The Rise and Fall of The American Teenager by Thomas Hine (pg. 243-304

Summary
 In 1946, the largest baby boom in American history occurred, marketers started planning there sales before the babies even arrived and by the 1960's marketers had created children and adolescent products, such as shopping carts for kids when they found out that parents bought what there kids told them to. The baby boom made schools reform to prepare for a large number of students and created more electives. More children enrolled into college and now statistics proved that drop-outs made less money in a life time then high-school graduates. Students became internal dropouts where they physically went to school but really didn't care about anything. In the 1960s, there was a huge issue were the integration of black teenagers into high school became an issue, although young people stood up and created groups to help accept the black students, both black and white teens did this. Statistics showed how parents counted for how there teenagers acted. The Beatles came after the Kennedy's assassination and the best band ever :) helped change the sexual character of America, along with playboy that made cars and Martinis "cool." Around the same time the birth control pill came out in the market came out and obliterated sexual responsibility for males. The Vietnam War made young men make long hair much more than a hair style. It symbolized defiance to the war and equality, denouncing machismo by making them similar looking to women. There was a student movement that called a stop of oppression by adults. Clicks started emerging as schools became more relaxed and gave students free time. During the 1960's the consumption of illegal drugs dramatically increased as a result of adults working longer hours. The result of no one caring for teens as in there teachers and administrators, it created a peer group culture that consisted of selling Marijuana, smoking cigarettes, and illegal gang activities. The late baby boomers were completely ignored politically and had less of a bright guarantee with there school cuts. Heavy-metal music came in the 70's and added on to something adults could never understand and therefore called it meaningless. Goth teenager appeared as an epidemic and they would go got Disneyland and people would find ways to make sure they couldn’t come in and arrest them for the tiniest faults. There appearance was a disturbance. Teen has an always been a bias term to a middleclass person. Marketers surveyed teens around the U.S to find how to sell them and they found that teens felt like they were alienated by society and pessimistic. Family life has been disrupted, teens who don't eat with there families are more likely not to get pregnant, abuse drugs, and participate in crime. Hine notes that telling teens what not to do and restricting them makes them do it more, like the restriction of cigarettes in MA. The idea of probation officers in Massachusetts negotiation with juvenile delinquents has succeeded because it is more personal. For black and Hispanic teens as much as 50% have grown up in poverty making there leading cause of death homicide. Overall one in 4 teens in the U.S reports being abused in the last year. Title IX, was an act that forced in 1972 public schools to treat both guys and girls the same even if one party got pregnant. Now girls handle both school and babies, there is a lot more funding for women sports. Title IX, also was an indirect result of Bulimia and Anorexia cause by Magazines and for men also. Teens working has become controversial because it can go both ways, one acquiring punctual responsibilities and the other teens take work more seriously than school. Teens who work are more likely to be prone to dropping out, doing drugs, and participating in sexual activity. Schooling has become a way to store young people for a longer period like 30 years ago when people were put into high school to make space for family fathers. Motherhood has teen has given young girls a definite future and a path in life. Identity has been the larges issue with teenagers and finding a way to fit in society. Teens even have to pass through metal detectors everyday, they are even at a higher risk of using drugs, sex, and crime. Parents often working long hours to pay a house were youth are alienated. Hines argues that teens should be treated as adults who are inexperience but not as different creatures, they should just be given more attention. When the term "teenager," that refers to a mystical adultish creature, young people will become actual individuals instead of one type of group, and strong members of there communities. Hines encourages reader to help tens not to rerun history.
  Quote
"The society implied by the dance is not harmonious made up of couples. Rather, it is violent and composed of isolated individuals who are, nevertheless, both seeking and repulsing contact with others. If this sounds like a vision of American society as a whole, that's not surprising. “(Hine 280).

Reaction
  The quotation is referring to the dance "American Bandstand." Hine uses the best comparison ever; this is the type of great written that he is, he makes connections between what he is writing about and society. Here he makes a connection between a dance that teens did that adults thought was meaningless and absurd and he makes the statement that it is much like the society that those adults run. He makes the argument that teenagers reflect society as a whole, and how it is really run, sense teenagers really do follow there parents. This connects to the stories larger message of helping out teenagers and really paying attention to them because they have a lot to offer.

The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager by Thomas Hine (Pages 190-243)

Summary

   Movies became an answer to sexuality and a new part of a new culture of Americans. In the 1920s, women’s hair became short and women started dressing more "openly" as a result of the women’s rights movements. Cars had a lot to do with American culture; it created a new rite of passage with a driver’s license and gave teens more liberty. College became the ultimate goal because of advertising of college. Dating with multiple partners became popular at the time and it gave guys power over girls and it became a loss of family power over children’s dating lives. In the 1940s, "petting," or sexual activity, became popular amount teens and petting parties became a way for teens too pet and to create a scandal, the level of sexual activity amount teens went up significantly. Then came the Great depression, which made fifty percent more teens enroll in high school. The problem was that high schools weren’t prepared to take in so many students at the same time so teenagers became stuck in a world were everything failed, everything they were taught about the greatness of there country had failed and there school was failing to teach them properly. Several acts and the new deal discriminated against teens in the workforce and made youth a problem. During this time, youth were removed from the workforce by the government and forced to go somewhere else in order to make space for family men. The great depression got families together and dislocated the youth. Many young people became "ho-bo's" a during this era and lived in hobo jungles. School became a place where the rich and poor met, youth movies and comic books inspired youth to deal with all the problems in certain ways. IN 1945, father went to war and mothers went to work, leaving teenagers and children alone most of the time. Military canteens became huge social spot during World War II. After the war, prosperity and money came, teens got married at a very high rate. In the 1950s, marketers realized that teens affected the market directly y and indirectly with there parents and during this time there money benefitted marketers. Youth crime increased because there was a baby boom, long parent work hours caused gang violence, also immigrant groups started gangs and this was popular in urban lower-class areas. Movies also benefitted the gang violence look and taught teenagers how to behave. People moved out to suburbs to avoid this sort of life. 

Quote  
'' The media, which some feared were corrupting youth, had tamed and exploited the threatening adolescent subculture--and together they put on a real nice show" (Hine 248).

Reaction

  Here the author tells the reader the what has caused such a disruption and the "fall of the teenager," which is the media, and he argues that throughout the book especially when television comes along and even before that when marketing officials were appointed to the job. I think that this is a very powerful statement because the media does even today create a view of teenagers that makes them a certain way and gives others of different age groups and cultures a perspective of the american teenager. The media has been haunting the teenager sense the mid 20th century, its incredible how long media have exploited teenagers.

The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager by Thomas Hine (Pages 125-190)

   Summary 

    Families depended on their children for money back then and this created youth authority, language also became a barrier between parents and this made it hard immigrant teenagers to fit into society. In the 19th century teens began working in the street trades like shoe shining and or delivering messages, department stores were made possible through gash boys and girls who collected cash throughout the store. Many youths weren't restrained from adult only activities like gambling during this time. A youth culture emerged where there became a way of expression for teens and a threat to society, the government agreed on censorship teens. Books even became a threat to society by being explicit (hahaha). During the late twentieth century laws establishing reform schools and cutting youth jobs created teenagers. During this time teens became really short because of pollutants in the air while working in dangerous mills and factories. Most southern west boys became men very early and moving east to school meant that they lost responsibility school to being a child. The teenager was created with high school in order to become a member of the community must go through high school. The idea of high school took over after war world two because of low job opportunity; public school was a touchy subject. Teens have control over there own social life in high school, which was a huge change. Many parents couldn’t sacrifice their young men going to high school for economical reasons, but it was okay for there girls to go. Reading was essential in communities and colleges emerged for clergy menus sake. Funding for schooling was a huge issue especially poor kids education was considered an act of charity so they wanted to take that into consideration. High school equality was a huge problem between social classes; finishing high school was a huge effort and a replacement for college. High schools were run locally and Latin was known as the language of the elite. The Morills act was given for colleges to educate on agriculture. School was used at government’s best interest to control societies opinions. The late 19th century included team sports and extracurricular activities started to become very popular and developed character, there was a mayor focus on student life. Boy’s scouts were created to keep young men immature because there were complaints that the youth were growing up to fast. Teachers didn't see how students and parents still took schooling as a second option. Child labor laws were enforced because machines to there jobs. Juvenile courts took too much thinking of society to create a place were young people could stop taking the road they did and not become criminals as adults. In 1967, the Supreme Court decided juveniles needed a due process of law and made it a more adult trial. Juvenile courts allowed the public to observe the way youth worked and catches problems. The upper and middle class girls were boy’s angel’s lower-class girls fulfilled their desires. Teenage pregnancy was solved by marriage back then. Lower class girls were considered "charity girls,"
 they were given nice things by young men in exchange for sexual favors, and not considered particularly "flappers," or prostitutes.

Quote

    "Nevertheless, some qualities of these young people of the frontier--their love of mobility, their belief that they were entitled to have a good time, their sudden shifts from dependence to maturity and back--became part of that creature we know as a teenager" (Hine 137).

Reaction

  My reaction to this quotation was that this was finally the official start of the American teenager, a full description of it after the high school chapter, the sentence flowed in so well. Hine uses literal language all the time but here he describes the young person as a creature, and explains to the reader a teenager and how it was formed through one sentence. This is the type of writer that he is, he explains throughout the book and reminds the reader all the time how the createion of the teenager affects the teenager today. This connects to the overall theme of the book because it explains everything that he was just talking about the whole book and connects it to the creation of the teenager.