Embrace the unpredictability of adolescence

While it has been good to see media coverage of these actions, it was equally depressing to watch the debate about climate change being reduced to inane questions about whether schoolchildren should be allowed to strike (of course they shouldn't be "allowed": the point about a strike is that it is an act of protest or calculated disobedience). The ensuing debate about whether there might be some topics over which young people might be permitted to strike hit an absurd, patronising low point.

In recent years, the natural and social sciences have developed at pace to increase understanding of adolescence; and, as anybody whose job includes spending time with them will tell you, young people can be bold, liberated, inspirational, self-assured and knowledgeable. For many, the combinations of their own neurological development, family and social environment create vulnerability that will last well into early adulthood and which needs a holistic, supportive, non-judgmental response. Adolescence and young adulthood are both life stages that involve experimentation and risk, and while it is positive that some social policy and service design such as for children in care now require us to think beyond the cliff-edge of the 18th birthday, the default is to treat adolescents as a problem.