Posted on 04/13/2006 6:53:05 AM PDT by presidio9
It's 10 p.m. and you should know where your children are. But if they are New York City teens, they could be up to anything, from partying to protesting to sexually experimenting.
For a survival guide to adolescence, forget preachy parenting guides that are as out of touch with kids as the ancient authors who pen them. Instead, try "The Notebook Girls," a real journal written by four teens who documented life at Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School from their freshman to junior years.
In graphic, emotional and often blisteringly funny entries, Julia Baskin, Lindsey Newman, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen and Courtney Toombs gossip about getting high and getting booty.
The girls get busted for smoking pot, struggle with stupid boys and live for the next party, all while getting a grip on a world full of racial, social and religious differences.
Now freshmen at colleges from Washington University in St. Louis to Princeton, they made time to tell the Daily News everything adults should really know about teens today.
On being a teenager ...
Sophie: People often don't give teenagers enough credit. They think of teenagers as being melodramatic and thinking about boyfriends and parties. They are people, too, and have opinions on things adults have [opinions] on, be it politics, foreign policy or whatever.
On 9/11 ...
Lindsey: It was weird that people were so interested in our school's experiences. There were real people who lost someone, who had a real tragic event in their life. We just had to go to another school for three weeks.
On being honest with your friends ...
Julia: In the beginning of our friendship, the girls used to yell at me because I had this policy of keeping quiet when something upset me. I thought it was better to let it blow over. But it just builds up. [Honesty] unearths what is really going on.
Courtney: Honesty made us stronger. It's not like you necessarily want someone to change when you are honest about things; you just want them to know how you feel. It's not always that you are angry. It's more that you care about them and can't imagine not being able to tell them something important to you.
On sex ...
Sophie: It's a very false idea that girls "let" guys have sex with them. Girls enjoy having sex, too - as long as it is good sex - just the way guys do.
Lindsey: As girls, you are expected to not have sexual desires. If a girl does want to pursue a guy, they have to do in it in a way that's more discreet, otherwise it's unattractive to be so overtly sexual.
Julia: As people got older in high school, they were coupling up more. People started having sex, but a lot of people didn't want to do the whole promiscuity thing anymore. They just wanted to experience the sex stuff just being with someone.
Courtney: They want a real date to the prom, someone to actually settle down with - in the high school sense of the word.
On experimenting with same-sex dating ...
Julia (who dated a girl in high school): It all depends on the person and place you are in. In some places, it's still a really big deal. I happen to go to a liberal school with accepting and supportive friends who were like, if she makes you happy, we are happy for you.
Lindsey: Stuyvesant has sort of a more progressive community about those issues. It wasn't really an issue. If you, like Julia, wanted to explore sexuality, there was a comfortable community to do that in. It was a really supportive atmosphere. Some kids used the word "gay" for the weirdest applications, but there were others who didn't tolerate that.
On drugs ...
Sophie: If you are going to smoke pot and find out it's fun, you need to take responsibility. It takes a while to figure that out. We didn't smoke up in school. [In terms of buying it], it's a market just like any other economic thing. People know there are kids who are going to want to buy weed, so there are kids that are going to be selling.
Courtney: It wasn't until after I stopped smoking that I realized the ways in which you could feel left out if you're not doing something. I felt kind of emasculated, even though I am not a guy.
On not getting caught ...
Julia: You get Visine [for red-eye caused by smoking pot] and carry scented lotion, just to cover the smell.
Courtney: It's helpful if your parents are never home, if they don't talk to you about what's going on or they don't care about how you are doing in school. The key is to bring your key. If parents have to let you in, they will want to give you a hug that would kill you. Make sure not to hug hello until you've changed clothes and cleaned yourself up. Chocolate will cover a smell better than mint - mint is suspicious. It's also good to come down before you come home. If you come home high, that is inexcusable. Kids should know better.
On booze ...
Julia: Let's just say there are certain stores where at certain times of the day they weren't so strict about keeping age rules.
Courtney: There were people that would always buy liquor who knew somebody at a store who never gave them any trouble. Like everybody says, it's way harder to get alcohol than it is to get marijuana.
Noted. Thanks, Courtney :-)
DISCUSSION ABOUT:
"High school, not so confidential (Postcards From the Cuddle Puddle)"
Disgusting! It's all here, sex in high school is good, the more experimentation the better, drugs are good just don't get caught, etc.
To be included in or removed from the MORAL ABSOLUTES PINGLIST, please FreepMail wagglebee.
I suppose the good news is that it doesn't sound much different from 1978.
Same as it was when I was in HS 10 years ago.
It's easier to get weed than alcohol because your buddy that has weed isn't going to card you.
That is why Weed is a Gateway drug, It introduces you to the black market. If you know someone that sells weed, he knows or you find someone that sells acid, or can get some coke...Coke was going through my circle of friends when I decided that life was not for me and joined the Military.
Good Luck!
Keep up the good work, drug warriors!!
Nice hijack attempt, but you obviously didn't go to high school in NYC. Drugs are more available in NYC schools for one reason only: The are more easy to conceal. Any 14 year-old can buy beer at the Korean bodega on the corner. Federal drug enforcement policy is completely irrelevant to this thread.
Anyone can have an opinion. An informed, well thought out opinion is another thing entirely.
susie
"...They are people, too, and have opinions on things adults have [opinions] on, be it politics, foreign policy or whatever."
Or whatever...indeed, to read this article is to lower one's IQ. When I was in High School, even hippies were more articulate than these girls. They are just "watermelons floating in a sea of Jell-O" and have no principles deeper than MTV.
Where are we going? And why are we in this handcart?
Psst...I didn't go to School in NYC, I went to school in Bucks County, PA
It is not a gateway drug because you want a better and better buzz, it is a gateway drug because it introduces kids to the black market. Furthermore, once they try it and realize most of the propaganda is just that - propaganda - ie. lies., they lose respect and belief in all of the actually truthful messages about truly dangerous drugs.
The WOSD's - especially pot - is a lose (cost), lose (freedom), lose (doesn't work), lose (makes the problem worse) situation.
WOSD fanatics tend to be either totally misinformed, fascists, mind-numbed robots, holier-than-thou, I-know-whats-best-for-you types or former junkies who couldn't control themselves and now want think everyone is as weak as they once were - and need their protection from those bad, bad drugs.....
The rest of us believe in freedom, the constitution, and the God-given right for adults to do with our own bodies what we would like to do - whether you approve of it or not. IT's none of your business. Get a hobby.
[Bottom line...if you are a parent and are not engaged with your kids and with what they are doing....this will be your family story.]
A pretty simple answer for a terrible problem but you are exactly correct. I think there are just too many parents that are too busy with their own selfish lives to be bothered with parenting.
I read what you said, and I think it only extrapolates on my point. In terms of alcohol assessiblilty NYC is a special case. I have always been extremely young looking for my age, and I had no problem buying alchohol when I was a freshman in the 80's.
This is a pedophile's delight.
The reason it is getting published and noticed is because of the pedophile mafia in the publishing/communications industry.
Yeah, sure. Marijuana is easy to hide. There will still be black marketeers even if it is legal.
I think something that needs to be taken into account is the fact that while these girls were in their formative years, the occupant of the White House was saying (and everyone in the media was repeating), that most forms of sex aren't even sex. Plus the left has convinced them that condoms and red ribbons are the solution to everything, because sex is purely a "safety" rather than moral issue.
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