This blogger has given immaturity quite a bit
of emphasis in this blog and in his book, From Immaturity to Polarized
Politics.[1] His approach has primarily been from a social
perspective – the nurturing part. But
there is another approach, the physical perspective – the nature part. Ten years ago, an edited book of readings, Thinking,
was published – a set of articles edited by John Brockman. One of the articles, “The Adolescent Brain,” was
written by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore with assistance from Simon Baron-Cohen.[2] A review of its offering would be helpful to
the efforts of this blog.
That
is to share with readers an approach to civics education and any information, findings,
data, theorizing, or even arguments that shed light on how adolescents think is
useful in applying or criticizing what this blog promotes. This citied article adds to the sources this
blog has cited in the past. It focuses
on the physical side of the analysis of why young people relate to the social
aspects of civics as they actually or might be able to do.
This would be particularly important if one
were to adopt a liberated federalist view – what this blog promotes – in guiding
the content and instructional processes a teacher employs in teaching civic
lessons. The reason is that liberated
federalism is highly dependent on having students consider and even participate
in “citizenry” activities that address the challenges the polity is facing –
for example, poverty, racism, from a safe position, crime, and other challenges.
In a summary statement within the article, Blakemore
states:
There’s
something special about the period of adolescence, where adolescents are driven
towards peers and away from their parents.
They’re driven to develop a sense of self and self-identity, and
especially a sense of who they are, how they’re seen by other people, in
particular their peers. It’s time where
there’s probably an increased drive to take risks, so from the evolutionary
point of view to sort of move away from the relative security of your family
and your parents, and take risks by discovering things for yourself in the
outside world.[3]
A recurring challenge that is very entailed
with this emerging independence is one’s political standing not only in terms
of the formal government, but of the various social arrangements one encounters
in the real world, as varied as it is.
There’s the workplace, and the various service
rendering locations – medical, educational, religious, etc. – and other social
arrangements. In each, a politics is
practiced as one vies with and against others for resources or other wanted objects
or considerations. Politics enters any
social interaction where limited desired goods and serves are distributed, and
who gets them is a political decision.
The famous definition of politics is offered by
Harold Lasswell: Who gets what, when,
and how. [4]
Upon reflection, as one realizes that
that is what politics is, one is assisted by recognizing that it is ubiquitous. And further, if adolescence is what the above
quote says it is, then young people are constantly being exposed to new
political situations which can be a constant flow of opportunities or
frustrations or, more likely, a good dose of both.
In an introduction to the article, Baron-Cohen
writes that from studies such as MRIs, certain findings can be stated. For example,
Given that the sex steroid hormones are
produced in higher quantities during this period, her [Blakemore’s] research
opens up interesting questions about whether the changes in the brain are
driven by the endocrine system, or by changing social experience, or an
interaction of these factors.[5]
And
is this period important in other ways?
Blakemore cites two other issues.
One, most adult disorders or mental problems begin during a young
person’s teenage years. A prime example
is the onset of schizophrenia; it is during those years when the voices in the
mind begin to be “heard” by victims of that malady. Two, after accidents, probably a by-product
of risk-taking, suicide is the leading cause of death among adolescents. Again, risk taking is a factor but probably the
more pronounced reason is socially based.
In
young people’s need to separate from their parents to a certain degree, their
friends and other acquaintances take on more important roles. Consequently, being accepted by these other
young people becomes very important.
“Adolescents are driven toward impressing their peers, trying to seek
approval of their peers, and becoming more and more independent from their
parents.”[6] In sum, they are motivated to heighten their
self-consciousness and in a time of social media, one can readily see how
contemporary times have become so challenging.
In
these related studies, a good deal of these social insights is being derived
not from social study, per se, but through the findings researchers are achieving
from image technologies. Various
findings have been secured, such as changes to the human cortex. Described as “more protracted development” in
regard to gray matter and white matter formation – their volumes – new insights
have been found.
The
article goes on to describe some of the development the brain goes through that
continue into adulthood. Such processes
as synaptic pruning are described and explained as to their importance. Part of that review introduces such chemical
substances, such as myelin, and how they function in those processes. How much of this information that civics
teachers need to know and understand is questionable, but for those who want to
get into it, the article offers a good introduction.
Getting
this posting back to what is more useful for the typical teacher, this quote is
offered: “Given the fact that we know
that social brain regions continue to develop, both in terms of structure and
function, during adolescence, we were interested in how social cognitive
behavior changes adolescence.”[7] The next posting will delve into those social
consequences in more detail.
[1] Robert Gutierrez, From Immaturity to Polarized
Politics: Obstacles in Achieving a
Federated Nation (Tallahassee, FL:
Gravitas Civics Books, 2022). See
chapter 2, “The Maturation Challenge.”
Book available through Amazon and other booksellers.
[2] Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, “The
Adolescent Brain” in Thinking: The New
Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction, edited by John
Brockman (New York, NY: Harper Perennial,
2013), 115-131.
[3] Ibid., 124.
[4] “Politics: Who
Gets What, When, How” Work by Lasswell,” Britannica (n.d.), accessed
November 26, 2023, URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Politics-Who-Gets-What-When-How.
[5] Blakemore, “The Adolescent
Brain” in Thinking, 115.
[6] Ibid., 116.
[7] Ibid., 121.
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