Brian Palmer: Issues old and new confronting teens

CNN Moderator: Welcome to CNN.com, Brian Palmer.

Brian Palmer: Hello everybody!

CNN Moderator: Why did you decide to visit your high school?

Brian Palmer: I was basically given the assignment, and also given the opportunity to decline. I thought it was wonderful idea because I think that Teaneck High School is fairly representative of schools in cities and some suburban areas. They are dealing with increasing racial diversity and some of the same urban issues that I think a lot of communities across the country are wrestling with now.

CNN Moderator: When you visited your high school, what struck you as the greatest difference between teenagers of your day and today?

Brian Palmer: After I punched through the wall of nostalgia, I was surprised by how media-savvy some of the students were. They did seem to be more aware of some of the current events going on in the outside world. That was kind of different, and I think that has a lot to do with their exposure to so many more information inputs: the Internet, the gazillion TV channels, etc. Another surprising thing, or maybe not so surprising, was that they are still kids. They are receiving all this information, but maybe aren't completely able to process it yet. What I found was an interesting mix of awareness and naivete packed in the same bodies.

From the chat room: Did the teenagers today have more or less confidence in themselves as human beings.

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Brian Palmer: You know, I think that's a really interesting question, and I'm just going to talk about the kids I met today. Based on those observations, I'd say yes, but that might not be confidence. It just might be a certain savvy about how to present themselves which they get through watching 500 channels and being exposed to so much more media information and visual imagery.

I really didn't have a way to gauge their true levels of self-esteem and confidence. Those issues did come up, but the more you ask kids to talk about specific things, like if I'd ask a question about pressures or racial issues, kids would give an almost well-scripted, hypothetical answer about how people communicate and things were fine. However, if you got more specific and asked them about what THEY saw, they'd give more specific responses. They would talk about tensions between races, or between kids who like hip hop and kids who like punk, between kids who have the latest styles, and kids whose parents can't afford the latest styles.

From the chat room: Do you find kids are more aware of recent events rather than historical events?

Brian Palmer: That's an easy one. I would say YES, most definitely.

CNN Moderator: Do you find that young people today have a more difficult time putting things into historical perspective because they are not as aware of historical events?

Brian Palmer: I'm trying to do a little regression therapy on myself, and remember when I was 16 or 17. I think there are a lot of things we can attribute to the Internet and the saturation of our culture with images and information, but developmentally speaking, I'd say we're the same. I don't think they have any different historical perspective. When I was that age, I had a tendency to live in the present because the present just seemed so urgent and so important.

CNN Moderator: One of our audience members says that kids are growing up much faster today than before. Did the students you talked to say that they felt that they were growing up faster?

Brian Palmer: That's actually another very excellent question, and I asked the kids that question. In one sense, they are growing up faster. They are dealing with certain issues sooner than we did 20 years ago. We didn't have to deal with AIDS, or speak so explicitly about sexuality. Now, you almost have to think about sex in very clinical, adult terms. So, there are those rather concrete things.

But when you look at them developmentally, they still are 15- or 16-years old with the desires, needs and the emotional and intellectual capacities of people that age. This where I think the problem lies. They're being forced to think about things and make decisions that are more urgent than the decisions that we or our parents had to make, and sometimes do it without much guidance. While keeping in mind that each era has its pressures and particular burdens - my parents dealt with segregation, for instance - I think, on the whole, there's a much more challenging basket of stresses for kids today.

From the chat room: Are kids really growing up faster, or do they just have so much more information than we did, which causes demand for more answers? Who has all those answers? Doesn't this cause the anxiety and stress that we are now seeing?

Brian Palmer: I think the answer is sort of contained in the question, and I think I've said it. There are greater demands for them to have some things figured out at an early age. Sometimes they don't figure it out, and that's where the problems arise.

From the chat room: Are today's children less disciplined because their parents themselves lack the discipline to raise them?

Brian Palmer: We actually did discuss that, and honestly, I think that sort of generalization is really tough to make, and is almost unfair to parents. I'm in the generation where many of my peers are becoming parents, and they're just as responsible and committed and focused as the parents I remember growing up with. I think there are good parents and bad parents. There were good parents and bad parents in the 60's, and good parents and bad parents in the new millennium.

CNN Moderator: How are students juggling the demands of school, jobs, and extra-curricular activities?

Brian Palmer: Mostly the teachers were talking about that. I think the kids take it for granted, but a lot of the teachers were saying that kids do have more on their plate than 20 years ago. One teacher said that many times it's hard to get students to work on the weekends to complete assignments or do extra-curricular things because they're so booked up.

CNN Moderator: Do you have any final thoughts for us?

Brian Palmer: One final thought would be how much changes, and how much stays the same. When I was a student there, we dealt with peer pressure issues, the stress of getting into college, the whole issue of popularity, alienation and all the things teens deal with. I do think to a certain degree that some of those pressures are ratcheted up today, and that this means communication must emphasized and taken seriously. I don't mean parents telling kids what to do, or teachers telling them what to do. Kids still form cliques, so there needs to be a way to get kids from one group to talk to kids from another group. I don't mean racial or class, but also the athletes and the academics. A lot of the divisions that students were discussing today are very similar to the divisions that existed at Teaneck High School when I was there, not major divides, but normal things such as kids from one ethnicity hanging out together. That's something your parents might teach you, and you may have a greater affinity for people in your culture, but it's up to the schools to find ways to get those cultures to communicate. You need administrators, teachers and other students who can open that dialogue. Teaneck High School is trying to do this, including a center called the Forum, where kids can drop in and talk about issues. But there has to be a level of commitment and understanding to open those lines of communication.

CNN Moderator: Thank you for joining us today, Brian Palmer.

Brian Palmer: Good-bye, and thanks for having me!

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