He wears a bow tie. There's a devilish smile on his face. He wears a green graduation gown. Adolescence remains a giddy period of first loves, schoolhouse crucibles, intense physical and mental changes and other dizzying challenges on the way to adulthood. But now there's a new edge to it.
Pop culture carries an uglier punch.
Television, and increasingly the Internet, have arguably become the nation's most powerful educators. Fourteen years ago, when this year's newest high school students were on mother's milk, MTV had just made its debut and AIDS had just been discovered. Now the babies of 1982 are the freshmen of 1996, embarking on that high-wire journey between childhood and adulthood. They are amped by the four-year journey before them but uncertain about what awaits on the other side. The story of most of these kids is one that is rarely told.