My opinions, let me show you them.
Dear NPR:
Not too long ago, you treated racist tweets by teenagers as Serious News. (I understand the world does not always provide you with riveting drama to fill all twenty-four hours of dead air.) To discuss the matter, you invited a magazine editor and a child psychologist.
I have no argument with the editor's take on it, which was essentially, "See? Racism is still a thing."
But the psychologist?
He went on and on about how "shaming" these misguided, badly educated "children" was wrong, unhelpful, and unlikely to help them "grow."
"These are children," he kept saying. Innocent little cherubs, who cannot be held responsible for parroting the inanities of the parents and schools that have failed them so badly.
Look, I was a teenager not that long ago. I remember what it was like. No question, I was an idiot, and the defining characteristic of my idiocy was my ignorance of the depth and breadth of my own ignorance. I made shit choices because I was bathed in hormones and invincibility. Today I'm just shy of twenty-four, and I can already envision myself at forty, looking back on what a little twit I am now.
I also remember being a rational, moral agent with values and opinions of my own. By thirteen years old, I was getting into kitchen table arguments with my parents over ethical and political questions. All through high school, I scribbled dissent in my notebooks, especially in history class. I watched movies and TV with a critical eye. I was strongly influenced by all of these things, but I sure as fuck did not passively imbibe everything they told me to spit back up later. Neither did anyone else I knew.
I wouldn't like my youthful indiscretions to be the first thing people find when Googling me. There is much to be said for dealing mercifully with those who are young and inexperienced, and who may yet learn better.
But at seventeen years old, I was physically a grown woman capable of bearing children. Legally, I was permitted to operate a 5,000 lb hunk of metal at seventy miles per hour. I started college at seventeen; I could have taken on student loans, which could have saddled me with years of crushing debt not erasable even in bankruptcy. With my parent's permission, I could have married or joined the military.
What I am saying, NPR, is that you may want to reassess your choices in guest experts. Your child psychologist appears unable to reliably identify a child.
Many thanks,
Duckie
Not too long ago, you treated racist tweets by teenagers as Serious News. (I understand the world does not always provide you with riveting drama to fill all twenty-four hours of dead air.) To discuss the matter, you invited a magazine editor and a child psychologist.
I have no argument with the editor's take on it, which was essentially, "See? Racism is still a thing."
But the psychologist?
He went on and on about how "shaming" these misguided, badly educated "children" was wrong, unhelpful, and unlikely to help them "grow."
"These are children," he kept saying. Innocent little cherubs, who cannot be held responsible for parroting the inanities of the parents and schools that have failed them so badly.
Look, I was a teenager not that long ago. I remember what it was like. No question, I was an idiot, and the defining characteristic of my idiocy was my ignorance of the depth and breadth of my own ignorance. I made shit choices because I was bathed in hormones and invincibility. Today I'm just shy of twenty-four, and I can already envision myself at forty, looking back on what a little twit I am now.
I also remember being a rational, moral agent with values and opinions of my own. By thirteen years old, I was getting into kitchen table arguments with my parents over ethical and political questions. All through high school, I scribbled dissent in my notebooks, especially in history class. I watched movies and TV with a critical eye. I was strongly influenced by all of these things, but I sure as fuck did not passively imbibe everything they told me to spit back up later. Neither did anyone else I knew.
I wouldn't like my youthful indiscretions to be the first thing people find when Googling me. There is much to be said for dealing mercifully with those who are young and inexperienced, and who may yet learn better.
But at seventeen years old, I was physically a grown woman capable of bearing children. Legally, I was permitted to operate a 5,000 lb hunk of metal at seventy miles per hour. I started college at seventeen; I could have taken on student loans, which could have saddled me with years of crushing debt not erasable even in bankruptcy. With my parent's permission, I could have married or joined the military.
What I am saying, NPR, is that you may want to reassess your choices in guest experts. Your child psychologist appears unable to reliably identify a child.
Many thanks,
Duckie