Matt Hobbs
Prof. Emerson
English
9/29/17
The Potential of Young Minds
Psychology Professor, Jeffrey Arnett describes a person in their early twenties as being in the age of exploration. He calls this age “Emerging Adulthood” and associates it with instability, self-focus, possibilities, and feeling in between. To me, young people’s lives are like a blank canvas and they could be painted any color. Robin Henig writes about the research of Arnett’s new life stage in her article called, “What Is It About 20-Somethings?.” A majority of Henig’s argument is about the labeling of this life stage. She believes if we fully understand this age period then it could help make the period an easier transition. Thomas King’s argument however, takes a whole different path. He believes we should completely change the traditional life cycle. One of the main topics he discusses are our school curriculums. King states, “If our school curriculum, the very thing that’s supposed to prepare young people for tomorrow’s world, is predetermined based on the context of yesterday- old industries, technology, and processes, then that’s a problem”(4:20). King believes we should change the ways of life because technology is rapidly changing at a much faster rate and we are getting left behind. I agree with King about changing the way our society works to cooperate with the rapidly growing technology. Instead of adding “emerging adulthood” as a life phase, society would benefit more if we changed our education system and expectations to focus on kids passions early in life.
Growing up, kids are already forced to choose between an arranged set of jobs. Every kid has their own dreams of what they want to be and as they grow up they realize they have to change that passion and settle for a realistic job. What if they didn’t have to settle though? Now, of course I am not talking about the kids whose passions are to become a space cowboy, but for example, I know I loved building things when I was little. I was always making things whether it be out of legos or lincoln logs. I never channeled that passion growing up though, and now it’s lost in the past. King states, “Year 12 is basically about memorizing content to then regurgitate back onto exam papers”(5:06). If we started to focus on what kids were actually interested in, rather than giving them a set of formulas to remember, we could help influence students by teaching them what they’re passionate about, which would lead to further innovation. Now the problem isn’t only in our education system but it’s also in family expectations, the way families see and control your future based on the parents point of view.
Shaping of the child’s future all starts from the parents. Parents are the most influential people in your life when you’re growing up. For all of this to happen we would need parents to be at ground zero for this passionate thinking. When I say “kids” I don’t just mean ages one to ten, the brains of young people are growing until they’re in their late twenties. Henig writes, “The scientists found the children’s brains were not fully matured until at least 25” (204). This quote says that people are going to be changing until they are at least 25. For this to work, young people would be constantly growing and changing their mind but that is natural. Now the hard part is telling whether their child’s passions are “good enough”. As King said, many of the jobs we have now won’t matter in the near future. He also says, “My generation and the ones following need to become job-makers, not job-takers…” (3:55). What better job could you create than one you’re passionate about? The whole point of this idea is to promote kids to study and work on whatever they choose because everyone knows when you’re doing something you’re passionate about, you will be much more productive.
My hope, in the long run, is that all of this productive thinking and all this passionate work will benefit the society as a whole. Like King said, “My generation and the ones following need to become job-makers, not job-takers, because in a rapidly changing society, it’s actually the person who’s changeable who is going to propel us forward, not the person living in yesterday’s narrative” (3:55). As I said earlier, technology is rapidly increasing, we need young thinkers to help society adapt to this great power at our hands. When we talk about innovation in today’s world I automatically think about Elon Musk, the founder, CEO, and CTO of space-x. Musk is also the CEO of Tesla, the electric car company. He is a great example of how an individual can help adapt society to new technology because he is doing all of this extremely innovative work at the age of forty six. One of his new ideas is to make an underground tunnel from Washington D.C. to New York. By doing so people would save hours getting from one prosperous city to another. These are some examples of what a young, productive, mind can do to benefit the society The question is, how do we create more thinkers like Musk? His passion is shown through his work and his success. If we had this new generation be as passionate about their work it would lead to a much more productive world.
However, there are arguments to my claim, one being brain development. A person’s brain doesn’t fully develop until you are in your late twenties and that brings up many variables in deciding what a person would want to do and be passionate about for the rest of their lives. People simply change their minds. My counterargument to that is that people change their mind about what they want to do, not what they’re truly passionate about. A common mistake young people make is thinking what they want to do in life is the same as what they’re passionate about. Growing up in a predetermined world makes it much harder. When I thought of what I wanted to be, I automatically thought of what the most successful job could be. That list included doctors, lawyers, architects, and much more. Those are much different than what I am passionate about. Ultimately, growing up I wanted, and still do, to own my own business and kind of run things. I want to bring on new ideas to the world. Now I am going to college as a business major to pursue my dreams.
Overall, not everyone stays with their dreams, and it’s hard to do when the occupations don’t interest you at all. A simple way to fix this problem is to, like King said, become job makers. Growing up knowing what you’re passionate about and having that passion drive you would increase the productivity of life. For example, if you weren’t passionate about a sport, you wouldn’t work as hard. The great athletes in today’s professional sports are passionate and it clearly shows through their hard work and dedication. If everyone was that passionate about their jobs then the whole world would be working their hardest to perform in that certain occupation.
Innovation is key in progressing our society. Without it, we are just driving on the road that the previous generation paved for us. Instead of driving that road, we should create our own path that is much more adapted to our rapidly changing society. Which is why I don’t believe they should add another life phase to the traditional life cycle. “Emerging adulthood” would still take place in the new society’s life cycle, it would just come at a younger age when the kids already have support from their families, causing less stress and a more productive outcome for young people.
