Centerville High School

Centerville, South Dakota
Teacher: Mitch Russell

 

 

Rite of Passage
By Melissa Ramos

 

 

How might we infuse character and other values in our communities?  I believe that culture and traditions are man-made.  I also believe it is true in many cases that children do realize our society values money above all.  Is a person’s life valued on the amount of money he or she has in his savings account, or how much his house is worth?  Is it valued on what kind of car he drives?  Is this really what life is about?  I believe people are put on earth for purpose.  It seems as if the world cares more about what a person has on the outside than what they are like on the inside.

 

I feel that it is very important for adults to promote responsibility to their children.  It is important to respect our community and our fellow man.  I believe that there are many people in the world today who still care how children see the world.  For example, there are many organizations that promote community service.

 

From my own experience, I have learned a lot about values from being involved in different groups, such as Girl Scouts, Luther League, and 4-H.  My 4-H club does a community service project every month.  I have been involved in many neat activities, like walking ditches, making gifts for the elderly, and even helping a woman have a Merry Christmas after her house was destroyed by a tornado in Spencer, SD.  All of these things were done to help others, but I think that they also taught me a very valuable lesson, while I had fun doing each project.  I learned that it is important to help others in time of need.  I never know when I might need someone to give me a helping hand.  One of the best feelings in the world is to know you made someone happy.  It also makes me feel better about myself.

 

I know there are a few special people in life that care about their fellow man, but do not need a lot of the praise and recognition.  My mother tells me about a woman, Lucille Disbrow, who would visit residents at the nursing home she worked at.  Lucille was probably as old and in worse physical shape than many of the elderly people she visited.  Lucille always visited the residents that had the hardest lives, and many were all alone without any family.  She often picked residents that weren’t always that fun to visit.  Lucille visited the depressed, the withdrawn, and the angry resident.  When these residents had a birthday, Lucille always made their day special by baking a birthday cake and giving them a little gift.  She knew what it meant to give of herself.  Lucille passed away several years ago, but her love and unselfishness will live on forever. 

 

I think it is time for America to get back into the tradition of caring.  I feel this is what has made America a great place.  In my opinion it is important to work for each of our goals.  It is all right to work for material things, but when we lose sight of what is really important, we fail ourselves.  America needs to respect a person’s character and not a person’s pocketbook.  I think that it is sad that millions of people watch a television show where a millionaire chooses a woman to be his wife without even knowing her.  Is money really that important?  It has been said that a child is not raised by his parents alone, but by his community.  I believe that to make our world a better place, we each need to care about each other and teach children the importance of love and treating others the way we would want to be treated.

 

A child can learn that he can help his fellow man at a young age.  We should encourage children to do errands, mow lawns, or shovel snow for an elderly neighbor or grandparent.  Sometimes a child can do this without being paid.  He or she will realize he is being rewarded with something much more important than just money, and that is pride in himself.

 

I feel that we need to give our children more than just possessions.  Children need more than anything, a family, our love, and our time.  Every child needs the feeling of being important and respected.  I believe that by doing this, our society will help itself.  I also believe that violence in schools, gangs, drugs, and many of the problems that kids and teens face today would be solved if we just learned to value one another.

 

Answers To Questions

 

Q1:  What  Margaret Mead said in the beginning of his Coming  Of Age In Samoa that was reminiscent of a current Army recruiting commercial was, “for the future of young people who, in the United States were becoming less than they might be because we understood so little about what a difference culture can make, in terms of stress and strain, in individual fulfillment or defeat.”

 

Q2:  I believe that 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 that we still deal with today. 

 

Q3:  I do believe that “culture is man-made and that man is free to design it closer to the desires of his own heart”?  The think that the definition of culture is a group of people or person’s beliefs or ideas and the way they live their life.

 

Q4:  In her writings, I believe that Margaret Mead was advocating a greater knowledge and control over the civilizing process.

 

Q5:  I think that adults need to enforce important boundaries and structures that help make our world a safer place.  I do also believe that it is important to let the youth make some smaller decisions on their own.  I believe that by doing this, they will better be able to make those more important decisions when they are on their own in the world.

 

Q6:  It’s hard to think of three things that I absolutely saw, due to drugs.  I live in a smaller town and luckily I do not often see drugs in my school, although I know that there is some cigarette smoking and drinking involved in our high school.  I have talked to a friend of mine who has just moved from Chicago.  She said many things that she witnessed in her school, such as smoking pot, fights over unpaid debts for drugs, and terrible violence and name calling, because of drugs involved.

 

Q7:  There have been many ideas to find a solution for what they call, “the plight of the black teenager.”  I think that it has improved much since past years, although there still are many issues left today.  It’s impossible to take away all of the racial comments and bad things that go on in schools over the color of a person’s skin.  In some cases I think that color is used as an excuse for some of the bad choices made by teenagers.  I think that people should be treated equally 

 

Q8:  I think it would be a relief, because it would take away a lot of the pressure that kids have to get good grades.  Sometimes I think that there is so much emphasis on getting good grades that it puts a lot of stress on a person.  I, myself would not be happy being home-schooled or attending a single-sex private school.  I think that one of the best things about school is a child meeting new friends and being able to associate with other children who are going through the same things that they are.

 

 

Q9:  Yes, I think that classes within the community would be very helpful for students.  I think that by having courses like this, we will be more prepared when it is time for us to go out and get a job and take care of ourselves.  I think this will be helpful to us when we have our own families.

 

Q10:  I think that it the “bottom line” is true.  Parents and their children should talk to each other a lot and let them know what is going on in their lives.  I think that one big reason why there is so much violence and anger in the world today is because people feel like they are not wanted.  I think that by having a bond with you children, there would be a lot less of broken families, and many people would be happier in life.