“So often adults ask questions that go across. They need to ask downward questions.” With a lot of humour, yet a seriousness about it, the teenagers from Forandringsfabrikken (translates: the change factory) confidently shared from their lives and their experiences in being met by adults at challenging points in their lives. Forandringsfabrikken is a centre of knowledge here in Norway, where they gather knowledge from large amounts of children and teenagers in all kinds of situations and settings, and then write knowledge reports that are used when decisions are made that affect children and teens (laws, how things are done etc.). On their webpage they say that: “ Knowledge from children is summarised experiences and advice that isn’t linked to theory or analysis by adults.” It was a fascinating and very informative hour of hearing from the three teenagers who had so much to share, and a different perspective which I take with me. Not just into encounters with children and teens,
Life is a journey full of weird and interesting experiences. As the years go by, what was once new and different, has become part of the ordinary and usual. And those things which once brought amazement, no longer catch my attention. So instead of letting the new and exciting fade into nothing, I want to try to capture and keep some of these moments.