The Rise and Fall of The American Teenager by Thomas Hine (pg. 64-125)

Summary
    The first settlers who were Puritans ideas of youth was anyone from ten to twenty one, youth needed a family and an economic obligation. Puritans exchanged children throughout there families, this supported the physiological idea that it’s easier to see other children grow up then your own. Young men moved out of home to find the calling of there apprenticeship which was the most common form of education during the 16th century. During the 16th and 17th centuries, school fit around work and most people didn't go to college. Apprenticeship was idea to orphans and children who were younger because it gave them sort of like a home. The end of apprenticeship came when the industrialization age began. The American Revolution was a youth uprising were youth walked out of there elders shadow. During the 18th century, Americans became taller than even Europeans because of the stress free environment and less diseases. Religion during this time changed the youth and the youth changed the way religion functioned. Before this revival, only people from ages 20 to 35 were full members of the church, in families the father was the main religious teacher. The Great Awakening gave youth and independent experience with religion and it was a way that the idea of equality between genders began. During the 16th century, there were huge problems between practical and academic schooling, Benjamin Franklin organized schools that were dedicated to students vocations, which encouraged students to go to school. Young people became enthusiastic republicans when the American Revolution ended. In 1770, Boston Massacre was started by a young person who threw a rock at a solider for not paying back a wig at his apprenticeship. Schooling for young women wasn't necessary sense they didn’t get jobs. Upper class women went to school just to make friends and for recreation. In 1835, Adolescents didn't exist; they were young Americans who integrated as active members of communities. For slaves, coming of age meant the shocking reality of there whole life. Young women became active in religious revivals and had more freedom and interest in literature. Many youths were stuck between listening to there family and working in a farm and working in a factory. Factory girls emerged and started the first ever dormitory of young women and the earliest form of the youth market. Young women created literary pieces and began an intellectual revolution. The 1840's and 50's brought a time where middle and upper class started controlling there family size through contraception and abortion to save money, and therefore many families focused one education. Irish immigrants ended the factory girls because they took jobs for really low wages and ended republican ideals of social equality and industrial reform because these immigrants were now considered subhuman. The immigrant population massively increased and advocates like Clergy Theodore Parker made  statements that put immigrants into the category of "half-civilized" individuals, and the belief that only children could be saved. 1840's, gang violence was brought by immigrants and prostitution emerged by natives of the north east.  There were advocates for education reform but it was difficult because children were made to work by there parents. America had a huge temperance issues, ids were drinking very young and parents became alcoholics causing children’s as young as10 to leave there home. These children became street bandits. Soon, the Irish revolted against the civil war, protesting and killing many blacks. Children moved far out west and south to find jobs of farmers who took young children. All these problems created the idea of "a self-made man in the making." In the 19th century, many immigrant children saw there childhood shorten and there work time increase. Half way through the century there were two types of individuals, one was going to school, the other which was most adolescents which was working for there families. Teens were always a part of people’s consideration of finance. Most tens worked without pay, sense people were so young when hey started working by the time they were parents they would want to make there kids work.
Quotes 
 "Of course, every family, even today, is an economic unit, and it must make calculations about who must work and how to balance domestic life with the necessity of  employment. Teenagers are still part of each family's financial decisions" (Hine 123).
Reaction
    Hine demonstrates verisimilitude in the life of a family in the 19th century and a family currently in the 21st century. That's what makes his writing so interesting, he is able to talk about the history of families in other centuries and is able to make it relate to today. He explains why there were financial problems back then in families, and it is very similar to problems today. It gives the reader a idea of the main point of the book.  That's the type of style he uses, Hine is very literal and on point with the subject. This quotation connects to the rest of the book by showing how family and there financial stability contributes to the making of a teenager, in the qoute he comparing it two teenagers today, showing the history of teenagers.

The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager by Thomas Hine (Pages 0-63)

Summary
The narrator begins by mentioning that in high school yearbook club he was assigned to write a piece on the misery of teenagers. In the 1930s, teenagers didn't go to school and only worked but the government funded more high schools to have older men work. Author's theory is that teenager is a term that is a cycle of our lives and embedded into it. In the 1940s, the term "teenager: arrived, youth could be described at the time as anyone from 12 to 35 years old. The author speaks of looking at history of teenagers and making it relevant to modern teenager ideals. The rise of the teenager is the education, shape, and continuation of teen culture. The fall of the teenager is all the negative aspects of being a teenager like tattoos, piercings, gangs, and violence. The rise and fall of teenagers could be compared to the rise and fall of man in Genesis, the biblical story. Teenage Mystique allows adults to remind themselves of there own mortality, which makes adults have a negative view on teenagers. It also makes adults presume thoughts about teens like that all teenagers are a same way. Americans culture includes a type of classification where their age group classifies a person and therefore they are assumed to act certain way. Before the twentieth century, teens were looked at and judged for their physical ability or other abilities and declared mature. Currently teenagers are but all into one box of mannerisms and personalities. Statistically, a teen that developed faster than others is most likely to participate in teenager mystique (negative assumptions of teenagers). In the mid 1990's, there was a high population of baby boomer and the crime rate was high, crime is a way for a teen to get a job or do something before he is mature. Pressure is put onto teens to not be like their parents but better, and teens actually adapt to adult habits. The more restraints put on them, the more the teenage mystique. Sexuality has become an issue in this generation with a lack of education. Teenagers crave their parents who many times aren’t there, parents view teens as exotic and stubborn. There is a possibility that teens from this decade may find new ways to deal with other teens in the future, but for now, it is not working out. It takes person a series of events to come of age, historical and cultural influences, and influence teenagers physical development. Modern nutrition has also had an impact on girl’s sexuality because there bodies develop earlier, this creates a gap between physical maturation and marriage age. Adolescent physiology is key to understanding the term "teenager," Anna Geud's theory is that we don't remember our adolescence because of its pain. Physical changes in a person’s body are due to their family and infancy. Aristotle even commented that teens are eager to fulfill their desires; teens have been studies for a long time. Of course, as time evolves, teenager culture does to; new problems arise that make them ungrateful for old problems. All teens are born in different situations, which makes it difficult to put them all into one category or to assume they all have the same obstacles. A person's identity, which is crucial to a person’s life, is undefined in American culture; American culture tries pushes in the idea of self-creation. American coming of age ceremonies like prom and age limitations, create bad habits, as teens grow and lead them to immaturity. The anthropologist term "rites of passage," consists of the same stages of bildungsroman. Coming of age rituals in other cultures are very distinct, Americans rituals are unclear, to teens and to adults, they leave youth disoriented and tattoos, piercings, and crazy haircuts become the answer to the lack of rituals defining coming of age. Even though some cultures deny young people of maturity, at times they find the only way to show it is physical maturity, in some cases youth are separated from there families to come of age. Esidendat argued that age groups are universal when there are two things, first the minimizing degree of family dependence and he inability for elders to share wealth to the young. The United States created the teenager, which becomes someone stuck in between.

Quote
"That in turn has led to the rise of a youth subculture that has helped define and elaborate what it means to be a teenager. Any account of the rise of the teenager is in large part, an account of the changing shape and continuing importance of teen culture"(Hine 7).

Reaction
  In the quotation, Hines summarises his point and defines what the rise of the teenager is. This connects to the authors style of writing because besides writing about the history of teenagers, he speaks optimistically about the rise of the teenager and the power of young people. His sophisticated way of writing is shown through using very specific terms like "subculture," not only is his diction at a higher level but the way he uses syntax to make his sentences to give them a intellectual touch, making the reader take the topic of teenagers seriously.