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The Road to Whatever: Middle-Class Culture and the Crisis of Adolescence

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After spending many years studying history and politics, I've come to the conclusion that a strong, stable, and relatively prosperous middle-class is the key to providing a strong, stable, and relatively prosperous society and its accompanying political organization. We will always have the very wealthy and we will always have the poor. The rich and the poor, representing the two extremes on a social spectrum, must, however, be the minorities in any stable society. The middle-class represents what we ordinarily refer to as the "mainstream." It seems obvious then that the future of a stable and prosperous society must always rest with the generation coming of age and that middle-class adults, particularly those who are involved in the raising of middle-class youth, should be nurturing these younger members, preparing them to take their place as responsible adults in the larger society, thereby guaranteeing the continued stability and prosperity of that society.

But, according to sociologist Elliott Currie, not all is kosher among middle-class youth in America and he provides an interesting investigation into the core causes of the epidemic of violence, drug abuse, and hopelessness among those American teenagers who are part of what is generally called "mainstream America," that is, these teenagers are true members of the middle-class and do not represent the impoverished young people of the poorer class who are generally thought to be responsible for most of the antisocial behavior in our society and who are considered to be "disadvantaged" and "alienated" from the larger society as a whole.

The title of Currie's book, "The Road to Whatever," I initially found to be very curious and I wasn't quite sure what the author really meant. It didn't take long to discover why he was using that particular title. Indeed, if the current crisis among middle-class adolescents is to be marked with a single word, the word "whatever" is about as good a word as one can use. "Whatever," in the sense which seems to be used in this book, is full of meaning and embodies an expression of carelessness, heedlessness, despair, thoughtlessness, riskiness, and so on, behaviors and attitudes which are not considered desirable attributes to be fostered in our young. Too many middle-class youths in America are not on the "Road to Maturity," or the "Road to Success," or the "Road to Prosperity." They are, well, on the road to "Whatever."

What, asks Currie, has brought this phenomenon about? What is going on in American culture that appears to be the catalyst for this circumstance? What are the root causes, if any? The author rejects the usual answers we hear all over the media from the pundits, partisans, and self-declared experts. Some say it is violence and sex on television that is responsible. Others claim it is the new "permissiveness" in our society which causes these young people to behave and feel as they do. Still others point to other causes and suggest solutions, some of which can easily be described as "Draconic." Currie discusses these issues, provides a critical analysis, and dismisses them.

There are a number of points the author makes which I found right on the mark and, although I may tend to interpret them in a slightly different way, he and I are basically in agreement (I think). Currie says that many of our middle-class youths are living in a "culture of exclusion." I suspect he is correct. The communities our young people are growing up in today are not as supportive of the young as those of the past. Today, even simple and unintended mistakes made by teenagers are not overlooked, but seem to generate a social outcry for an immediate solution, even to the point where the punishment for infractions far exceeds the consequences of the infraction itself. The recent "zero tolerance" policies, so beloved now by public schools, are an example of the unforgiving nature which has come to dominate interactions between "authority" figures and adolescents.

Another important issue raised by Currie is the widespread use of medications to control young people who don't meet societal or parental expectations, or are otherwise "out of control." For over twenty years, I have been trying to draw attention to this abuse of pharmacology, beginning with the overuse of the drug Ritalin back in the 1980s. I've also been critical of the tendency among so-called "mental health" professionals to "manufacture" diseases and "syndromes" where none can actually be objectively shown to exist, but it is easier to label and categorize, then "treat" and medicate, resulting, of course, in profits in somebody's pocket. I am in complete agreement with Currie, if I rightly understand his position, on the matters of behavioral medications and adolescent psychotherapy.

In general, Currie does an outstanding job of analyzing, dissecting, and criticizing contemporary middle-class society in America and the crisis which has resulted for teenagers growing up within the current cultural milieu. Much of the material he presents is anecdotal, actual interviews with middle-class adolescents involved in various forms and degrees of self-destructive behavior. These are not the kids from the other side of the tracks. These are not the disadvantaged or the impoverished. These are, however, the future of American society and culture. These are the kids who will determine what sort of communities this nation has in the years to come.

The concluding chapter of the book, entitled "Toward a Culture of Support," suggests some reforms which Currie thinks are important to implement in order that the present problem be resolved. Most of them are well thought out and reasonably supported. A few I would want to discuss with him further because they involve philosophical issues with which I might take issue. I can think of one or two suggestions for reform I might suggest, but he doesn't include. Be that as it may, I hope the book is widely read and discussed; the problem is out there and Professor Currie's work is an excellent place to begin the conversation.

I hesitate to examine these teens' stories in any but the most complimentary detail, simply because the damage suffered by the subjects is far beyond anything I experienced at that age, and the author is to be commended for letting their stories be heard and examining the factors that led to their having such a horrendous time. Still, I wish this book had:

Given a sharper definition of "middle class." There is a world of difference between "lower" and "upper," middle class, especially attitudes toward the mental health profession.

Held HMOs partially responsible for the mess the mental health care system is now in. True, there are assembly-line shrinks out there that do their patients little good. But many are handicapped by managed care that pressures them to prescribe drugs in lieu of long-term, in-depth therapy. Therapists must now justify and document their patient's every visit. As for over-diagnosing, every patient has to have a label in order to have their insurance kick in. It's not done to dehumanize the patient but to ensure that they'll get treatment. In a lot of cases, mental health workers have no choice.

Also, the family as an institution is not precisely the same as a school or a drug treatment facility. While parents should certainly be taken to task for neglect, and kicking their children out, I got the sense the author was applying these same standards to the other institutions the teen subjects felt had "betrayed" them. A principal who receives a death threat (to use an example) should certainly expel the student. One would hope the safety of the other students and staff would take priority. A principal is not betraying anyone by doing this, but I got the sense that the author was as equally disturbed by this act as he was by the parent who kicked her child out.

I was skeptical of some of the subjects' claims that they had managed to make through their youth without encountering a single supportive adult. Many were described as good students at some point, excelling at athletics or community service. It seems odd that they never once received positive reinforcement for these things. Surely there was a relative, teacher, coach, pastor, etc. at one point, who encouraged them, however briefly.

One last thing. I wish the subjects had had a bit more insight into why they started their self-destructive behavior and why they stopped. Too often, they made it sound like they woke up one day and decided to kick the habit and go back to school. Someone reading this might be tempted to think their behavior was just a phase, did little damage (most subjects are now in college), and that other teens who are struggling (including their children) will wake up one day, too, and become law-abiding citizens. But these kinds of decisions are rarely made and succeeded at overnight with minimal adult help. More information is desperately needed.

A recipe for disaster. As Erma Bombeck once said, children need love the most when they deserve it the least. Elliott Currie writes incisively with intelligence and compassion, and brings a world of harsh realities, heedless schools and families with arbitrary punitiveness to light. He demonstrates how resilient young people can be. This book is necessary for parents, educators, and people who allocate funds for social services.
Other books along the same lines: Small Criminals Among Us, by Gad Czudner, and Resiliency for Educators, by Nan Henderson and Mike Milstein

There's a saying..."Life isn't always easy," and for many of today's youth it isn't. For many it never was.

In the book, "The Road to Whatever: Middle-Class Culture & the Crisis of Adolescence," acclaimed sociologist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elliott Curie takes a serious, hard look at the suffering that middle-class teens are enduring. Using research studies, numerous interviews, and other facts gathered during his investigation, he disclaims the myth that troubled teens are solely driven down a path of destruction due to simplistic theories such as violence on television and improper discipline techniques by parents. Elliott explains why, in this age of "tough love" and overly strict punishments, adolescents are so lost, hopeless, and troubled, and why they feel as though no one cares enough about them to help solve their problems. The book contains ways in which we as a society, can help our middle-class teenagers -- to help prevent them from dangerous behaviors and to help those who are already traveling down a road that includes violence, drug addiction, suicide, and other negative behavior.

MyParenTime.com highly recommends this book to anyone who can make a difference in the life of a teenager (this includes: parents, teachers, counselors, school officials, psychiatrists, therapists, treatment centers, etc.). We must realize that troubled teens need people in society to actually take time to listen to them and to simply care about them. What they don't need are people who are going to give up on them when they are needed the most. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

I'm a composer and private music teacher, and because of my sons' involvement in it I became the accompanist and then the director for 13 years of the local boys choir, (including changed voices, up through high school). After working with "mainstream" youth for almost 40 years, I've become increasingly concerned about the effect on them of our society's (and their parents') aggressive use of "contingent worth," one of the many thorny problems Elliott Currie incisively and honestly addresses in this thoughtful book.

As he puts it, "...the culture that surrounds them is one in which individuals' value--in their own eyes and those of others--is, to an unusual extent, conditional on their meeting certain narrow standards of performance. It is not sufficient to be simply a 'good kid'--or to be hardworking, courageous, or generous, all qualities that might be expected to give adolescents a firm sense that they are fundamentally worthwhile. Instead, too much rides on their ability to rank high on just a few scales of worth, which, in the American middle class, typically involve some sort of competitive achievement--outdoing others in school, sports, or whatever arena is considered most important in the struggle for status and prestige."

The everyday tension between our own--and everyone else's--altruism-tenderness-creativity and our/their hatred-destuctiveness-fear rises to a peak of intensity in adolescence, but never leaves us as adults. It may be that adults who do not allow their teenagers even the slightest deviance from the "norm" are secretly afraid that "being there" with their teenagers' conflict will reignite their own fear of being able to control their own emotions and lives.

Finally I know a well-researched, authoritative book to recommend to parents, with the disclaimer that I'm not suggesting blame for them, rather the influence of a "sink-or-swim" culture that pretends to base its treatment of its offspring on natural law. I wish I knew about it earlier before I retired from teaching and directing large groups. Such awareness may make it possible to find the road to a more sane and humane tomorrow.

I've never read a move revealing book. It follows the lives of troubled teens and really captures a complete picture of how these problems manifest and the problems in our society that feed them. If you ever wondered about how teens fall through the cracks this is a must read. Each chapter tells a story about another teen, then examines it socially to support his ideas. As someone just out of his teens, I appreciated the accuracy of his observations.

What does "whatever" mean in this title? A sizeable number of today's teens are so frustrated--like rats who get shocked no matter what part of the cage floor they step on--that they just give up on themselves. They "can't do anything right" or can't be perfect (as demanded by parents or others), so they give up.

Their situation is like that of a wage earner caught in the machinery of the IRS: a culture of punitive attitudes supersedes practical considerations, common sense, and even basic human decency. In such a situation, the only possible outcome is destruction. And it's this culture that many teens must deal with. Because of the intense frustration, they grow apathetic. A resigned "whatever, dude" becomes the new mantra.

The key to motivating people is the same as the key to having a good relationship with anybody: treating that person with dignity and respect. Yet, we find a total absence of dignity or respect in the way many parents treat their children. Elliott Currie brings us one chilling account after another of troubled teens. In these accounts, we can see it's not a "lack of toughness" or a "life of privilege" that drives kids into drug abuse and other self-destructive behaviors. It's a lack of respect and dignity. The cure parents and social workers normally offer for this is often disrespect and humiliation.

The social (governmental) institutions that our hard-earned tax dollars support tend to compound the problems, with the attitude that the teen is the problem and/or the problem is within the teen. The philosophy is that if the teen can would correct his/her own behavior, everyone can be happy. These people don't realize a fundamental point upon which psychologists base talk therapy: self-destructive behaviors are often coping behaviors.

Until you correct the environment a teen is in, the teen is not going to successfully correct his/her behavior. This, also, comes out clearly in accounts Currie brings the reader.

Another attitude that comes out is that all sins are equal. So, a kid gets into minor trouble--perhaps a string of things. A bad grade, sassing to a parent, staying out later than agreed upon, forgetting a chore--and suddenly, this teen crosses the line from human to evil incarnate. There's often little distinction between typical teen problems and real problems. I went through this myself, as a teen. I had long hair, and my dad wanted to throw me out of the house. Forget that I had straight As, held a job, was active socially and in church, and was an athlete in school. Of course, I could have simply cut my hair--but, I needed to make a statement and that was my statement. Both of us were stubborn. We resolved our problem--but many kids and parents don't.

Sometimes when parents encounter one small thing they "can't abide," the kid is "no good." Or, they get frustrated over many minor things and see their child as "lost." They forget their kid isn't out selling drugs or robbing liquor stores. This myopia is prevalent, and it's causing massive destruction. This is what Currie shows us in account after account.

The book does contain a couple of odd threads. One is Currie's negative remarks about the Reagan era. He doesn't make clear what part of ending Jimmy Carter's malaise, producing the longest peacetime economic expansion in history, ending the Soviet nuclear threat, or massively increasing job opportunities he objects to. Another is he proposes that we entrust our healthcare system to the same "geniuses" who use our hard-earned tax dollars to purchase $750 toilet seats and $900 hammers--he wasn't clear on how this would benefit teens or anybody else.

But if you can set aside the minor sprinkling of outdated left-wing politics, you will find this book is provocative and insightful--even helpful. If you have teens, you may find that reading this book to be one of the best uses you've ever made of your time. If you have bought into the simplistic theories of "tough love," "teen boot camps," and other half-baked measures that humiliate teens instead of accord them respect and basic human dignity, then you are on a path to failure. Thinking through what the kids in this book have to say can help you go forward with your eyes open. 

This book doesn't expound yet another behavioral theory. Instead, Currie looks at real situations and takes us inside the minds of the teens. He reminds us that teens are basically good. They are people with feelings. Teens are not equipped to handle the demands placed on adults, and that puts some responsibility on the shoulders of adults. Teens have their own needs and if we will simply listen to them and try to understand, then we have a good chance of providing teens with what they need to succeed.

Understanding these few facts--on the part of parents, neighbors, friends, mentors, employers, teachers, and social workers can help--can help adults involved with teens do a remarkable turnaround. And help nearly any teen from becoming "troubled" in the first place.

I found "The Road to Whatever" a fascinating but ultimately frustrating read. Dr. Currie paints a vivid portrait of how thoroughly some middle-class teens mess up their lives through substance abuse, promiscuous sex, crime, and other delinquency. The case histories are fascinating in the same voyeuristic way that a train wreck is.

But where the book misses its mark is the author's interpretation of the reasons why these kids are so screwed up. Nearly all of the teens profiled in the book come from broken homes, often with a family history of substance abuse or other serious dysfunction like domestic violence, sexual abuse, etc. One girl bounced around a series of foster homes before she was adopted by a middle-class family. I came to this book looking for insight on why sometimes kids from good, stable middle-class families wind up in trouble. But there was really only 1 kid in the book who came from an intact family and even then, the mom is described as verbally abusing the kid in front of Dr. Currie. It was so clear to me reading these stories that the primary reason these kids are so messed up is because they come from broken homes.

Dr. Currie, however, points the finger at low self-esteem (though evidence has found no clear link between low self-esteem and drug use and high self-esteem actually makes drunk driving MORE likely), our society's individualism (even though socialist countries like Sweden also have a serious problem with drugs & alcoholism), and religion (even though in the footnotes Dr. Currie himself admits that religious teens are actually LESS likely to use drugs). Dr. Currie talks about wanting to return to the "kinder, gentler" style of parenting popular in the 1950's and 1960's without acknowledging permissive parenting's role in the explosion of drug use in the late 1960's and 1970's. And the erosion of traditional Judeo-Christian morality has led to the breakdown of the nuclear family, resulting in the kind of "collateral damage" described in case after case in "The Road to Whatever".

I was ultimately very disappointed in "The Road to Whatever" because of the author's misdirected blame.