Why do intellectuals not understand teenagers? Right back to Aristotle who wrote , about half a millennium before Christ was born, despairingly about the “younger generation” having “no respect”. Sound familiar?
Aristotle was obviously writing as a parent, not as a grandparent. If he had been writing as a grandparent he would have praised “the young” for being innovative and not stuck in the mud like their parents.

Any person who has bred horses, dogs, or peas will tell you that the new generation takes after its grandparents, not its parents.

My oldest daughter was the kind of child who could NOT be persuaded. If she faced the smallest chance of failing at something - she simply would not try at all. Explaining the drama we went through to teach her to ride a bicycle would be a post on its own!
When I was trying to teach her to read, the youngest, whom I was not trying to teach, would climb all over me and interrupt and answer my questions - resulting in her sister refusing to co-operate at all.

When my oldest went to High School - every year she would excel in one subject, and scrape through on the rest. The first year it would be Geography - so we though maybe she would like to become a geologist. The second year it was History - so we thought maybe she would be an academic. By the time the results for the third year came through - the penny eventually dropped. The subject did not matter at all - every year she excelled in only one subject - the one where she liked the teacher!
Then the school told me in a mid year interview that they would like me to keep her back for a year, even though she was scraping through, to give her time to mature. No way in hell was I going to make both my life and hers hell for another 3 years.
So I took her out of her Model C school and sent her to Technical College - which in the old days would have been called “Bantu Education”.

She hit the deck running - to top of the class, especially in computers and catering, and she was mentoring others who did not have computers at home.

This child had to have her tonsils out at the age of six. The operation went fine - until we got home. No-one in the hospital had realised she had not swallowed what had been given to her. She would NOT swallow anything! No amount of reasoning or persuasion worked. So back to the hospital to get her on a drip so she did not dehydrate. At lunchtime my mother, fresh from a good night’s sleep, waltzed in and told me to go home, have a bath, get a change of clothes, and a rest.

So what did her grandmother do when I was gone? Talk to her - No! Persuade her - No! My mother bribed her - 50 cents for a swallow! Remember inflation - this was 1987. 50 cents was money then! When I got back - she had accumulated about 200 rand in today’s buying power.

If you want teenagers to read - ban books in your house. Tell them books are a waste of time and you want them out of school and helping support the family as soon a legally possible. If that does not get them to conspire with their grandparents and read illegally with a torch under the blankets - then go to the last resort:

Bribe them - at 50 cents a swallow!