Connecting with a new generation

Text messaging has gotten a lot of bad press lately.

Drivers who text. Walloping cell phone bills. Sexting. Disruptions in the classroom. Sleep deprivation.

But there's one subset of the population that will insist it's the quickest, surest way to reach anyone else who speaks text: teenagers. So second-nature has it become, they're not likely to give it up anytime soon, despite the complaints.

Another group has found a use for texting, too. Parents and adults who work with teens have found it a handy way to tell them it's time to come home, or that practice is canceled.

So maybe it shouldn't be surprising that Jacobs High School Principal Michael Bregy gave his cell phone number to the entire student body and asked them to text him if they see a safety issue arise at the school.

"We're living in an age when technology is surpassing our ability to communicate effectively with high school students," Bregy told reporter Jameel Naqvi. "It's the adults that need to change in order to effectively communicate."

Bregy's got it right. Reaching out to teens in a way in which they'll respond is half the battle when trying to teach them values like responsibility, honesty, fairness and wise decision making. If teens don't come to adults, adults must seek ways to come to them. Texting, as it turns out, is an ideal forum.

Last year, kids ages 13 to 17 sent and received an average of 2,272 texts per month, according to Nielsen Co., a media research firm. That's almost 80 messages a day. It may seem incomprehensible to those who cannot accept that "text" now can be a verb. But Bregy, who has a reputation as an innovator at the Algonquin school, believes he can harness some of the wireless tidings.

Last spring, school administrators saw firsthand how text messages can accelerate the rumor mill. During the final week of classes, word leaked out about a prank planned in a hallway. Students who got the message jammed the halls so quickly that administrators locked down the building to control the chaos.

That incident gave Bregy the idea to ask for students' help. During the school's morning announcements this fall, he told them to turn on their phones and add to their contacts his personal number. Students normally are required to keep cell phones off during school hours, but he wants them used if a safety emergency occurs.

Of course, the downsides of teen texting remain, and the complaints are valid. However, when getting young people to communicate at all is often a challenge, savvy adults will seize any opportunity they can to make it work. While others continue to see texting as one of this generation's puzzling behaviors, Bregy views it as a tool. Already he has received dozens of messages - including some safety tips - but not one prank text.

Reaching teens in the surest way possible is about strengthening relationships. And all of our futures depend on it.