It’s been some years since most of us lived under the regime of the secret laws of adolescence. Our Scouts know them pretty well and obey them most of the time. Here’s one section Scouters should review: SECTION I TALKING TO ADULTS 1. ATTENTION SPAN a. Maximum attention span of three minutes, no minimum attention span required. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ASKED BY ADULTS a. Reaction and “answers” (in order of precedence)...
Scoutmasters see a lot of adolescent angst in our role as Scouters and parents. We need all the help we can get You may recall the episode of the original Star Trek series entitled ‘Amok Time’. It occurs to me that the story line has interesting parallels to how boys experience adolescence. Spock’s behavior has become irrational and inexplicably emotional. He reveals to Captain Kirk that he must return to Vulcan and initially refuses to explain why....
Angst, German for fear or anxiety, is used In English when we speak of intense emotional strife. Wikipedia says; ‘The word Angst has existed since the 8th century, coming from the base-Indoeuropean *anghu-, “restraint” from which Old High German angust develops. It is pre-cognate with the Latin angustia, “tensity, tightness” and angor, “choking, clogging”; compare to the Greek “άγχος” (ankhos): stress.’ Our Scouts come to us just as they enter the age of intense personal change and discovery we call adolescence....
For most of us adolescence is a difficult, chaotic and confusing process. Whether we are going through it ourselves or watching it unfold in others relatively new research on adolescent brain growth sheds light on an otherwise mysterious set of circumstances. It is now understood that our brains undergo significant physical changes in adolescence that may have some bearing on the way we behave and develop. The Frontline documentary Inside the Teenage Brain is a concise and useful resource that presents the science of adolescent brain development and some practical direction for those working or living with teens....