The Teen Commandments

About a year ago, the newspaper’s editorial board was discussing whether schools should be required to post the Ten Commandments. Managing editor Scott Sines said it would be interesting to ask students what they thought of the idea. Even more interesting, he said, would be if students could decide on their version of the Ten Commandments.

That discussion helped lead us to the Teen Values Project. For about eight months, a group of teens met with us each month to talk about their values. At our final meeting in May, the students distilled these values into “Thou Shall” and “Thou Shall Not” statements.

They voted on about 40 proposed value statements, culled from the discussions each month and from their personal list of values. The statements that the majority agreed upon make this list today.

We mean no disrespect to the “real” Ten Commandments. The teens certainly didn’t intend theirs to replace the original 10. In fact, they agreed on many more than just 10 commandments.

We discovered, though, that the ancient format of “Thou Shall” and “Thou Shall Not” provides an excellent way for young people to express values, and that is why they are presented in this way.

Thank you to the generous, hard-working, funny and amazing teens who participated in this project: Christine Benedetti, Kathy Bula, Jordan Caldwell, Darcy Camden, Krystal Christianson, Joel Constable, Jenna Davis, Justin Eans, Nathaniel Eng, Alice Hale, Graham Hughes, Jennifer Kassner, Max Kumangai-McGee, Dani Peterson, Katelyn Rice, Rachel Rickard, Jackson Sines and Jillian Smith.

* Thou shall stay connected to your roots. They remind you who you are. They connect you to tomorrow.

* Thou shall be true to yourself and be the same person, regardless of your surroundings.

* Thou shall take care of friends. Listen, laugh and understand them. Expect criticism from them, but never let anything get in the way of friendship.

* Thou shall stand up for what you believe in and not let others push you around.

* Thou shall not expect to be happy about things all the time.

* Thou shall not be afraid to worry. If you don’t worry, you don’t care and nothing would get done.

* Thou shall always remember to lighten up and be silly, even after you become adults.

* Thou shall not cheat your way through life. You can’t always take the easy way out.

* Thou shall look forward to tomorrow but not forget yesterday.

* Thou shall be trustworthy and honest.

* Thou shall not be pressured to do that which is against your morals, or push your morals onto other people.

* Thou shall stay young at heart and have fun forever.

* Thou shall always express yourself.

* Thou shall not be racist, homophobic or sexist in any way.

* Thou shall try new things and take risks.

* Thou shall not hold the belief that you are better than another.

* Thou shall not put limits on self-expression, especially your own.

* Thou shall never let your rights as a human being be repressed.

* Thou shall show respect to everyone and everything.

* Thou shall laugh often, especially at yourself.

* Thou shall be a free thinker.

* Thou shall observe and absorb the world around you and put that knowledge to use.

* Thou shall see through your own eyes, not the eyes of another.

* Thou shall not lie.

* Thou shall not drive while intoxicated.

* Thou shall not make negative assumptions.

* Thou shall love.

* Thou shall live in the pursuit of happiness as long as it doesn’t endanger the happiness of others.

* Thou shall give back what you take away.

* Thou shall honor thy friends’ loyalty — and secrets.

* Thou shall never forget what a friend has done for you.

* Thou shall love thy family unconditionally.

* Thy family shall not pry.

* Thou shall respect the nature and roots of thy family.

* Thou shall ask many questions of your family to learn about your roots.

* Thou shall compromise and communicate within your family.

* Thou shall not fall victim to popular culture.

* Thou shall not take pop culture too seriously. Just have fun with it.

* Thou shall not censor movies, music or books.

* Thou shall respect original authorship in music. It makes a difference when artists stand for what they are singing about.

* Thou shall not mock the poor.

* Thou shall give back to community instead of griping about it. Make right what you see is wrong.

* Thou shall not litter. Clean the Earth up.

* Thou shall not be ignorant to the environmental problems of the world.

* Thou shall recycle.

* Thou shall enjoy and respect the outdoors. It gives you serenity.

* Thou shall remember it takes a village to raise a person and the fruits of a person’s talents to feed the village.

This sidebar appeared with the story:

SPEAKING OUT

`Don’t live vicariously through your teens’

The teens also offered some advice for adults on how to better relate to them, including:

Be open-minded.

Don’t judge on appearance.

Let your conversation with teens go in any direction it needs to go. When a teen brings up something, don’t say “Let’s change the subject.”

Don’t talk down to us.

Remember, we’re just as intimidated by you as you are by us.

Don’t forget what it’s like being a teen, because if you remember what it is like, we can have a great conversation.

But remember that your teen years were not necessarily like ours. Times have changed.

Don’t live vicariously through your teens.

Don’t assume we have a great life just because we don’t pay taxes, put kids through college or worry about jobs.

Don’t generalize about all teens from some teens. We’re not all violent, gun-toting crack smokers.

Don’t lie about your own teenagehood.

But don’t tell your kids all about your past. There should be a sense of mystery.

Chill out. Play more. Have fun. Smile.

Play stupid pranks on people.

Don’t be arrogant toward us.

Don’t assume you can get in line before us.

Don’t worry so much about the rules.

Be random. Try to act young sometimes. It’s fun to watch.

Stay up late.

Buy fireworks and light them off in your driveway.