where they are meeting.

Paul / paul@hopecenter.cc