Stereotyping and Prejudice
How do you feel when you hear adults say that all adolescents are irresponsible, unintelligent, lazy, disrespectful, and uncaring? What limitations or restrictions does this type of closeminded attitude place on you? What can you do to defeat this biased and negative attitude?
[S]ara said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:02 pm
When I hear adults say remarks about adolescents that shine us in a bad light, I think right away how iggnorent they sound. I dont think that it puts me in a limitation nor does it put restrictions upon me. What could I do to deafeat this thought about us? Well, I guess we could just start doing the oppisite of what they think but then again not all young adults want to be so mature…
So I’d have to say that if your greatly affended by their remarks, then I’d speak up and let me know, thats what I do.
Alexis said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:03 pm
What I think is that the adults jump to conclusions. Not all adolescents are irresponsible, unintelligent, lazy, disrespectful, and uncaring. And the limitations or restrictions it puts on me is that, if I try to go out and try to apply for a job, the person giving the interview automatically jumps to conclusions about me. Like I am going to be disrespectful to my co-workers or that I am not going to show up to work one day because I am lazy. And I can defeat this by proving to adults that I am not what they probably think I am, and show them what I truely am. So that is how I feel.
Nathaniel said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:04 pm
When I hear this said by adults it makes me angry. I know that there are kids out there that are irresponsible but there are a lot of kids that are responsible. When adults think like this and voice there opinion it puts a lot of pressure on us to do good because the first time we mess up they are going to come down hard on us. To defeat this negative attitude we have to voice our opinion to and try to do good to let the adults that are against us see that we are good and can be trusted.
Tim said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:06 pm
It makes me upset, because we all are going through a lot right now. Growing up, having hormones and everything. We’re still earning new things everyday. It doesn’t bother me too bad to an extent. I’m not going to let adults talk down to me though and make me look stupid . I’ll listen to what they have to say, but I know what’s right and wrong. All you have to do to keep them off of you and stop giving you so much grief is to just learn from your mistakes. Whenever you mess up, that is the reason why they are getting on to you. Just learn from those things and do it right the next time.
Jennifer said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:06 pm
I feel that it is very wrong to stereotype all teenagers into one category. It is also really hard to break out of that stereotype once someone places you in it. It is really unfair to group all those who are smart, and kind and work hard into the same group as the few who don’t. I think the best thing to do though, is to be the best person you can be, and work really hard and do kind things for people. Eventually, those with the negative opinions will see that they are wrong.
josh said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:06 pm
When any adult tells me this it makes me mad and angry. I know there are some kids out there that are disrespectful, lazy, and uncaring, but I am not one of those kids. It puts a lot of pressure on me and it’s hard to deal with. I would make the adult think that I wasn’t any of those things so he or she couldn’t say that about me
Emily said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:08 pm
It makes me feel as if I am worthless, and that no one cares about what I have to say. It makes me feel that I can say things but no one would listen and take me seriously just because of my age. It is putting everyone into one category when no one is the same as another person. Everyone is a different person and acts different ways then other people. It is unfair to categorize everyone into the same category. To defeat this you just have to ignore what others have to say and say something even if you think that no one will listen to you, just say it anyway. You just have to be who you are and not let anyone else affect the way that you are.
Rosie said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:09 pm
I think anyone that says that or thinks that is ignorant. Just because there are several slackers that are teenagers does not make ALL teenagers lazy, Rebellious, Disrespectful, and uncaring. I mean there are several adults who act this way it is not JUST teenagers. Limitations? It is near impossible to get a job! It took my sister people she knew just to get an interview! People are way to judgmental. you know, it is really hard to ignore it but I really don’t like it !
Lauren said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Most kids these days are very lazy. They are always playing video games and talking on the computer. Most kids don’t even care too much about education, they mainly focus on sports. Since most kids don’t care too much about their education, teachers slow down the pace. That hurts some kids in the long run because they don’t get all the information needed for the following year. I think kids should be held to higher standards. These statements don’t give me any certain attitude. It makes me want to work harder and push myself so when someone says that comment, I can say, “I am not one of them.”
Eric H. said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:11 pm
When I hear stuff like that it makes me upset. I feel like everyone should get a chance to be known before people judge them. When hear this it puts us kids in a rough spot to do the right thing, but I know that some kids don’t do the right thing and are disrespectful and uncaring. To defeat this I would have to not listen when people are talking bad about people and saying negative things about them when they don’t even know the person that they are talking about.
Dylan said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:11 pm
I think that it demoralizes everyone to some degree. For example, when an adult says that you are stupid, it makes you feel stupid. Also, when teachers or other faculty members talk to you like you are stupid, it makes you feel stupid.
Cayla said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:13 pm
I feel like when adults say that all adolescents are irresponsible, unintelligent, ect. That they are stereo typing us. They are judging us before they ever give us a chance to prove them different. I feel like they have this mind set on how we all are just going to be the same, and never let us change their minds. It’s like when a group of teenagers walk into a restaurant they give you poor service. Or even sometimes don’t even serve you. It limits us to only a few places where they treat us the same as anyone else who walks into the place. We can’t do anything to change a lot of their minds; they all are stubborn and won’t listen to what we have to say. I understand sometimes some of us can get out of hand or disrespectful but we don’t do that all the time.
Katelyn said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I think that some of the ways that adults treat younger people are completely unfair. Sometimes they judge us before we even give them a chance to prove that maybe some of us are mature. What really makes me mad is when my friends and I go into the Mexican restaurant in Macedonia without a parent; they won’t even serve us because it’s a group of kids. They don’t understand that maybe we are coming in there to eat, not mess around. It is degrading when adults look at kids in that way. I feel like there really is nothing that can be done about this because going against adults is disrespectful, and even if we try, it would be brushed off because we are kids.
dwayne said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:14 pm
This kind of attitude restricts us from many things, such as jobs. It also makes adults look down on us more. They look at us as a lower class of the society. One way we can defeat this is to prove them wrong. We can act properly around them, but still goof off with our friends. I also think that what they are saying is wrong. We should be able to speak and act however we want. It’s our lives not theirs.
Danielle said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I don’t really think that it’s fair in some ways that adults say that we are irresponsible. They were once our age and had to go through some of the same things that we do every day. I, myself as an adolescent think that a lot of kids my age are irresponsible, uncaring, and lazy but there is a certain group that I know that are not like that. The few that are irresponsible give the rest of us adolescents a bad reputation. I personally can’t stand it when people say that us teenagers know it all. I don’t think I know it all! This perception of adolescents puts more emphasis on me and makes me want to do well in everything I do just to prove those people wrong. It makes me aware of everything I do because I don’t want to be looked at as unintelligent, uncaring, irresponsible, lazy, or disrespectful. I can’t change other people my age but I can do my best to show that not all adolescents are like they are perceived.
chandler said,
September 5, 2007 at 6:15 pm
They can think that all they want because there are some adults that do the same thing. I honestly think that is the way you are raised. Because if one comes from a bad childhood most adults don’t know what is right from wrong. We are unintelligent because we have not had as much schooling as they have so there is no way you can be as smart as an adult. We learn responsibility as we get older when our parents are around.
Jacob said,
September 11, 2007 at 5:32 pm
I think that when adults start saying these things, they have never actually met one. They may have met one that acted like that, and then stereotyped us off of that one opinion, but they have not really met them before, at least not enough to make an opinion. What I REALLY don’t like is when adults think just because we are kids that we are stupid and must be “spoon fed” (so says Mrs. Robinson “I will not spoon feed you!”) by every teacher and faculty member in the tri-county area. This is high-school, not pre-school people.
Mary said,
September 11, 2007 at 5:35 pm
When I hear adults say things like that, I think in my head that they were young once too. Just because we are young doesn’t mean that we are lazy and disrespectful. Everyone can be disrespectful no matter how old you are. I feel very upset to hear people say things that they shouldn’t say if they don’t even know you. We just need to stand up and tell adults how we feel. Not being disrespectful or anything, just to show them how they treat us is wrong and they wouldn’t want us to treat them that way either.
Megan said,
September 11, 2007 at 5:41 pm
When I hear adults saying that we are lazy and uncaring I think that they take us the wrong way. Not all of us is disrespectful and uncaring it makes me feel like all they do is talk bad about us. When we make one mistake and they keep it on us and keep telling us what we did wrong. Also I think that even older people are disrespectful so if we are then we get it from the older people. The way I think we can change all of this is if we all just stop disrespecting people and have respect for people
Andrew said,
September 11, 2007 at 5:47 pm
I think stereotyping is really stupid. Adults do that cause the way they acted when they was a kid so they think that we do the same things that they did and we don’t and we are paying for their stupid mistakes. If they made the mistakes when they where kids it don’t mean we will do it. So there for the stereotype us and put us in certain groups and say we are bad kids or that we are not mature. But, I just look over their ignorance and go on about my life and let them say what they want to. If people are low enough to call me stupid for being a teen let them i have no respect for adults like that.