Information won’t tarnish teens

MAXINE COHEN

I was aghast when I saw the story on the front page of the Daily

Pilot. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District had decided to

prevent the display of the flier advertising Eric Schlosser’s lecture

in middle and high schools. They thought his work was too

controversial and that he might veer off topic to talk about the

subversive topics of sex and pot in his latest book.

My daughter, Barbara, and I went to the Newport Beach Public

Library to hear him speak. When I saw the flier, I knew she’d want to

go. She read “Fast Food Nation” right after it came out in 2002 and

was grossed out. She changed her eating habits on the spot. No more

fast food. No more soda.

It was an excellent lecture.

Schlosser is a professional investigative journalist, who does his

homework, and who has integrity and opinions grounded in facts he has

researched well. He is intelligent, educated, well spoken, thoughtful

and thought provoking.

To have the school district take steps to keep teenagers from

being tarnished and corrupted by Schlosser’s point of view is not

only unnecessary but overly restrictive and downright embarrassing to

this community. And to top it off, Jaime Castellanos, assistant

superintendent, and district spokeswoman Jane Garland admit that

they’ve not read “Reefer Madness”!

I think it’s disgraceful to censor and criticize what you haven’t

even read and then try to put a good face on it by saying that you

fear controversy.

Remember the 1st Amendment right to free speech? To my mind, that

also means that people, including teenagers, have the right of access

to information. One of the foundations of a free society is that

people of good faith can hold different opinions and agree to

disagree. That right extends to teenagers. Thoughts are not

behaviors. We all have the right to think what we want; we do not

have the right to behave in any way we want.

The school board’s decision is grounded in the fear that teenagers

don’t have the maturity to make good decisions for themselves. This

is true, but maturity doesn’t just fall out of the sky on your head;

you have to develop it. And the way to develop it is to be exposed to

different ideas in the safest ways possible and to have an open forum

at home so that teenagers can talk to their parents without the fear

of being criticized and told they’re wrong. What could be a more safe

environment than the Newport Beach Public Library?!

It is the developmental task of adolescents to want to know. To

experiment and broaden their horizons, to learn about and try new

things. They are driven mercilessly to do this, and as parents, try

as you may, you cannot stop them. So it’s best to allow them to learn

as much as they can in safe environments where they can then think

about what they’ve heard.

Most of all, the thing we need to inculcate in our teenagers is

the ability to think for themselves. To turn an issue over and over

in their minds, to see how it rings true in their hearts, and to come

to a judgment that is true for them. How many times have we as

parents said to our kids, “Do you always have to follow the group?

Can’t you think for yourself and say ‘no’?”

Teenagers learn to think when they have something to think about,

when they are in the middle of controversy, when it effects them and

how they want to live. If we don’t give our kids the tools to think,

and if we don’t expose them to topics worth thinking about, we will

not prepare them adequately for the complex and ambig- uous world in

which we live.

There are too many choices and too few guidelines in our culture

today. They will go forth, to college, to life, and not be grounded

in what their values and moral standards are because they have been

sheltered, kept ignorant, and they’ve been spoon fed their parents’

values.

Developmentally, adolescence is a time to define a self, to break

away from the parental mold and to experiment so that you can

discover what fits for you. If teenagers don’t do this at the

appropriate time developmentally, they will do it later, at an

inappropriate time when it disrupts the life that they’ve built so

far. But they will do it -- and with a vengeance.

So I say to parents, instead of overly censoring what your

teenagers are exposed to, go with them to something like a lecture

(at a reputable place like the library). Talk with them about what

they think about what they’ve heard. Do not tell them what you think

until you have heard them out fully. Make it a conversation rather

than making your point of view prevail. And most of all, do not tell

them they’re wrong. Remember, we are allowed to hold different

opinions, even if we’re only 16.

It’s my opinion that continu- ing to scarf down fast food and soda

will do more harm to teenage bodies than hearing Eric Schlosser’s

ideas would have done to their minds.

* MAXINE COHEN is a Corona

del Mar resident and marriage and family therapist practicing

in Newport Beach. She can be reached at maxinecohenadelphia.net or

at (949) 644-6435.