Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Providing for Teens

[Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (Robsan]

One of the great, often missed opportunities, is to get the teens to design
their own space.  If you want them to use it, they should design it, paint
it, decorate it etc.  I was part of an alernative school program in High
school where we, the students, designed and created our own lounge space. 
Somebody scrounged the couches from a relative, we got a frig, a rug, and we
painted it wild colors and put up our own posters.  I still recall the
feelings of ownership of that space to this day.

If you want to encourage teens to learn group participation skills,
cooperative attitudes, and all the stuff we adults deal with, let them
figure out their space.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood (where there is no space for especially for teens)
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