Samuelson on Adolescence

The way Samuelson describes it, “our style of adolescence is now a type of curse.” “Our teen-agers,” Samuelson maintains, “live in a dreamland. It’s a curious mixture of adult freedoms and childlike expectations.” Samuelson then cites school statistics to make the case that American children enter the workplace “with poor skills.”

We experienced a revolution in personal attitudes in the last 20 years. Freedom is rife, and so are the ills that freedom inevitably brings (crime, drugs, truancy, etc.). Samuelson’s complaint is just more reactionary Reagan rhetoric. Just because we’re facing new problems doesn’t mean the social experiment was a mistake.

JAMES D. REAGAN

Norwalk