youth can learn things that don't actually make sense to them

Younger youth can learn vocabulary and ideas that don't really make sense to them or have any real meaning. This can be misleading.

• This applies to psychological and group dynamics language that are really for older youth. Younger youth can spout it back but it has no real meaning to them.
  
• They can learn abstract language and concepts, but these are only by rote, the underlying meaning is beyond them. (A favorite story: a group of Middle Schoolers were talking about the Narnia Series. One commented that it was, of course, an allegory. They had learned this in school. Then sheepishly admitted “we have no idea what allegory means.”)