Chunk #3 pg.151-224

Students are now doing anything do get into colleges known for their name. They are beginning to hire SAT tutors that cost a fortune and are really stressing themselves out to do their best. There is nothing wrong with striving to do your best to get into the best colleges, but pressure from parents needs to cease. Students already have enough pressure; they don't need any irrelevant stress added. I have just learned of a new influence, teen novels. Teens are really influenced by these novels and have done drastic things like running away from their homes. There is also an upside to this influence; most of the authors are teenagers. Teens can really become inspired by that and have teens to look up to. There is a new type of teens from generation Y that we haven't heard about, those who are unbranded. There are many protest held against advertisements and these adults who try to manipulate teens. They shop and thrift stores so they won't be categorized with the branded obsessed teens. As I read, i really began to see that teens are confused. They're at an age where their trying to find themselves. They go from one trend to another to see where they fit in, although some might confuse it as following what's "in". Is there an in between trendiness and anti trendiness? Is it totally wrong to want to dress like the style that's currently a hit?

Vocabulary:
dogma (pg. 195) - a system of principles
imbroglios (pg. 218) - a misunderstanding or disagreement

Rhetorical terms:
hyperbole - " ' My kid has to get into Harvard or Princeton or I will kill myself,' " (pg. 157)
apostrophe - " 'As a teen you are only the money that you spend,' " (pg. 210)

Discussion questions:
Clarification- What would the world be without ads? How else will products (clothes, movies, etc.) be known or advertised?
Application- While reading about the branded teens, did you feel the need to attack or become against advertisers, and reading about the unbranded teens, did you defend these same advertisers? Explain.

Quote:" 'Everything is about purchasing. We are not allowing them to be kids. In fifth grade suddenly they now have to have 'a look' and 'a behavior' and there are sexual expectations at that age as well -- this is adulthood without the age and the power,' "