Rockridge High School
Teacher: Barbara Downey
Is It Time For Local Communities To
Initiate A Rite Of Passage
By Sarah A. Beauchamp
Grade 12
"Is it time for local communities to initiate a rite of passage?" has been a recurring question being asked lately. First, the most important thing I think we should figure out is what a rite of passage really is. A rite is a formal act or ceremony carried out according to fixed rules. Next, it needs to be decided whether or not it is necessary to have one. Is growing up and maturing enough, or is more needed? Adults are not the only ones to be considered for this. Teenagers also need to be considered because it is our lives that are being discussed.
With all the problems of today it is extremely hard to determine how much teenagers should be allowed to deal with on their own. Hitting puberty would have to be the biggest milestone for any person’s life. Just thinking about all that I went through is enough to make me shake uncontrollably. It was, by far, not the most graceful experience of my life. Looking back on it though, makes me laugh. Picture all of these young adults growing up with no control over the changes that are taking place with their body. Being so unsure of yourself and what is happening is the most frightening feeling. Adults must have felt utterly helpless just standing by and watching this. We were made to deal with this almost totally on our own. Sure, parents and other adult figures were there to lend support in any way that they could, but this is one event that I think made teens stronger by dealing with it on their own.
Just like puberty was one event that adults did not need to be there as much, there are other events that we need them for more than we will ever be able to understand. Suicides can occur if adults are not there. Suicide is a horrible percent among teenagers and the rate keeps on climbing. The reason is teenagers are afraid to open themselves up to someone. It is great to have best friends and buddies you hang out with during school or during your free time, but this is not always a positive experience. With the tremendous amounts of peer pressure these days, it could be a terrible hindrance. When you are with your friends, all you want to do is fit in with the "cool" crowd and know the right people. There are adults out there who are willing to help if they are ever given a chance. The Big Brother and Big Sister programs are excellent examples because the people in these programs went through the same things that we are going through now. They know that without someone there to lend a helping hand, it could lead to destruction. For the people who never found someone to help them with their problems, suicide was probably a way to end all of the turmoil they were experiencing. Adults are always there to help, but if teens will not open up to them, then they can not bring a change in life. As I know, it is hard going through life believing that the only people you have to confide in are your friends. This is not true. There are thousands of people out there willing to provide advice.
Every person has a different story or song to sing about their life. Growing up is a major part of this. It just happens that some people’s tune might be happier than another because they had someone there to give them support. Teenagers might be sullen and exclaim that they have no one to talk to, but they are just not looking hard enough. There are mentoring programs out there for someone who wants help. Adults are willing to put in the time and effort, but are teenagers? When the going gets tough, he/she turns the other way. This needs to stop now! The most important thing to realize is that help can only be achieved when both sides are willing to acknowledge the fact that there is indeed a problem. The second most important thing is for both sides to be willing to participate in the solving of the problem. If teenagers are not wanting a mentor, then there are Adopt a Grandparent programs out there for teenagers who find helping others as a soothing way to deal with their problems.
Growing up is an initiation rite all by its self. The main factor that needs to be dealt with is having everyone’s problems solved. Adults need to be made a part of this because without them, teenagers would be lost. After all, we are the adults of the new millennium.
1. "young people...becoming less than they might be because we understood so little about what a difference a culture can make..."
She is saying that teenagers need to be all that they can be. We need to live life to its fullest.
2. I believe that the effects of artificially separating children from a knowledge of birth, life and death is no longer as important today as it used to be.
3. Yes, because we make our culture they way we live our life culture: The behavioral patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought, especially as expressed in a particular community or period.
4. Mead was advocating greater knowledge and control over the civilizing process.
5. I believe that teenagers today do want adults around them to recognize what is going on and to open their eyes to it, but we do not want the parents to try and control us by enforcing more boundaries and structure like they do with everything else.
6.
1) Students will leave school for a class to either smoke for a while or to get high
2)Parents will be aware that when they go out of town their child will have a party and it is allowed as long as nothing gets messed up. Sometimes even that is considered all right.
3)Some kids parents will let them drink and tell them it is OK and if they get into trouble to call them and they will come and bail them out.
7. Honestly, all I can say is that I do not have a solution for this because how am I supposed to change how everyone else thinks, acts and behaves? All I can say is that I do not agree with how people see a person of a minority and automatically assume that the person is out to cause trouble or is even the cause of whatever trouble might be going on. People nowadays need to open up their eyes a little wider and realize that even though it may be really simple to look at a person’s skin color and judge them from that, they need to learn to look a little farther than that.
8. I do not feel that it would be a relief to just go to school and learn then how would a person get a chance to learn from what life could teach you. I feel that it is a lot better for people to go to school with peers of both genders because then they are able to experience a little more then they might otherwise get from going to a same-sex school. You learn life lessons from both genders.
9. I agree with both of these comments because you can only learn so much from school that actually has to deal with real life. Schools need to offer more classes with a larger variety that actually have something to do with life. It is all well and good to learn all you can about algebra and grammar, but you also need to learn how to survive in the real world. Be it living in a home or on the streets any little help would be essential.
10. I agree with this wholeheartedly because teenagers do not just need adults to be our friend, but rather someone who has experienced some of the same things that we are going through right now and are not afraid to share it with us. Teenagers will only listen with one ear (if that) if they know that adults are only saying this stuff to try and build a relationship built on teenagers doing all of the giving. It will work better if both sides give a little.