Summary of Laurence Steinberg's Age of Opportunity

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 We must reassess how we are raising our young people because we’ve learned a lot about adolescence as a stage of development since the 1990s. Adolescence is now a much longer period, and children are entering it earlier than ever.

#2 The adolescent brain is highly plastic, which means it can change and develop based on the environment it is in. This is both good and bad news. If we provide our adolescents with positive, supportive environments, they will flourish. But if the environments are toxic, they will suffer in powerful and enduring ways.

#3 The brain is highly plastic during adolescence, and this period of growth is more sensitive to experience than any other in our lives. The brain’s malleability allows change for the better, but it also allows change for the worse.

#4 American adolescents are not doing well. There have been no gains in scores on standardized tests of high-school achievement since the 1970s, and American adolescents continue to underperform teens from many industrialized countries that spend less on schooling.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669398257

IRB Media

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Insights on Laurence Steinberg's Age of Opportunity

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

We must reassess how we are raising our young people because we’ve learned a lot about adolescence as a stage of development since the 1990s. Adolescence is now a much longer period, and children are entering it earlier than ever.

#2

The adolescent brain is highly plastic, which means it can change and develop based on the environment it is in. This is both good and bad news. If we provide our adolescents with positive, supportive environments, they will flourish. But if the environments are toxic, they will suffer in powerful and enduring ways.

#3

The brain is highly plastic during adolescence, and this period of growth is more sensitive to experience than any other in our lives. The brain’s malleability allows change for the better, but it also allows change for the worse.

#4

American adolescents are not doing well. There have been no gains in scores on standardized tests of high-school achievement since the 1970s, and American adolescents continue to underperform teens from many industrialized countries that spend less on schooling.

#5

The United States continues to have problems with violence, obesity, and drug use among teenagers. It has one of the highest rates of youth violence in the developed world, and has to resort to arming its school personnel or drugging its students to establish order in its classrooms.

#6

The rate of adolescent suicide in the United States is consistently higher than the international average, and suicide attempts and suicidal ideation among American high-school students are on the rise.

#7

The brain changes that take place when adolescence begins make us more easily excited, emotionally aroused, and prone to getting angry or upset. However, these brain changes take place considerably earlier in adolescence than the brain changes that strengthen our abilities to control our thoughts, emotions, and actions.

#8

The lengthening of adolescence is the reason for the growing divide between the haves and