Adultism

Empowered young people are the “bullshit detectors” of the adults and institutions around them. When we allow teens to have a voice and respectfully listen to what they have to say, they can help adults re-connect with our own idealism and hopes for a better world. Unfortunately, many adults do not want to hear the wisdom that children have to offer. We often shut them down and shut them out of important conversations that affect their own lives and the culture in which they live. The oppression of young people is called adultism and is largely unacknowledged except in organizations dedicated to youth empowerment. But, little by little, the importance of this pervasive oppression is becoming understood. For a thorough discussion of adultism on Wikipedia, click here.

To read two articles I’ve written about adultism, click here for Article 1 and here for Article 2. To read my blog called Adultism: The Hidden Oppression, click here.

Although an understanding of “adultism” is gaining ground in the wide world, in academia, it is barely known or acknowledged. This, in itself, is a symptom of adultism. Here are just a few others:

• Academic researchers cannot collect data from young people without parental permission, therefore little research is done with people under the age of 18.
• Posing open-ended questions is one way to gain deeper understanding of a topic of research, yet much research of teenagers is conducted based on pre-conceived ideas about their lives based on the assumptions of adult researchers.
• The stories of young people are often left out of the research that influences social policies impacting young people.

Here is an example of a teenager’s personal experience of adultism:

It all started when a friend and I got off work. It was a little after 1:30 am and we had just cleaned up and were ready to head home. My friend was driving. As we pulled out of the parking lot we noticed a police car was pulling into the same parking lot to turn around. We drove down one long road but we could see the police car had not pulled out of the parking lot yet. We took a left and went up a hill, but the police car was not in sight behind us.

I live no more than five minutes away from where I work. We had just turned onto my street when all of a sudden the same policeman was right behind us. He pulled us over within five houses of my house. The cop must have been going at least 70 mph to catch up with us. When he approached the door of the car, he asked for my friend’s license and registration. My friend asked him why he had pulled us over, but he just kept repeating, “license and registration.” He took my friend’s license and didn’t mention the 1:00 am curfew until he saw the age on the license. He told us the car would be towed, even though I pointed out my house, which was no more than 100 yards away. He would not let us roll the car to my house or watch us drive it there.

A few minutes later another cruiser pulled up and flashed the inside of our car with his flashlight, presumably looking for something to bust us with. When the tow truck finally arrived, the first policeman said it was going to cost us $50 to tow it to my house, and that we would have to pay him in cash right then. We didn’t have the money so they towed the car away and we walked to my house. My friend had planned on picking up his car the next day, but the lot was closed and he was forced to pay additional storage charges.

We never had any problems with the police before and we do not understand why they stopped us. We can only guess that it was because we are teenagers, and because all teenagers are seen as trouble-makers. To this day we were never told why we were pulled over. If we had been adults, the police would never have stopped us that night.

Josh B.

I am collecting stories of adultism for the purpose of publishing a book on the topic. If you would like to be part of this project, use the form below to share your story of 500 words or less (500 words is approximately 2, typed, double-spaced pages) on a specific incident of adultism that you personally experienced. This should be written in the first person (see example above). Contributing more than one story is fine. You might be a teenager now or be looking back to your teen years at how the behavior of adults in your life (parents, teachers, school administrators, church officials or administrators, shop keepers, police, guidance counselors, youth workers, scout leaders, etc.) squashed your enthusiasm, quelled your self-esteem, pushed down your joyful expression of your ideas, interrupted your relationships, instilled a sense of self-doubt, silenced your voice or in other ways made you feel less than valuable. Please do not use the actual names of any adults who were involved in the incident, but do make it clear that person’s role in your life (mom, dad, teacher, minister). For example, you could say, my mom, my dad, or “Teacher M.”

I reserve the right to edit your story for clarity and readability. You will have the opportunity to approve any changes I make as long as you provide a valid email address where I can easily get in touch with you. Your submission of a story does not guarantee it will be included in my book (I need to find a publisher first and will use the best stories in a given category), but I will try to acknowledge each submission.

* A first name only or a fake name is fine here. You can remain anonymous. However, to use your story in my book, I will need to have the other information requested above.

** If you wish your story to be considered for publication in my upcoming book on adultism, I must be able to get in touch with you to get your written permission.