"The young are heated by nature as men are by wine" (Dobbs 157). In David Dobb's essay titled "Beautiful Brains," he argues that teens are troublesome because of their undeveloped brains. Teens text and drive, cause property damage, and drink too much because they do not have the brain capacity to tell themselves not to yet. Sure, they understand that these actions may be morally wrong, but their is also a yearn for adrenaline that fuels them to fulfill the actions anyway.
As a teen myself, I basically found this essay to be my alibi; so that's why I act that way! Throughout high school. my family mocked me for being the "rebellious one." I was always getting in trouble for something, not so much in school, but by my parents. Whether it was accidental property damage, drinking a couple of my dads beers, or speeding tickets, it seemed that every weekend I would here: "Oh, Sean..."
As a piece of "green writing," "Beautiful Brains" doesn't exactly provoke change. Depending on the audience reading, this piece can be used as an excuse. Parents can disregard their children's mischief, and teens can come to believe that they have reason behind their wrong doings. If anything, this piece provokes staying the same, and frankly, I think that in the aspect of living and learning, we should stay the same.
I guess it functions as green writing because it demands that we cease to pathologize certain behavior and that it changes our definition of the human -- are teens fully human? They are less judicious, but being judicious doesn't allow for the growth and evolution of the species, etc. So they are both less human (brain scans) and more human.
ReplyDelete