Teens: Rebels with a Good Cause

Teens Doing Hard Things
By Chuck Colson
5/30/2008

This week on “BreakPoint,” we have been talking about teens and the particular challenges facing them. But did you know that the word teenager did not even exist until the twentieth century? That’s what teenage authors Alex and Brett Harris share in their new book called Do Hard Things, which they wrote for their fellow teenagers.

Apparently, the first documented use of the word occurred in an issue of Reader’s Digest in 1941. David Barnhart and Allan Metcalf in the book America in So Many Words, tell us that before the twentieth century, “we had thought of people in just two stages: children and adults. And while childhood might have its tender moments, the goal of the child was to grow up as promptly as possible. . . .”

When child-labor laws rightly created restrictions to protect the physical well-being of children, and mandatory education was extended through high school, an unintended by-product was the creation of a new sub-category: the teenager. the rest

Great NPR Interview!

Teen Blog: TheRebelution