Adults think that they understand children because all of them were children once too, and that might be true in some cases, but when it’s about environmental factors, meaning what kind of environment they are living in, it’s not true, because there are some things that if someone has never experienced, then that’s something they’ll never be able to understand. And this goes both ways. For example, children of immigrants will never really be able to understand what their parents have sacrificed and left behind to have a better life for themselves and their children. And parents will never be able to understand the fear of going to school everyday, not knowing if they’re going to make it out alive. (School shootings). Not only that, but they’ll also never be able to understand how stressful school is because it’s so competitive to try and get into a good college. Because in the Baby Boomer generation, who are almost all of our parents, getting into a good college was easier, and not only that, but In that generation, it was also extremely easy to graduate high school and find a job immediately. So in some cases, adults might understand children, but in other cases, we’ll never be able to understand each other. And there’s nothing really we can do to fix it. It’s more of a “you don’t have to understand it, but just accept it please.” – Afnaan Syed, Junior

To teenagers adults seem like the perfect human being. There is a constant struggle of meeting expectations. Whether they are set by our parents, teachers, peers, ourselves or other adults. It’s usually adults who want us to succeed and strive for greatness, but I feel as if they forget that they were once our age. Everyone was a kid at one time; including adults. That means that they used to do the same dumb stuff kids do now. Recently I’ve experienced that adults usually don’t try to relate to kids. It’s as if they cannot speak of what makes them human; their mess ups and mistakes. Adults should try to connect and teach the younger generation more often, but it should be done so naturally. People, including teenagers, do not want to be forced into a situation where nobody wants to learn; whether this be a story or development of skills. – Mack Mecenas, Junior