We all love to make fun of people that are doing well in the financial/popular world. We make fun of the Black Eyed Peas because they look like the next generation of Teletubbies. We make fun of Charlie Sheen because, well, he’s completely nuts. We make fun of Lady Gaga because… she calls herself “Lady Gaga”! And we make fun of Justin Bieber because he looks and sings like a girl. Or is it because we are all jealous? I’m not sure. Truth is, I’ve never really listened to any of his stuff. Normally, I don’t like to write about things I don’t know about but today, Justin Bieber is more of the example than the subject.

If you have not read my series on Adolescent Brain Function, you should quickly jump over and read it (part 1 here and part 2 here) as reading it will help this make better sense to you.

Justin is a 16-year-old boy. Every teenager is suffering from the frantic mess that is the teenage brain. They are ALL struggling with this. What about Justin? Not only is he having to deal with his adolescent brain, but he is also having to deal with the stress and pressure of having millions (or billions) of crazed fans. He is having to deal with school and tours, parents and paparazzi. About ten minutes ago, I tweeted that I was going to be writing about Justin and within like 4 minutes someone referred me to a place where I could find his “real” phone number. This kid’s world is about a million times more crazy than the students we serve.

Now I ask the question, what if Justin Bieber were one of your youth students? How would you treat him then? How would you talk about him then? Would you make fun of him for his style or would you support him and encourage him in his endeavors?

When your youth kids hear you talk about Justin Bieber (even though they make fun of him, too) how do you think they feel – perhaps even on a subconscious level to hear their youth leader not-loving a student. Do you think that might cause some discord or give them a reason to not trust you?

A lot of questions here. What do you think?

[submitted by Derick Brown]