Fifth Grade Slump, Eighth Grade Cliff

If you are a regular reader of Aletheia Today, you know that I am not a fan of childhood. Children, Si! Childhood, Non! Recent studies of tweens/teens have reinforced my thinking.

For me, 1960 was a watershed year. I entered as a 12  year old (7th grade) trolling near the bottom of my class. and left at age 13 (8th grade) newly engaged in the enterprise of life.

What happened in the middle of that fateful year, I would describe as my ‘discovery of agency’. Like most children, I chafed at the impotence of childhood and literally dreamed of making an impact in the adult world. In 1960, I found my first ‘real’, if minimal, outlets.

Politics was my game. At age 9, I rang neighbors’ doorbells and asked them to vote for Ike; then I stood at a local polling station, unauthorized by any campaign, handing out election day fliers for candidates I’d barely heard of. 

In answer to your question, yes, I had some sense of how ridiculous I was…but that was not enough for me to curtail my activities. Better ridiculous than impotent! My thirst to play an adult role, to impact however slightly the course of history, was just too strong. 

1960 was the year things changed. I got appointed by the Johnson for President organization as an official ‘volunteer campaign worker’ for Boston. More impressively, I managed to get myself named co-chair of Youth for Saltonstall (a U.S. Senator) for my ward. 

Finally, I was making a mark, however trivial, on the ‘real’ (i.e. adult) world. Ok, I was an odd duck…and I knew it. But it didn’t matter. That fall, I bought time on a broadcast radio station to promote my (unsuccessful, wonder why?) campaign for Class President and I was in the audience of a controversial nighttime radio talk show. Finally!

Only much later did I discover that I was not alone. Apparently, most 8th graders yearn for adult status, respect, and real world relevance. Our greatest fear? You guessed it – being patronized by adults. 

Over the past couple of decades neuroscience has dramatically changed our understanding of the structural and functional changes in the brain during adolescence. Studies emphasize adolescents' concern with status and respect, their evolving sense of self in relation to the wider world, and their need to contribute to society, i.e. to have a purpose. 

Being told that they are ‘in training for adulthood, still at least a decade away’, is uniquely unhelpful. You’ve lived 10 – 12 years and now, just as you’re discovering your need for independence and your hunger for purpose, you’re told that you must wait another 10 – 12 years. I don’t think so! Is it any wonder that teenagers engage in risky, almost nihilistic, behavior? Put yourself in their shoes!

Wait, you have been in their shoes? Oh, yeah, I forgot! So you have… and how did you survive? Unscathed? Recall the story of Jacob in Genesis. He is forced to work 14 years for his father-in-law-to-be, Laban, before marrying the spouse of his choice and gaining full economic independence. If you were fortunate enough to be ‘churched’, I’ll bet you were outraged by this story.

Well, consider this: You are Jacob! We are all Jacob. We all face an enforced, involuntary, 12+ year incubation period between childhood and adulthood. “We are Spartacus.” Scarry!

How did we get ourselves into this pickle? Evolution has designed our bodies to mature in the 12 to 15 year old window. And for many millennia society recognized this fact. This is the window for Bas-Mitzvah and Bat-Mitzvah, it is the time of the sweat lodges. Malatesta (c. 1450 CE) entered the army as an officer at age 13, working his way up to commander-in-chief at 15. And don’t get me started on Joan of Arc. 

Today, when adolescents are untimely forced to play adult roles, the results are usually less heroic: trafficked slaves, exploited workers, child soldiers. 

In the later half of the 1960’s I lived in a community that had hit upon a unique, if imperfect, solution. The ‘children’ were infantilized through the age of 15 but on their 16th birthdays – exactly – everything changed. Yesterday, you were treated like an 8 year old; today you’re like a 24 year old.

In this subculture, you were effectively emancipated at 16. You were instantly free to drop out of school, get a permanent, full time job, rent an apartment, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, drive a car, own a gun, engage in sex, and (soon) join the army. Not all these behaviors were strictly legal, but they were the cultural norm in that enclave. It wasn’t ideal but it wasn’t a total disaster either! For better or for worse though, this system was already crumbling when I left in the early ‘70s. 

For decades much of the research on adolescence focused on its dark side. Not surprisingly, it often brings alarming increases in rates of accident, suicide, homicide, depression, alcohol and substance abuse, violence, recklessness, eating disorders, obesity and sexually transmitted disease.

But a different interpretation of adolescence is possible. Neuroscientists have shown that puberty ushers in a period of exuberant neuronal growth followed by a pruning of neural connections that is second only to the similar process that occurs in the first three years of life. 

Adult brains vary in their patterns of neural connections, whereas children's variations are much less distinctive. Differentiated patterns of connection begin in adolescence. This is when you become thee and I become me. No wonder children have an easier time making new friends than adults do. All eight-year-olds are the same; they are virtually interchangeable. But no two 88-year-olds have have anything in common.

From an evolutionary perspective, much of adolescents' behavior pushes them to leave the safety of family to explore the larger social world—a step on the way to becoming independent adults. Biblically speaking, we are all Abram, we are all Ruth, we are all Mary, we are all John. But we don’t live in Biblical times. 

Still, research shows that modern adolescents retain a need to contribute to society and that doing so makes them feel valued and can safeguard against anxiety and depression. Learning how to contribute to the social world is Job One for the adolescent. As I found, it is the time when young people first become capable of making consequential contributions. 

Unfortunately, we’re not buying what they’re selling. We cling to a vision of adolescence as a kind of unpleasant apprenticeship for adulthood. As guardians of our young people, we are concerned with their educational achievement, career preparation, etc. These are not, instinctively, the priority concerns of most teenagers. 

Are you familiar with ‘the fifth grade slump’ or ‘the eighth grade cliff’? Disengagement with education starts slowly c. age 10 with a dip in grades and participation. This often accelerates so that those same students are failing three years later.

We’re not entirely insensitive to the problem. We’ve given our teens a few secondary outlets. For example, we allow them to participate in the school play, to play sports on the school’s teams, to hold down a part-job, to volunteer in the community. 

These outlets may be helpful, they may release some steam from the pressure cooker, but do not lose sight of the fact that these are merely an extension of the childhood concept of ‘play’. These ‘make-do’ activities cannot compete with stealing a car or selling dope on the corner. They also cannot compete with more constructive achievements: a published poem, a play performed off, off, off Broadway, a movement started, a business founded, etc.

So, what to do? First, beginning by 5th grade, if not earlier, all education needs to be self-directed, managed by a tutor, assisted by a personal AI Bot. Our schools must become ‘centers of learning’--Wonder Schools. Children have questions. It’s part of their existential condition. Let them ask. See where they lead. Provide resources for kids who decide they need to learn French, or Trig, along the way…but don’t require it. Remind me, what’s a ‘secant’ anyway?

Second, we must search for ways that adolescents can make genuine marks on the world. Lord knows, as a society, we have a lot of needs and, if we’re honest, many of them can be met just fine by an empowered 15 year old. 

Call it building the City of Dioce (Ecbatan) or the Kingdom of God, tweens and teens have tons to contribute. We need to facilitate their contribution, empower them, and step aside. But first, we must surrender the notion that adolescence is a dress rehearsal for adulthood. It’s not; it’s real life!

David Cowles is the founder and editor-in-chief of Aletheia Today Magazine. He lives with his family in Massachusetts where he studies and writes about philosophy, science, theology, and scripture. He can be reached at dtc@gc3incorporated.com

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