Use College to Begin Adulthood, Not Finish Adolescence
The September 17 edition of The Pitt News, the University of Pittsburgh’s daily student newspaper, included a thought-provoking opinion piece by Simon Brown. In response to A.O. Scott’s recent article on “The Death of Adulthood In America,” Brown challenges college students to “Use college to being adulthood, not finish adolescence.” In a world where parents, churches, businesses, and institutions of higher education are grappling with how to navigate the cultural realities of extended adolescence and emerging adulthood, Brown calls for a more thoughtful and intentional script to be pursued, embraced, and lived. He writes,
“Our cultural fixation on youth has lifted the experience of college to nostalgic heights. The mantra that “college is the best four years of your life,” however, distorts the experience for young people, who are anxious not to “waste” those precious years. We ought to reconsider our cultural expectation that college be the last gasp of adolescence, and we should, instead, consider it the entrance to a redefined adulthood.”
Read the rest of the article here.
