BEING A TEENAGER IN A VILLAGE TOWN

About Being a Teenager in Today's World

At one time, when children went through puberty, they joined the adults in the work of the community and became participating members of society. In the 20th century this began to change as the skills for work required more education. With blue collar work now shifting to third-world and emerging nations, even a high school education is no longer enough for many workers in first-world nations. Thus instead of moving into adulthood at puberty, teenagers enter a peculiar and sometimes dysfunctional period of part-time study and part-time mandatory leisure.

This also is a period when their bodies are radically changing, hormones raging and scientists tell us the teenage brain literally breaks down and rewires. During this time, it seems to their parents that their teenage children are losing their minds, and scientists now tell us this is not a bad description of what actually is happening. As a child, the brain is wired to read adult body language since the child’s life depends on those adults. At puberty, the body becomes adult-like, and the brain breaks down the old wiring and rewires for independence and autonomy. While this is underway, it can be an exceptionally difficult time both for many teens and for their parents.

The focus of the teen turns inward as they deal with their sexuality, their body and looks, and with their sense of place in the world. Belonging becomes important – not belonging to their family, but to the group of peers with whom they identify. They need to feel they are a part of a group. If that group is structured, with guidance from caring adults (often in their 20’s and 30’s) it can be a healthy form of belonging. If that peer group is unstructured, it very often devolves into something unhealthy and potentially damaging or lethal. The unstructured environment is especially notable in the modern world where the adults drive away to some other place to work and do not return home until late. It is easy for teens to say they are going out, and be in an unattended place where adults are not present, and where the traditional social checks and balances no longer exist. This is especially the case in a car-based society, when teens drive.

The VillageTown Designs for Teens

The VillageTown designs for teens; after all they represent at least 10% of the population. It begins by shifting the school location. Where the primary/elementary school rooms were in the villages, teens want to expand their territory and they want to meet new people. For this reason, the high school is in the town center. But it is more than one school. From a functional standpoint, there should be at least three schools... academic, vocational and creative. To appreciate the reasoning behind this, listen to this talk by Ken Robinson on why schools kill creativity. How they are organized (separate institutions or colleges within a single one) is not as important as giving students a wide range of learning opportunities. With the social mixing that comes with the larger schools, one may also expect the teens will explore other villages, the villages of their new friends. All of this occurs within a relatively safe environment in which it is much harder for deliquent activity to take hold. These are teens who will be living among adults who are present, working or relaxing, all day long.
Because the teens will have grown up in the villages, they will be known by adults and some will be offered part-time, after-school and school break jobs. Some will apprentice or take internships. The VillageTown Legacy Fund will include a focus on teens, so they can make a smoother transition to adulthood and gainful employment.

The VillageTown provides subsidized housing so that young adults may buy first-time affordable homes specifically designed for youth. During the research stage, these youth made it clear they would prefer their own zone rather than be mixed in with the rest of the community. They wanted to be louder, to dance in the street with live bands, to have climbing walls and skateboard parks. While the target audience for this housing is expected to be young people in their early 20's, this zone can be expected to be an attraction for teens as well. After all, in a few years, some of them may be moving there.