Thinking back...
All this (very warranted) bruhaha over the Pensic 39 ruling about teenages not being able to attend A&S classes without a parent/parent-designated adult has got me steaming. Teens and children are NOT the same thing. I've taught both middle and high school - I've SEEN the transition in action (and no, it does not magically happen the day someone turns 13).
So, I've been thinking about the adults I had in my life as a teenager; what relationships I had that helped make me the person I am today.
Resoundingly, the adults who made a difference in my life were the ones that treated me with respect. Note, I do NOT say like an adult, since I wasn't one - I was in that limnal space, needing scaffolding, not handholding.
Teens can't attend Pensic without a parent or legal guardian, and have an 11 PM curfew. Beyond that, I trust parents to parent; to know their own children, and to work with them to set appropriate limits on behaviour. If they fail in this, security can be called in, and lend a firm hand. Other than that, they can (or at least could, before this) learn from adults in a very large community environment. Sure, it isn't perfectly safe - nothing ever is, nor would we want it to be, if we expect teens to eventually turn into functional adults, able to handle what life throws at them. Teens need supports, not cages.
Anyway, I just thought I'd take a minute to name some of the folks who were mentors for me - letting me learn how to be an adult from both their company and their example:
Wynelle Hummel, my Girl Scout leader, who *always* told me the straight scoop, and who allowed me to gradutate to being her peer as soon as I got my Gold Award.
Richard Howick, biology teacher extraordinaire, who taught me how to learn, and always made me feel like my questions were really worth answering.
The Harvard Graduate School of Divinity's seminary students assigned to my parish, who were always female, and taught me that questioning and faith were not mutually exclusive. They shared their lives and decisions with me, and gave me a view into their adulthoods in ways that no one else ever had.
The Office of Residencial Life at RISD; several folks whose names escape me who made my first time living away from home into a coming home, not a leaving it. My ability to continually create my adult self is the best thing I learned there.
Charles Miller, late poet, mentor and friend, who looked at what I wrote first, and who wrote it second. He valued my writing before I did, and showed it to me anew.
The staff at Perkin's School for the Blind, in Watertown, Mass, who read the resume that I wrote for them at age thirteen, and gave ME the ability to mentor my deaf/blind peers in a first of its kind program there. I was their youngest regular volunteer ever, and worked in a role that was usually a paid position. They saw what I could do first, and the fact that I was a young teen as an advantage to work with, not something to be avoided.
And the sum of all of this? I continued to volunteer for the Patriot Trail Girl Scout Council until I moved away. I have ministered to a community here in Vermont for over ten years. I taught high school biology until after I had my kids. I still write, and I still sign, and I've taught both, too.
Best of all? I've been honored by my past students of all sorts coming up to me years later and thanking me for the role I've played in their lives.
This ruling is not just stupid and counter-productive - it is a WASTE.
So, I've been thinking about the adults I had in my life as a teenager; what relationships I had that helped make me the person I am today.
Resoundingly, the adults who made a difference in my life were the ones that treated me with respect. Note, I do NOT say like an adult, since I wasn't one - I was in that limnal space, needing scaffolding, not handholding.
Teens can't attend Pensic without a parent or legal guardian, and have an 11 PM curfew. Beyond that, I trust parents to parent; to know their own children, and to work with them to set appropriate limits on behaviour. If they fail in this, security can be called in, and lend a firm hand. Other than that, they can (or at least could, before this) learn from adults in a very large community environment. Sure, it isn't perfectly safe - nothing ever is, nor would we want it to be, if we expect teens to eventually turn into functional adults, able to handle what life throws at them. Teens need supports, not cages.
Anyway, I just thought I'd take a minute to name some of the folks who were mentors for me - letting me learn how to be an adult from both their company and their example:
Wynelle Hummel, my Girl Scout leader, who *always* told me the straight scoop, and who allowed me to gradutate to being her peer as soon as I got my Gold Award.
Richard Howick, biology teacher extraordinaire, who taught me how to learn, and always made me feel like my questions were really worth answering.
The Harvard Graduate School of Divinity's seminary students assigned to my parish, who were always female, and taught me that questioning and faith were not mutually exclusive. They shared their lives and decisions with me, and gave me a view into their adulthoods in ways that no one else ever had.
The Office of Residencial Life at RISD; several folks whose names escape me who made my first time living away from home into a coming home, not a leaving it. My ability to continually create my adult self is the best thing I learned there.
Charles Miller, late poet, mentor and friend, who looked at what I wrote first, and who wrote it second. He valued my writing before I did, and showed it to me anew.
The staff at Perkin's School for the Blind, in Watertown, Mass, who read the resume that I wrote for them at age thirteen, and gave ME the ability to mentor my deaf/blind peers in a first of its kind program there. I was their youngest regular volunteer ever, and worked in a role that was usually a paid position. They saw what I could do first, and the fact that I was a young teen as an advantage to work with, not something to be avoided.
And the sum of all of this? I continued to volunteer for the Patriot Trail Girl Scout Council until I moved away. I have ministered to a community here in Vermont for over ten years. I taught high school biology until after I had my kids. I still write, and I still sign, and I've taught both, too.
Best of all? I've been honored by my past students of all sorts coming up to me years later and thanking me for the role I've played in their lives.
This ruling is not just stupid and counter-productive - it is a WASTE.