Training Up Teenagers For The Online Battleground

Frauds and fakes have been around since the beginning of time. But, in a digital age, they are tougher to spot – and it is much easier for scams and hoaxes to proliferate. Being a teenager today is arguably harder than ever before because of this, says former school leader Tony Little, who argues that critical-thinking skills are the most important thing we can teach our young people as they navigate the information super-highway

After more than 40years of dealing with adolescents pretty much every day – as teacher, parent, boarding housemaster and headmaster –I believed I knew a thing or two about this frustrating and exhilarating phase of the human condition. I felt as though I had experienced most permutations of bewildered and bewildering behaviour, both from adolescents and from the adults around them. And then I met Dr. Herb Etkin.

Herb has been one of the top child and adolescent psychiatrists in the country: a person called upon to give expert witness in difficult legal cases involving young people. His professional and personal experience gave me a fresh perspective – he is a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and has raised three daughters, mostly on his own.

While my experience is of the generality of adolescence, particularly in the context of schools, he has a deep and extensive knowledge of profound issues and problems that seem to me to be relevant to all of us.

In our conversations, it became apparent that we both took a long view: the behaviour of adolescents has been seen as awkward and irritating by adults for thousands of years, at least in developed societies. In less mature societies, where life is a struggle, adolescence is very short-lived. It seems, therefore, that the period we call adolescence is a self-indulgent, irksome, inefficient time, to be got over as soon as possible.

Not so. It’s the most creative and influential period of our lives, and we should celebrate it. Yet parents and schools tend to slip into the conformity of managing it as a condition, rather than embracing it as a transformation.