Preparing Teens to Face Future Challenges - Report Example

PREPARING TEENS TO FACE FUTURE CHALLENGES Collegiate Level Reasoning and Problem Solving Outline PREPARING TEENS TO FACE FUTURE CHALLENGES Outline Introduction The question addressed is: “How to prepare the teens to face future challenges?” There are many answers which this question invites. Teenage is the most sensitive period in a human being’s life and thus proper care and guidance are utmost necessary for this period. Any damage occurred during this time may hamper their whole life. So the main thing is to teach them to think logically about all the movements they make. We shall also focus on the recent trend of home schooling and the various sides of this alternative schooling system. Problematic Factors (a) Inquisitiveness in the teenage helps them to learn many things. But this also leads them to experiment with new things that may make their life difficult. They are becoming prey to various intoxicating substances that tell upon their nervous systems making them unable to have a stable and healthy future. (b) Involvement in various gangs is a common tendency is seen in this age. Some gangs can lead them to wrong ways of life. Violence and sex are the two main disorders in most of the gangs. Other than this some of the gangs are also associated with drugs dealing businesses which may make a teenager boy or girl trapped in the illegal world. (c) Internet with its all advent has lucrative aspects (like pornography) which may show them a wrong way of lifestyle. Students are becoming addicted to these stuffs that are hampering their thinking faculty a lot. A future without innovation and personality is futile. (d) Intoxication and addiction are the two lucrative things which may draw their attention and thus doom their future prospects forever. They take toll on both body and mind of the young generation and by the time they reach a matured age, they become useless in the society or even worse than that. (e) Media exposes a glamorous world which may distract them from thinking logically for their future. Advertisements, movies – all of them produce a world that is only about perfect size and shape of body. Today’s teenagers are not going through any logical or intellectual exercises which can nourish their thinking process. (f) Problems in their families may put them in mental stress. The number of domestic violence in families is ever increasing and no one thinks what happens in the children’s mind. Disturbance in relationship between their parents has the worst effect on their mind. Parents are the people whom they trust and now with all those violence they lose faith on everything. (g) Depression problems leading to suicide. Domestic violence and many other problems are continuously disturbing the children’s mind. They feel helpless and lonely. During these turbulent times they may even take the decisions to commit suicides. (h) Having unprotected sex leads them to suffer from STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) and unwanted pregnancy. In the United States of America, early and unwanted pregnancy has become a major social issue today. Uncertainties and Ambiguities (a) Teenage pregnancy is one of the biggest causes of the uncertainties. Teenage girls lose control on themselves in the first days when they come into contact with the free environment of the schools and colleges and get the ample chance to meet the opposite sex. (b) Mingling in the society is important and there is no second opinion about it. Still we cannot deny the ambiguity of the future consequences if a teenager mingles with a bad company. It is never possible to keep an eye on his or her for 24 hours. Other Factors (a) Home schooling using Internet has become one of the main systems of education in this present century. According to the popular belief this is stopping the teenagers from having a social life which they used to have in proper schools and finally they are facing problems in mingling with others in the colleges or universities. (b) Most of the parents are busy with their own works and they do not get enough time to spend with their children. This is also becoming a huge problem for the future. Teenagers are devoid of family feelings when they grow up in such nuclear families. (c) Most of the teenagers live their life in a Utopian world which does not match at all with the reality as we find outside. This is why they are not prepared for the harsh outside world. Even the traditional education system gives them no idea of how the actual world is moving. The Aspects on Which Teenagers Need Training (a) Today’s teenagers are becoming irresponsible. This is why the first training should involve a process in which they will learn how to take care for the others in their families or in the institution they go learn. They should be made feel for their parents and other loving members in the families. Parents should try to give them proper time and mingle with them like friends. (b) Home schooling system has many of the positive sides. This is because of the fact that in a home schooling system the student does not get the chance to meet the bullies and cannot get involved in the gang-acts. This also saves him or her from becoming addicted to drugs. (c) In a home schooling system, too, the student can maintain a perfect social life. There are discussion groups, clubs, and other activities. They can even take part in the musical programs as well as in sports, too. So as an alternative schooling system the home-schooling system is unparalleled. (d) Parents should mingle with their children like friends. As sexual life is a big question mark for the teenagers, it is their parents’ duty to make them aware of the dangers they may have to face for experimenting unsafe. No social taboo should limit the parents from talking to their children freely. A daughter should be guided by her mother whereas the son should be informed about it by his father. (e) Teenagers should be trained in a restrained and disciplined lifestyle. This will not let them indulge too much into all the addiction and intoxicating matters. They should be made aware of the risks that run in those fields and given proper examples to wake fear in them. This is why a healthy environment in the homes is also necessary. A teenager should not see his/her father coming home let with drunken feet. (f) The home schooling system can have good teachers as the real schools do. It is entirely the teachers’ responsibility to raise the interest in the students’ mind towards the subject. English, mathematics - these should not be taken as different subjects. In a home schooling system, too the teachers have to teach the students how to fall in love with education. Once the teenagers can get the essence of it, they will never concentrate on the other lucrative aspects of life. (g) The alternative schooling system can have proper guidance from the teacher about how to deal with real life. So there can be no difference between the traditional schooling system and home schooling system. We have got some of the most famous people who got home schooling during their teenage. Among them the mentionable ones are Charlie Chaplin, Wright Brothers, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill and so on. Solutions Solution 1: Home schooling is the answer to many questions and it can help to keep the teenager safe and become able to face the future. Drawbacks: 1. Teenager may get distanced from the social life. 2. Authenticity of the home schooling system should be judged. Otherwise major problems may set in. Solution 2: Parents of the teenagers have to be more careful about their children and mix with them in a perfect friendly behavior. Drawbacks: 1. Parents may get over possessive about their children. 2. Filling up the generation gap is not an easy task. Conclusion To get a permanent solution to all the problems the alternative idea of home schooling is the best idea. In this system the student can spend enough time with their parents and they can also utilize the opportunity of preparing them for the future. Today’s teenagers are smart enough to socialize even if they meet others in a virtual world. So, most of the common wrong notions can easily be refuted. The alternative schooling system is quite as stronger as the traditional system and added to that, there are no disturbances which are faced by the teenagers in the outside world. 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