Centerville High School

Centerville, South Dakota
Teacher: Mitch Russell

 

 

Be The Best You
By Jerica Westra

 

 

 There are many times when I find myself wishing for the life of a five-year-old. Everything was so easy. My mom picked out my clothes in the morning. I went to kindergarten with little people who were exactly like me. I memorized the alphabet and then came home and played with my little sister. Today, it seems so different. I get up in the morning and put on seven different outfits before I finally decide to just wear the wrinkled T-shirt on the floor. I drive to school where I see all these individuals with different ideas and who are dressed so differently.  I go to algebra, Spanish, literature, and computer class. I go to play practice after school, then go to all the basketball and football games to play in the pep band. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the five minutes I spend with my family.

           

As a children in America, we do not have the responsibilities that children of other countries do, for example Margaret Mead made the statement, “In Samoa, children as young as four and five had definite tasks graded to their strength and intelligence; tasks that had a meaning in the structure of the whole society. ‘The necessary nature of the Samoan child’s tasks is obvious [to everyone].’”  In America today it seems as if there are many children who are not assigned to responsibility in their homes, and as a result these children will have difficulty surviving in the real world.

           

When I was younger my parents asked me to do certain jobs and I would do them out of respect for my parents and maybe, a fear of punishment. As I grew older, my parents increased the amount of work involved in the tasks I was assigned. I believe that as a result of this, I have a better understanding of what work is and how to accomplish what I am doing. 

           

So many adolescents these days apply for jobs in the work place and once they are working, they don’t like their job because it is too much work.

           

In Samoa, where the children grow up with chores, their strength and intelligence does increase. I am not saying that all American children are stupid because they are not assigned tasks to do when they are younger.  What I am saying is that the strength of the children and their desire to succeed would be greater if they did have some responsibility in their younger years. 

           

Is freedom of choice all it’s cracked up to be? Do adolescents have freedom of choice? I wonder what it would be like to have all the decisions in my life made for me, what I wear, what I eat, where I go to college. Freedom to choose can get a little frustrating, even when it is just deciding what clothes to wear in the morning.  I have to admit, I sometimes do envy the kids who are required to wear uniforms to school.

             

In the presence of gangs, it may be a threat to an individual’s life if he or she wears the wrong color, shoes, or brand of clothing. How can a young person be free when his life is threatened for the clothes he wears? Is it possible for one individual student to obtain freedom amongst other students in his or her school? How can one obtain freedom when he fears ridicule or disappointment for the choices he makes?

           

It is not only the choice of which clothes to wear that an adolescent must make, there are many other choices that I have yet to mention. Other choices include what classes to take, what activities to go out for, who to hang out with after school, what to do on the weekend, the decision to go to college and where, and the list goes on an on. I can’t imagine what it would be like making these decisions by myself; there is so much influence from friends, family, teachers, and other adults that affect my decisions.

           

How much freedom to choose do we as adolescents have? Yes, you can decide what you want to do, but there is always the feeling that you are not making the right choice and that you will be persecuted for the decision that you make. I know from personal experience.  There are times when I have decided to do something but when I find out what other people think of my decision, I have second thoughts. This may be caused by low self-esteem, but it may also be caused by what society makes me think.

           

Today’s society makes a person think that it is wrong to be different. It seems that most people are influenced what the magazines and television tell us are “in”; hairstyles, clothing fashions, cars, hangouts, music, and even the words we speak.  The young girl, who can’t afford the capri pants that all her friends are wearing, feels left out.  The young man, who didn’t buy the new Metallica CD, is disappointed when he can’t join in on the song that his football team is singing to get “pumped-up” for the homecoming game.

           

I pray that the influence of society will decrease and the individuality of each and every person will be allowed to show without the fear of mockery from others. I pray that everyone in my generation will have the strength to make the right choices and develop a sense of responsibility. We all must pray that the next generation of adolescents do not have to face the human disasters that so many people have experienced these past years, such as the shootings in Columbine or the Oklahoma City bombing. I pray that the next generation will be able to accept the different individuals in their lives, because each and every person deserves acceptance no matter what they wear, where they go to school, the color of their skin, or the level of their intelligence.  

Questions

 

1.  In the Preface to Coming of Age in Samoa, Margaret Mead said that young people are becoming less of the people that they can be and not living up to their fullest potential and “being all they can be.”

 

2. The importance of the language spoken in the home, familial pressures on children, misconceptions about race and color, and the effects of artificially separating children from a knowledge of birth, love, and death are all issues from the 1920’s that still apply today. Even though some of the issues stated above have become slightly less of an issue, they still exist in many homes.

 

3. Yes, I do agree with Margaret Mead in her statement, “culture is man made and that man is free to design it closer to the desires of his own heart.” To me, culture is what a man believes, the way he uses his resources, and the practices of his society.  When a man first enters a new way of life on his own, his way of life is not automatically decided for him, that man is able to live his life by his own heart and develop his own beliefs, practices, and ways of using the resources.

 

4.  In her writings, Mead was promoting (2) a greater knowledge of control over the civilizing process.

 

5.  My peers and I would like more boundaries and for adults to recognize what is going on in some things, such as drugs, sex, gangs, and parties. There are other things in our lives that we would like kept private. Adults should recognize what teens are doing but teens do have the right to privacy.  Not everything that teens do is an adult’s business; some things are especially when they involve the health and well being of the individuals.

 

6. I can’t say that I absolutely, positively know, saw or experienced three things concerning drugs and alcohol among students at my school. Outside of school I have seen my peers drinking and smoking. Students at my school do participate in these activities during the lunch period and you can tell because they come into the classroom smelling like smoke and what not.

 

7.  My solutions for the plight of the black teenager would be to stand up for yourself and do not let the criticism that comes from other people get you down. If you believe that you are doing the right thing, the thoughts and words of others should not make you upset.

 

8.  It would be a relief if all I had to do were to “go to classes and learn.” There are so many activities and events involved with school and it is difficult to stay focused on school work and keep up with all that you are involved in. Although the stress and all the activities can add up, I would not wish to be home-schooled because I think that I would

lack social skills and some determination. I know some friends that are or were home-schooled and I can tell that they do lack in the areas I mentioned above. Attending a single-sex school would isolate me from the other world, “the world of boys,” something

 

 

every person should be acquainted with. The world of the other sex is completely different and when you enter the “real world” you have to have an understanding of that world.

 

9.  In a way I do agree with Pete Seeger’s statement, “Schools are like prisons because they don’t’ teach you how to live,” and Jonathon’s comment, “People are dulled by the remoteness to the real world.” These statements seem true to me, because as Seeger said, students have no idea how to survive in the real world, many students are book smart but they are not street smart. Jonathon’s comment is true because if you are constantly drilled on the subject it may become boring and cause you to not want to enter the real world.

 

10. The bottom line, “we can lecture kids to our heart’s content but if they don’t care what we think, or there is no relationship between us that matters to them or they think we are ignorant to the reality of their lives, they will not listen” is very true. If a person does not have respect for another person you cannot expect him to listen.  A lack of connection with the teenage community is going to cause miscommunication between the adult and the adolescent worlds. Adults do not know everything that happens in the teenage world and teenagers don’t know everything that goes on in the adult world. Until an actual connection is established between these two worlds, it will be impossible to communicate.