Columnist Susan Snyder: Youth is served by magazine

Tuesday, April 19, 2005 | 8:08 a.m.

If you want to know what your teenagers are up to, read.

This does not mean running off to Borders for the latest psychobabble from another middle-aged "expert" who wants to retire by telling you how to relate to your kids.

I'm referring to the school newspapers your teens are publishing.

Each spring some of my Las Vegas Sun colleagues and I share the privilege of judging the work of Clark County's high school journalists in a districtwide contest.

The program helps individual school newspaper staffs hone their skills and also publishes Class!, a magazine composed of submissions from students across the county.

It's working. The judging is getting harder -- at least, it is in the column-writing category from which I chose winners.

Now, if you think for one moment I am going to even hint about who won what, you will be disappointed. Mention in this column neither implies nor rejects the possibility that any of the writers won anything.

But, I had to admire the perception of a young columnist who wrote that Valentine's Day should be renamed, "Buy Her Something Or She'll Get Mad Day."

"Yup," The Other said to me between spoonfuls of Cheerios. "They're learning younger."

And the Green Valley High School columnist who noted that wearing girls' pants is an increasing trend among his male peers certainly gives us something to think about.

Yet, tucked among fashion, music, computer games and other topics we'd expect are stories and commentary on politics, stem-cell research, taxes, religion, sexism, suicide, the First Amendment and how the gaming industry affects Las Vegas' ability to attract a major league baseball team.

What teens are saying about it all might surprise you.

In a column about the First Amendment, a Palo Verde High School writer said many students support the increased censorship of their school newspapers. She cites a study that shows teenagers are less likely than teachers and principals to value people being allowed to express unpopular opinions.

Are our teenagers more conservative than their parents? Hard telling. But it seems the idea is not as far-fetched as it was 30 years ago.

One columnist criticized teachers who spend more time being popular than they do being tough. Another noted that the school uniform colors chosen by administrators are also the two most popular among gang members.

And a columnist for Community College High School West pondered the idea that communications technology -- rather than actual severity -- affects our perceptions of such disasters as December's tsunami.

If nothing else, this annual ritual shows just how much we can, and should, be learning from each other.

Don't let the clothes, music and technological gadgets you don't understand scare you. There's nothing wrong with kids today.

They know how to think critically, ask unpopular questions and push their peers to do the same. As long they can do that, we have nothing to fear.

It's when we stop teaching and allowing them to do it that we're in real trouble.