Is your teenager lazy?
Why you need to read David Bainbridge's Teenagers: A User's Guide
Posted: 01:32:00 13/03/09
A biologically tired teenager
After a week in which every member of Julie Myerson's household seemed determined to have their say on her new book, The Lost Child, other parents of teenagers may have felt smug. Adolescence wreaks havoc on families and parents who live through it without writing books about their offspring (or discovering that said offspring are addicted to skunk) may feel they have cause to congratulate themselves.
Dr Paul Kelley, headmaster of Monkseaton High School, has waded in nonetheless to explain that you are probably doing something wrong if you expect your teenagers to get up for school in the morning. Following a trial by Oxford neuroscientists, with which his pupils were involved, Dr Kelley is planning to start the school's day at around midday so that teenagers don't have to roll out of bed much before 11.
The research indicates that teenagers are not merely slothful, but are biologically programmed to sleep and waking them up early is bad for both their health and their exam results.
He appears confident that his school will achieve more top grades if his pupils are allowed to relax until lunchtime.
The impact this will have on family life and how these adolescents will function in the adult workplace (if they are used to snoozing until noon) does not seem to have been properly explored.
For a more thorough analysis of the biological reasons behind your teenager's behaviour, every parent should read David Bainbridge's Teenagers: A User's Guide. And for those of you living through what this book believes to be the most exciting time of our lives, bone up on the contents and it will enable you to get your excuses in quick for your moods and antisocial behaviour...
Web Mistress
March 2009
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Comments
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And I've always blamed my "Snooze Till Noon" habit in childhood and teens to the early death of my father (I was seven), and my mother's desire to have at least a little time to herself before a noisy youngster shattered her day.
And for company we stayed often with my aunt and uncle, and Frank worked in orchestras at the Tower Ballroom and other such later night places, and, for a treat, I was allowed to stay up until the early hours of the morning - often 1 or 2 o'clock.
The folk wisdom was that some people were larks (my cousin Sidney in Southport who was often up with the dawn) while others were night-owls (me).
Whereas, I was just following the pattern for all teenagers - all those missed morning lectures at Uni were not my fault at all!
Christo [111]
Posted: 17:23:28 24/03/09
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