A great novel I had stumbled across once had a great analogy inside of it. This book was called "Do Hard Things". It describes how an elephant, a wonderful and powerful as well as smart beast is kept as a pet. At a very young age these gentle giants are kept on a leash outside. This leash is composed of a heavy chain as well as a thick tree for a foundation. this chain goes on the right hind leg of the young adolescent beast on the other side the chain is looped around the tree. No matter how hard the elephant tries, he cannot escape the grasp of this powerfully binded chain. Only cuts and scrapes are given back to the poor animal. As the beast grows old, he is still kept in the back of the yard with a leash. This time it is not a hefty chain and tree to hold him back. A small steak and a piece of thin twine are used to constrict the giant animal from branching out. Though these animals are some of the smartest amongst us, they still believe that they are tied down and cant escape. Humans knew that the beast, while weak and venerable, would be easily discouraged by the mighty chain. People then came to the realization that the thought of this unescapable force would carry to the adult life of this beast. And that it did. The adult elephant would not even try to leave because of how it was brought up and its strong belief that he cannot escape because of previous trial and error.
  Why I introduce this analogy is to embed the idea into your mind that the same concept is not only used with elephants, but with humans as well. The baby elephant being us "teens" as the power figures and adults love to refer us as, and the leash being the ideas of teens not being able to do anything adult-like and incredible. I also believe that this leash can represent the idea of young adults being required to do what we are told without any questions. I strongly disagree. The one thing I would love to change about our country is the use of the word "teen" and to eliminate the idea that we are only capable of making a bed and sending texts. Obviously we are capable of lots more, and most power figures would agree. However, Not much is expected of us. I believe that we should be expected to amount to the great minds of entrepreneurs and other creative "go getters". Many of these people were born in the 1800's to the 1900's. Ford, Edison, Teddy, Carnegie, and many more. Many of these people had little to no formal education. Nor did they have many people pushing them to their goals. Still, they were brilliant. All of these men had one thing in common. Big dreams and persistence. You will see the same traits with people in our age that are successful. The power figure in this analogy would be the human (the owner of the elephant). the same is done with us as is done with these elephants. We are taught from a young age how we are supposed to learn and be. The educational system isn't for everyone, not everyone can learn by dedicating tons of their time to a useless and endless cycle of the same thing every day, (like the elephant has to be on the leash every day). None of these children speak out because they will be punished if done so.
  Young adults in our age are underrated and taught to be obedient and educated. Surely we can all agree that every person needs manners. Manners and obedience are two different things. However when we are put down and not expected to do much, then that's what we learn. We learn from what we do in the real world. I'm surprised that the schools don't take this in to practice with teaching, they are the ones who invented the idea that we will eventually learn to follow orders and keep our heads down if they make us. they make us learn so why cant we get some real world experience by actually doing? power figures teach us to acquire knowledge, they lack at teaching us to apply it in the real world. that's why most of us young adults have no jobs after college. Did you know that the word Teenager was used first in the 1950's? we were put on a leash in the 50's, Why do you think all the greatest men and women in the world originated from the 1800's and early 1900's? Because they weren't discriminated. They weren't put down. They persisted and were taught the hard way which is that the only way to prove power figures wrong is to work and do something that works for you. Work as hard as you can and love what you do. If you truly love what you do you wont give up. When teens are taught to do what others think is best for them then they don't do what they love. How can you expect someone to do what they hate and excel in it? Especially when they use a grade to keep them going. point being, education is largely linked to why we young adults are put down and discouraged. If we can do what we love in life from the beginning there wont be hope for us at all. We need to speak out to the formal education and parents and power figures as a whole and tell them that we deserve to be recognized and pushed to pursue a passion we actually love.