It is said that our brain is not fully formed until we reach the age of 21. As such, the reasoning of someone under that age might be somewhat skewed since he does not have all the parts necessary to make fully rational assessments. I am aware of that when I teach teenagers in school. The main subjects I teach are current events, politics, religion, civic and social studies. I personally feel a sense of mission teaching these subjects to these young souls. I suppose that I will still be alive when they vote in less than 4 years, so I want them to vote intelligently.
I want my teaching to be relevant to them so my classes involve a lot of discussions about what is going on in the world today. Hearing what they have to say teaches me a lot. And mostly, it teaches me to recognise an unseasoned immature mind. Teenagers often (notice I didn’t say always) find peace and stability in black and white extremes. Extremes are clear. Black and white reasoning keeps us safe from these complicated shades of grey. It is easy; it is simple; … but it is incomplete. It is easy to simplify issues by polarising them we are faced with a situation that is too big for us or that we don’t understand. But human relationships are not always like Algebra. They don’t become simpler just because we simplified the equation. They just become unrealistic or untrue. They sometimes require all their elements to be properly assessed. The easiest thing is to create 2 imaginary positions, “for’ and “against”, and polarise them out of any possible compromise. Isn’t compromise a sign of weakness? It is within the cocoon of these sad immature human-created imaginary situations that enmity, divorce, suicide, and even later on war between nations, emerge. There is little saying I often repeat to my students. It has become a joke and they even finish the sentence for me when i start it. It is, “When 2 people vehemently argue opposite positions, it is usually because they are both … right!” I explain to them that since there is rectitude in both argument, they hold on to it, and that peace and understanding can only come when both sides try to find the rectitude in the other’s point of view. May we, who have grown to be adults teach our children the most important path they may travel in their lives: the one that meets someone halfway!
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