Are we growing up too fast?

I really hoped I wouldn't be spending too much thought on my inevitably disappointing senior prom after graduating high school, but this article got me reflecting. Like Tara, I was also raised to be cautious with spending, but for some reason I felt Prom was that one time when it shouldn't matter. Well you guessed it, I was sadly mistaken. I paid way too much for the dress, hair, nails, and limo only to be left by the "friend" who asked me to be his date. Like many girls I jumped on the bandwagon and went all out for the expensive and outdated high school traditions, only to realize the day after that it was a waste of time and money. On the same note, I don't think I'd feel settled today unless I had gone through with all of the time invested and money spent. I think that if I had listened to my mom's opinion from the start I'd feel a whole olt better about the outcome of many of my social high school decision, but of course a working relationship with my mother didn't start to develop until after I moved out. How expected.

As far as sexual equality in the classroom goes, this is definitely a tough aspect of teaching to cater to. I'm not really sure sometimes what teachers are looking for when they "target" certain students. Yeah sometimes you can easily label that individual a class clown or a teacher's pet, but I think the gender based targeting goes up a different alley. I'd have to say that in my experience I've gotten more attention from male teachers, but I was a more successful student in classes with female teaching them. Perhaps it was because my female teachers gave males a very different kind of attention. It was much more nurturing and patient, which filled me with the motivation to prove that I didn't need extra attention or help from them. I have a brother who was the epitome of a class clown, and generally succeeded academically in the opposite scenario as me. It's a struggle for both teachers and students to find a happy medium, because I know that personally I struggled with trying to be adult enough to have some kind of working relationship with my teachers while still trying to manage being a kid. But that's what I get for trying to grow up too fast.

The one story that really stuck out to me in the readings from Red was "Lies we have told". I don't know how accurate it is to say that everyone knows someone in high school that has gone through some kind of deep depression between the ages of 14 and 18. The sole reason this may not be true is because teenagers are too involved with themselves to notice others pain. It was scary how close this story hit home for me, so I appreciated reading someone else's way of dealing with it. Kate's case was perhaps a little more noticable for her friends and family, but it made me think about other teens who go through this and sometimes nobody will notice. I remember being taught about how to detect a potential scuicide in a teen, but depression alone is enough to drive a person crazy. I hope in the future, school take more iniciative in educating students about self esteem and depression in a more serious way. Interesting how her friend delt with Kate anyway.

Comments

Kristen said…
It's so funny that you said you felt like there wasn't a spending limit when it came to Prom! I felt the same way at the time. I spent... rather my mother spent ... $300 on a dress I have yet to wear again. I wonder if most girls feel this way when it comes to Prom, and why. It's almost like a sense of entitlement.

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