Is there a scientific rational for the way teenagers act and behave?  Apparently so, according to David Bainbridge of the University of Cambridge, writing in the Times today. 

Bainbridge gives a fascinating perspective on how the uniqueness of the human teenage years amongst all of the Earth’s species may have been the one thing that allowed the human brain to become as evolved as it is.

The years between 12 and 20 is a period we gain remarkable abilities, or as Bainbridge puts it, “we move from dial up to broadband”.  We gain logical skills of abstraction and lateral thinking, sophisticated emotional intelligence and new language skills that allow us to adjust our communication depending on whom we are talking to. 

“They are learning to solve emotional, social and analytical problems for themselves – after all, what sort of adult will they become if they cannot?” notes Bainbridge.

The trade off is that during this remarkable growth period – where the brain actually shrinks but becomes completely restructured – there is some disruption in its operation, from excessive emotional reactions to increased risk taking to introspection.  Our body clocks may even be different, explaining the need to sleep more in the morning.  The brain is busily rewiring itself.

How ironic that this is the period that is least understood and most important to mankind, the period where we clash with parents and are “educated”.  The transition to secondary school is already a difficult one.  Perhaps it’s also harder than it should be due to the fact our brains are being reprogrammed.

From an adult perspective – and, let’s face it, it is adults that design the education process – teenagers are to be controlled.  We try and help them deal with their issues whilst also seeking to prevent others – Bainbridge gives the example of expecting them to become sexually confident whilst trying to prevent them actually having sex, which overrules hundreds of thousands of years of evolution (the teenage years are when we are meant to meet our mates and have children). 

When you look at things from this perspective, it makes you wonder how differently we should actually think about the teenage years.  Instead of clamping down on the things that make a teenager a teenager, seeking to make them into adults that little bit faster, perhaps we should be seeking to work with the process, to understand it better, to support it and to embrace the things that make this a powerful and special experience: enhanced creativity, and a fresh view about the world, its problems and how to solve them unencumbered by the more closed, adult brains.