Re-wiring causes problems
Sep. 9th, 2006 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckThis is for all of us who have to deal with teenagers on a daily basis - either as a parent, sibling or teacher.
I've been joking around with my colleagues that our pupils behave in staggeringly inconsiderate or downright stupid ways because their brains are being re-wired. As it turns out we were right: "Adolescents do not put the part of the brain that considers others' feelings to full use, scientists have found. [...] The adolescent brain undergoes massive changes and does not reach maturity until 20 or 30 years old.".
I guess this is fairly old news, but it gives the teenagers another excuse besides hormones.
Sadly, it doesn't offer us any help w dealing with the teenagers who are using the superior temporal sulcus instead of the medial prefrontal cortex. Well, teenagers are definitely superior at sulking.
In other news, I'm very happy to report that the team my school is supporting in the world cup of a fairly minor sport has just won again. They're doing well with two wins and a draw so far. Following their win in their first match, for which they were considered the outsiders, our students were so ecstatic that they stormed the pitch and congratulated the players. After that the organizers wised up and now they've closed off access to the bench and playing field. So far, I've seen two games at the stadium and followed the third online (it was supposed to be shown on digital cable but was pre-empted by women's volleyball). Naturally, quite a few of our female students have fallen in love with the youngest player and are now sporting hand-made "We love [insert player's name]" shirts. I'm sure he's getting a lot of stick about that from his team mates... He scored the winning goal today, so I'm sure the hysteria kicked into overdrive.
I've had my teenage obsessions (nope, not talking about them today) but I was never part of a horde of screaming fangirls, so it's quite interesting to watch this from the sidelines.
I've been joking around with my colleagues that our pupils behave in staggeringly inconsiderate or downright stupid ways because their brains are being re-wired. As it turns out we were right: "Adolescents do not put the part of the brain that considers others' feelings to full use, scientists have found. [...] The adolescent brain undergoes massive changes and does not reach maturity until 20 or 30 years old.".
I guess this is fairly old news, but it gives the teenagers another excuse besides hormones.
Sadly, it doesn't offer us any help w dealing with the teenagers who are using the superior temporal sulcus instead of the medial prefrontal cortex. Well, teenagers are definitely superior at sulking.
In other news, I'm very happy to report that the team my school is supporting in the world cup of a fairly minor sport has just won again. They're doing well with two wins and a draw so far. Following their win in their first match, for which they were considered the outsiders, our students were so ecstatic that they stormed the pitch and congratulated the players. After that the organizers wised up and now they've closed off access to the bench and playing field. So far, I've seen two games at the stadium and followed the third online (it was supposed to be shown on digital cable but was pre-empted by women's volleyball). Naturally, quite a few of our female students have fallen in love with the youngest player and are now sporting hand-made "We love [insert player's name]" shirts. I'm sure he's getting a lot of stick about that from his team mates... He scored the winning goal today, so I'm sure the hysteria kicked into overdrive.
I've had my teenage obsessions (nope, not talking about them today) but I was never part of a horde of screaming fangirls, so it's quite interesting to watch this from the sidelines.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-09 06:47 pm (UTC)Well done the school team!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-10 11:55 am (UTC)Luckily, the national team we're supporting is doing much better than the school team did when the local schools had their own version of the world cup two weeks ago.
I think I've got this jet lag problem, too, which is a bit of problem as schools here start way too early - first lesson begins at 7.55!