Joliet Central High School
Joliet, Illinois
Teacher:
by Sarah Haire
Grade 11
When I was growing up, my dance teacher, Mrs. Corcoran, served as a mentor to me. She taught me so much more than just dance. She was a beautiful image of reality and positive influence on me. Mrs. Corcoran always said to never say “I can’t,” because there was nothing that I couldn’t do. She told me to always smile because when you look at things with a smile, they don’t seem that bad anymore. These things and so much more that she taught me, helped me to become the person that I am today. I will always admire her. When I find myself in need of motivation I just imagine her here watching and waiting with a smile for me to achieve my goal.
Every child deserves a chance to have such a positive person in their life. They need someone to influence them, to advise them, to listen to them, and everything else that goes along with growing up for them. The rites of passage that will someday better our society, are not events that can happen over night. They are people- people who help us become and appreciate who we are inside. These people assure that you live a happy and full life and do whatever they can to keep you on track. Communities cannot enforce all families to be this way because they can’t see what goes on behind closed doors. However, communities should be able to enforce a mentor system for the benefit of every child because every child deserves a chance.
It is important to set aside a time for everything. A child must be given time to be a child. Their responsibilities should be kept very minimal at young age and grow as they get older. A child who is expected to clean, cook or take care of younger siblings almost all the time grows up too fast and is forced to take on premature responsibilities. A child does need to be responsible but not all at once. They have to be able to play and enjoy the experience of being a kid. That experience only comes once in a lifetime. If, for any reason at all, a child’s home life is poor and they are not able to get this freedom there, then at least by having a mentor in their life, it will be an escape from the poor environment at home and into the world that they ought to be experiencing; childhood.
A lot of families do not contain successful members for their kids to look up to. If a child grows up with parents that are abusive, on drugs, or even just lazy, they do not get constant role models. Influence can amount to so much. Negative influence become negative behavior most of the time, just as positive influence usually amounts to positive behavior. If a child has someone to watch and learn from who is able to accomplish goals, it will rub off on the observing child. This makes the child more likely to set his or her own goals for life.
Setting goals and trying to stick to them is the key to becoming a successful person. Mentors could help to move the child into setting these goals and them help them carry them out. Once a goal is set, the child can work at it. The work will not only teach them of responsibility, but once that goal is met, then they will have that wonderful sense of accomplishment burning in their souls. In turn, this sense of attainment will fuel them for the zest of beginning to work on another goal. And so continues this cycle of success.
Even after the cycle is in motion, the mentor will still be essential to the child’s personal welfare. Not only will still need to witness a positive role model, but they will also need a friend. Some one to vent out all of their troubles to in exchange for some trustworthy advice. They might need to talk about subjects as petty as haircuts or scrapes and bruises or something as big as drugs, alcohol, or sex. In all of these cases, a mentor would be a source of virtuous and reliable guidance.
With communities setting up a mandatory mentoring system, the probability of a brighter future and a growth process equivalent to the ideal “Rite of passage” we have been searching for in favor of our youth of America would be much greater. Not only would they be their for the youth to experience and enjoy their childhood with and to act as positive role models, nor only to give advice and help establish goals, but the mentor would be someone to look up to and would stimulate personal growth. By having this mentor all through out the person’s juvenile years, there remains that constant echoing inside of them, like a conscience, that would nudge them in the right direction, even after the mentor’s job is done. Really that is the most important benefit of the whole system. Have your eyes focused on a point in the future, and you are less likely to go astray. Children not only need to feel love, acceptance, and care for their entire lives, but almost equally important they need to have something to look forward to and to shoot for in life. Mentors would be able to satisfy all, or close to all, of these aspects. With them all fulfilled, the youth of America will be less likely to go off track from their destinations and will be more likely to follow their dreams.
Q1- Margaret Mead reminisces the popular Army
recruiting phrase, “Be all that you can be, “ by stating that American teens are
becoming, “less than they might be.”
Q2- Number 1, the importance of the language spoken in the home, is not longer an issue today.
Q3- Yes, I do agree with Mead. By stating that man can design culture to the desire of his own heart, she is stating that man should be able to design his own culture. By culture, I mean that what he and his family will be surrounded by throughout the years to come. One should be able to mold their own future as well as the future of the branches of their family tree that are yet to come. They shouldn’t worry too much about the universal culture of the world, but start at home. Set a way of life for yourself and your children. Pass that culture down through tradition and hope that if you have created the ideal culture, then the rest of man out side of your family tree will catch on.
Q4- 4, I don’t feel that Mead was doing any of the above choices.
Q5- Susan’s speech was quite accurate. Parents and other adults are often in denial about what a adolescent may be capable of doing. They don’t wan to even consider the possibilities that these ‘kids’ are doing such things as drinking alcohol or doing drugs. They want to believe that their children are smarter that that and know better than to even attempt it. But Susan is right. Adolescents are a whole lot smarter than adults credit or notice them to be. If a teenager really wants something, they put their mind to I, and they can almost always find a way to get it. I believe parents or other adults would realize this more often if they would just pay more attention to the teenager and how they might behave. Parents need to spend more time learning about their kids then throwing out empty words and guidelines for them. If the teen is able to talk with the parent and trust the parent, then the parent will more likely be informed of what is really going on in their kid’s life. If that parent is informed well enough, they will be able to set those ”boundaries and structure,” that I do believe every teen wants in order to feel like they are cared for and loved.
Q6- I was a freshman in high school when I was first introduced to the popularity of drugs in teenage society today. Two guys that I met that year always smoked weed. I was close friends with one of them before all of that started and I watched this friend slip further and further away. There was a time when every morning at our bus stop they would get high, then at school, during our lunch period, they would go out side and do it again. Getting off the bus after school, that would be the first thing they would do. They were constantly high.
My experiences with the presence of alcohol at school is even closer to home. One day, A group of girls that I am friends with brought vodka and other hard liquor to school disguised in colored drink bottles. When we were in lunch that day they all were drinking and offered me one of the bottles. I declined but my good friend took the bottle. Later that day she was caught being drunk at school and was suspended.
Another drug experience I had at high school was actually quite recent. When we arrived in gym class, the teachers informed us that no one was to go into the locker rooms and that they would be searching us for weapons or drugs or any other forbidden items. The girl next to me had some marijuana on her and she hid it in the bleachers behind us. The girl next to her had cigarettes on her so she tried doing the same thing. Only, the security found them and then wouldn’t let any of us over there leave until the culprit confessed. Finally the owner of the weed stepped up and we were able to leave.
Q7- I don’t really have a solution for this problem, but more like advice for whomever it may concern. Any person, whether they are Black, White, Mexican, Asian, or any other race, they have to earn respect. The way that individual behaves and constantly appears to be will eventually become known to who ever it is that treats you with such mistrust. Once they see you every day and know you will not break the trust you built up, they will not be suspicious of you so much any more. If a person is going to be closed-minded and racist, then just rise above that and be the good person you are inside even more so around them. If they can not look beneath your skin, then they are the ones screwing up.
Q8- In a way it might be a relief to go to a same sex school or be home schooled. This is because a person wouldn’t have the petty interference of stressful situations, such as boyfriend or girlfriend problems. This would make it easier to learn and get things done healthier and happier. However, I am a firm believer that failure a big part of success. The more you go through in life, bad or good, the more you learn. If you were cut off from interacting with peers or the members of the opposite sex you would be likely to remain naïve throughout that time period and when you got into the real world, those common hardships would hit you like a ton of bricks.
Q9- I do not agree with Peter’s opinion of schools being like prisons. I feel that the more knowledge gained, the better person you can become. A father of psychology, Abraham Maslow, came up with what was called the “Hierarchy of needs.” A part of this process stated how everything on earth, including humans, need to have their basic needs fulfilled before they are able to concentrate on higher level needs. This is how I feel education is. A person must be taught in so much different areas of knowledge to expand their mind and get it ready for new and bigger things, like building your character or making good decisions.
However, I do agree with Jonathon’s comment in that I believe people are better first hand learners. Once you have started meeting those basic educational needs you should go out there into the real world to learn how it is going to be when you get there. This way you will be more focused on the future and motivated to stay on track in order to get there.
Q10- I strongly agree with this excerpt. Everyone needs a strong positive influence in their life. Even If the child already has that in their parents, it should still be mandatory to have a mentor because a lot of children do not have that in their parents and it is better safe than sorry. Every child needs someone to depend on no matter what and who they can talk to in any situation. If the child is influenced in that positive direction and feels acceptance from the mentor, then it will be easier for that child to set goals for themselves and not want to go astray from them.