Hurt: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers (Youth, Family, and Culture)
by Chap Clark

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Book Reviews of Hurt: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers (Youth, Family, and Culture)

Book Review: Thought Provoking Book on Today's Youth
Summary: 4 Stars

The book focuses most on high school students or mid-adolescents as the author calls them. His premise is that adults have started abandoning kids early in life, making the transition from childhood to adulthood a longer and harder process. Teens draw away from adults, not as much out of rebellion, but to cope. The majority of this book is devoted to various aspects of teen life and how it develops and plays out. Chapters such as Peers, School, Family, and Sports hit the nail on the head. And I'll confess I found some shocking stuff in the chapters on Sex, Ethics, and the Party Scene.

I did have some problems with this book. At times, it seemed to go too far into the self-esteem trap. Yes, we need to care for kids, but we also need to acknowledge that not everyone is created equal, something that seemed to be over looked at times. Still, most his examples were of things going too far in the other direction, which makes his points very valid.

Another area was the various ethics discussions. While many of these chapters were eye opening for me, he never addressed ways to teach morals. In fact, he seems to blame adults for problems such as cheating but never blames the kids or discuss how the problem should be addressed.

The last two chapters are a discussion of ways to solve the problem of abandonment, but they seem to be impractical and fall short. City wide meetings for everyone involved with youth? What we really need is a radical shift in our entire culture. Not that I'm exactly sure how to go about doing that, either. So I'm probably little better then he is.

On the whole, this book is an eye-opener about the problems today's high schoolers face. While not perfect, it should be read by anyone who cares about today's teens. Maybe then we can come up with workable solutions to let them know we do care.

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• Parenting & Families
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