October 28, 2009

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the flies might have been a shock when it was written.
After spending the morning with fifteen twelve year old boys I'm surprised we're all still alive.
The strong pick on the weak, the meek follow the strong willed. Everyone wants attention and control but shirks responsibility.
They destroy and cruel. They can't focus.

How are we all still here?

3 comments:

april said...

Did they totally exhaust you? They have an excuse: their brains don't work all the way yet. We wouldn't expect a bunch of 8 mo old kids to hike, right? There is some truth to the whole raging teen hormone conceit, in that kids that age really don't have a lot of impulse control & are therefore pretty bad at focus and collaboration. And everything's totally life or death. I'm feeling tired just thinking about 12 year olds.

But. There was a time when 12 yr olds would've been basically adults. Were humans more mature (physically and interpersonally) at that age in the past?

Sandy said...

One of them stuck a paper clip into some network equipment today and killed it. That's why this post.

I know that when I was 12 years old I was more subdued and I know that last year's 12 year old were more subdued. This year's group are incredibly short sighted and self centered.

april said...

that's exceptionally bad impulse control.

because you're right; not all kids that age are that self-absorbed. but I still think we all are to some degree.