Greetings GreenMount Community,
Recently,
Ms. Tonette shared with me a Wall StreetJournal article entitled, “What’s Wrong with the Teenage Mind?” This article interested me for many
reasons. First, we now have a much
better understanding of how students learn as a result of brain research that
has been done over the last decade or so.
The article also described how the adolescent brain is caught in a
struggle between the emotional center of the brain (the amygdala) and the area
of the brain where decisions are made (the frontal cortex). Unfortunately, for most young people, the
amygdala has greater control of the brain and wins most struggles with logic
and common sense. This tiny, ancient
center originated as the “survival” center and later became our center of those
things that bring us pleasure and satisfaction. Combining the prehistoric survival
instinct with the need to have fun, impress others, and win friends usually
results in actions that even the teenager doesn’t understand. It might even be that decisions that result
in parents saying, “What was he thinking?” are made without thought and are
simply a result of a revved-up amygdala locked in a “survival” mode.
The article compared a teenage
brain to a car, saying that adolescents acquire an accelerator long before they
can steer or brake. Teens also often overestimate
rewards and underestimate risks. Even
scarier in this scenario is the early exposure to drugs and alcohol during the
teenage years. We know that about 15% of
our population has a predisposition to addiction to drugs (alcohol is a
drug). During those years when our
amygdala is producing a lot of dopamine (the chemical in the brain from which
we realize pleasure and satisfaction), it is easy for that 15% to become
addicted as the drug replaces the dopamine and
the instinct for survival instead revolves around getting drugs. Then the decision-making process is totally
out of whack, and decisions that are made can have terrible consequences.
As I read the article, I thought
about our kids in grades 4-8 and some of the struggles they will, and are,
encountering as they try to figure out who they are and how they fit in. Sometimes, the banter I hear outside my
office is totally amusing. Some of the
things that they say to one another are hilarious but often don’t make much
sense, and I often find myself also wondering, “What are they thinking?”
But we have great kids here at
GreenMount as well as involved parents who are successfully shepherding them
through their stages of development. And
if you take anything away from today’s message, I hope it is that you will
continue to be vigilant and never give up on your parenting skills. We can do little to change brain chemistry,
but we can provide an environment where decisions are discussed and reflection
is a natural part of our children’s lives.
It’s a learning process. And in that process…
“Win small, win early, win often.” Gary Hamel
Cheers,
Steve
