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Today's teenager is a young adult; he is more mature and responsible than the teenagers of previous generations. Nevertheless, he is beset with customary trials natural to his age group-disconcerting periods of self-doubt and other periods of self-sufficiency. His character and personality are in the process of being molded. It is a stage when he is not quite sure he wants to be on his own, yet he resents too much parental pressure. This attitude and feeling is called the generation gap or the communication gap. However, this attitude and feeling will change as he learns how to live with the world, especially with his parents, brothers, sisters, and teachers.

        I remember that when I was in my teens, I used to refuse to obey many of the "do's" and "don'ts" my parents dictated to me. For example, when I kept on playing jazz records on the stereo, my father would condemn such music as sheer noise and replaced them with disks of classical music that I always considered extremely dull. When I insisted that I sleep with my pet dog, they immediately said, "No way," because they thought I would be bitten by fleas. These were just a few examples of the things I thought my parents were unreasonable about.

        Today, however, I am a father of a boy aged 15, and I find that I too, am pressuring my son with a lot of rules and regulations hard for him to "swallow". It's not uncommon to hear my yelling at him, "What do you mean by fooling around all night without reviewing your lessons?" or "How come you did it? You are still wet behind the ears." The other day, I noticed that my son wore giant pants that three teen-agers could occupy. No one would wear them on the grounds that they were indecent and undignified. I at once commanded him to take them off. Usually, he is fairly obedient, but this time he put his foot down. "What's wrong with giant pants? All my classmates wear them, and I don't think you have the authority to order me to remove them, even though you are my father!" said he. When I was a boy, if I had spoken with such rudeness to my elders, I would have been given a good beating. But I suddenly realized that we are now living in a more liberal society, and that my son's insistence on wearing giant pants was merely an instance of the generation gap that existed between us. Therefore, I gave in and now he still wears giant pants.