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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Big Surprise! Teens Defy Stereotypes

Mark Patinkin Providence Journal-Bulletin

You have to be careful about stereotyping these days, but a few groups remain fair game. Such as teenagers.

Someday, they’ll get their label, as did baby-boomers and Generation X, and I doubt it will be positive.

I expected a reflection of that in a list I recently got from some 16- and 17-year-olds. I had written a column on the phrase: “Twenty Things You Should Do In This Lifetime.” The column found its way to a teacher of a junior-senior English class in Lisbon, Ohio. She had her students suggest things they would put on such a list and sent me the result.

The name of the school is the Columbiana County Career Center. The teacher is Susan Biscella. I called her to talk about it.

I told her I expected the list to fit my stereotype. Things to do in this lifetime? Oh, have sex by age 15, dye your hair purple, party until dawn, that kind of thing.

“Yes,” said Biscella. “The drug thing, the party thing, the have-sex thing, the get-the-tattoo thing, own a Harley Davidson.”

But such items did not come up.

Instead: “Ride a horse.”

“Go fishing.”

“Go sled-riding.”

Sled-riding? The MTV generation?

I asked if the list was real, or a sign of kids on good behavior?

Biscella laughed. These kids speak their mind, she said. Several have told her they didn’t finish homework because they were out partying all weekend.

The list was not all tame. It included these:

“Drive an off-road vehicle.”

“Ride a BIG roller-coaster.”

“Drive in a demolition derby.”

“I was surprised,” Biscella said. “Given some of their situations, given some of the things you hear about teen-agers, I expected more self-centeredness. And it wasn’t there.”

The kids did suggest ways to live on the edge, but not through drugs or drinking.

“Scuba dive.”

“Sky-dive.”

“Visit an underground cavern.”

Obviously, I told Biscella, I’d stereotyped the kids unfairly.

Actually, she said, on the surface, many do reflect the fast-life stereotypes.

Why don’t they show what’s underneath more often?

“Part of it,” she said, “is there’s kind of a pressure to put on that rough exterior. This exercise was a time they took that facade, set it aside, and said, ‘Here’s a peek at who we really are.’ “

They’d really prefer riding horses to the big party?

Often, she said, yes.

But they don’t because of peer pressure?

And one other thing, said Biscella.

Pressure from the rest of us.

“When we reflect stereotypes on kids,” she said, “they reflect right back the expectations we put on them.”