Minton, L. (1998, August 9). "What one question would you like to know the answer to?" Parade Magazine, p. 12.

OVERVIEW

One way of staying up with teenagers is to save newspaper clippings such as the series, "Lynn Minton Reports Fresh Voices," from the weekly Parade Magazine, or similar articles from other weekend magazines. (You can contact Lynn Minton at Box 5103, Grand Central Station, New York City, New York, 10163-5103 [include daytime phone number; personal replies not possible]).

In this article, Lynn asked students of Diane Schawe High School South (Wichita, Kansas) what question they would really like to have answered. Their replies give us a nice sampling of the mind of Middle American youth, not too unlike that of teenagers everywhere. Some of these questions I have seen from teenagers in African, Australian, and European newspapers:

• Why am I so short? Everyone else in my family is tall except me. (Ronnie Bainum, 17)
• Why don’t some people bathe? (Jake Boydston, 17)
• How can some people be so rude and hateful to people who are nice and polite? (Crystal Giesy, 17)
• What is the one thing every woman looks for in a man? (Brandon Graham, 17)
• Why do guys cheat on their girlfriends? (Helena Woodward, 17)
• Why do teenager boys continue to pressure teenage girls, even after they say ‘no’ many times? (Crystal Rather, 17)
• Who is my soulmate? (Clyde Simpson, 18)
• Why does love hurt so much? (Scott Bledsoe, 17)
• Where will I end up, during—and after—my life? (Patrick Hays, 16)
• When will the world end? I’d like to know, because then I’d be able to see how much time I have to spend with my family and friends. (Greg Alexander, 18)
• Why did God create people, planets and animals? Are we just an experiment? (Chris Cassidy, 16)
• Why did my grandmother die of cancer? (Carolyn Records, 16)
• Why does the United States get involved in other countries’ wars? (Tiffany Croft, 16)
• Will I ever be rich enough to be happy in life? (Bobby Weisbrodt, 16)
• How come, every time I go to the mall, see something I like, save the money for it and go back to the mall and buy it, I then see something else on my way out and say to myself, ‘Man, I should have gotten that instead?’ (Will Cooper, 18)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. In reading these, what most amused or most caught your attention? Which of these would you most like to discuss right now with a group of teenagers?
2. How many of these questions might be raised with the young people in your area? Which of these questions might be similar or different to those raised by teenagers in Los Angeles, Toronto, Buenos Aires, Caracas, London, Liverpool, Brisbane, Auckland, Jakarta, Manila, Lagos, New Delhi, and other places in the world?
3. What categories of questions do you find here (self-image, relationships, and ultimate destiny)? Does the last question imply a youthful dilemma in a global market (or consumptive) economy?
4. Have you ever challenged young people to write down their deepest or most troubling questions?
5. Do you see how you could use this article selectively with young people or with leaders anywhere in the world?

IMPLICATIONS

1. First of all, understand how such information as this can help you plan curriculum or prepare more relevant speeches to young people.
2. Consider how you could read a couple of these questions in any classroom or group situation and start a good discussion with young people.
3. We have watched such discussions get going in all world cultures although in some places, it does take more time to get young people talking for all kinds of cultural reasons. If you can’t get a discussion going, it is probably because of a failure in trusting relationships among the young people themselves of with their leader(s).
4. We laud Lynn Minton for producing installments of this ongoing series each week. It should challenge us to find our where young people are and what is going on in their hearts and minds.
5. At least once a year we should do some kind of survey with young people with our youth groups or classes—and in our surrounding community.
6. The creative question above challenges us to vary the style of our surveys year by year. Young people like to compare the results of their surveys with current national or global surveys you can find in newspapers, magazines, or in our Youthworker’s Encyclopedia.

Dean Borgman cCYS