Generations Apart

1. You have been asked to contribute to a website that will aim to help
and inspire anyone who logs onto it, but particularly those in their teens
and early twenties. Provide solutions to the following ethical dilemma
concerning parental responsibility and decide on what you consider to be
the most ethical course of action:

A) Helen has been offered a modelling contract for a teenage magazine,

but she is only 16 and her father refuses to give his consent. He maintains
the fashion industry is shallow and his daughter will mix with undesirable
people as well as missing a lot of her school work. Helen says she will
gain valuable experience and some financial independence and is
determined to go ahead even if it means doing the work secretly. Is her
father’s responsibility to guide her or is she old enough to decide for
herself?

B) Andrew, 17, has decided to become a vegan for ideological reasons.

This means he no longer eats any kind of meat or animal by-product like
milk or eggs. His mother has refused to accept his new restricted diet as
she believes it is just a fad on his part and will be harmful to his health. It
also puts a lot of unreasonable strain on her to make separate food, and
she says that as long as Andrew lives at home he must fit in with the
family’s living and eating habits. Andrew, however, feels he should be
free to follow his own conscience and that his family should support him
in the stand he has taken. After all, he is doing nothing wrong.

2. Write about the problems teenagers have nowadays, and show in what
way parents can help them solve these problems. Is a certain amount of
conflict inevitable and a natural step in the process of growing up or are
lots of the complaints simply trivial? Try to come up with a recipe for
more peaceful co-existence across the generation gap.