Newell-Fonda High School
Newell, Iowa
Teacher: Connie Doonan

 

 

 

R*E*S*P*E*C*T

By Kristine Kruchten

12th Grade

 

 

Laughter is heard from adolescents around the country when adults ask, “Is it time for local communities to initiate a rite of passage for American youth?”  Local communities are incapable of forcing a rite of passage.  However, they can instill a respect for that rite of passage that teenagers of today dread coming to grips with.  “It’s what people know about them inside, what makes them afraid,” Clint Eastwood once said as Josie Wales.  Today, adolescents are afraid to grow up, afraid to make their own decisions, afraid to “break from the herd”-just plain terrified to take responsibility for their own lives.

           

Throughout the years, morals and values have survived in a select few.  As in Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection, nature shuts the door to those who do not select themselves to begin with.  In turn, they fall down the food chain and are eaten alive by those who do choose to accept the fact that holding strong convictions through morals and values is what keeps America living today.  They respect the country in which their grandfathers and great-grandfathers died to let freedom reign over this beautiful land.  Those who do not respect this nation and everyone, who fought for it, take for granted how lucky they are.  That is the problem with adolescents today.  A rite of passage can only be obtained through respect for every single human being in this “melting pot,” and a return to the morals and values that generations proceeding once acknowledged.  The passing of morals and values has been altered dramatically throughout the generations because of the obsession with economics brought on by technology and modernization.  What used to be single-income families, with one parent working while the other was at home nurturing and conveying the ethics and ideals, has now transformed into a situation in which minimal guidance is rendered.  This plight is now demanding the economic capacity of not just one, but both parents.  Corporate America does not care how they make their pennies, so long as they are in their pockets to count.  Corporate America does not care who they must step on in order to get their grubby little hands on their filthy money.

           

The rite of passage learned in the home years ago by traditional means has ceased.  The void is now being filled by entertainment “freak”-shows with greedy superficial role models that have distorted the message that was once being sent by traditional means.  Kids watch the media, and when a parent is not home to tell them any better, kids learn from the media.  Over-paid athletes are in their professions for two things:  money and attention.  When the attention is constantly on one brat who refuses to learn from his mistakes and intentional actions, the media is continually covering a person like Dennis Rodman.  Despite his toddler-like personality, kids of all ages look up to him because of the attention given and the monetary value rendered.  It’s time for the professional athletic associations to start taking charge of the matter by kicking “punks” like Dennis Rodman out of their sport.  Children today need role models that are worthy of the limelight.  When they learn from people like Dennis Rodman, sooner or later they figure they will not be punished for their actions.  Discipline is just as important as respect.  However, discipline cannot be administered because of the fact that no one is home to do the spanking or grounding.  How can children learn otherwise?  If morals and values are not taught in the home, they are not taught at all and a child grows up without the conscience that lets him/her decide right from wrong or that makes him/her feel guilty and ashamed of their actions.

           

Through discipline, responsibilities, and especially respect, adolescents will not have to be afraid to take that rite of passage that they so rightfully deserve.  Taking the step into the adult world is much more complicated today than it ever was before.  Tomorrow’s future is today’s kids, and hopefully they can alter Corporate America so that their kids will be able to breathe when they become teenagers.  The extreme obsession with money today needs to shift to the importance of yesterday’s morals and values.  Without those, looking at themselves in the mirror everyday would be just a waste of time because they won’t be able to see their true selves through all the greed that masks their souls.

 

Questions

 

 

A1-  Margaret Mead says, ”young people . . . were becoming less than they might be . . ..”  This is reminiscent of a current Army recruiting commercial because the Army’s motto is, “Be all you can be.”

 

A2-  I believe that all the issues are still important today and some are even more important, especially the importance of the language spoken in the home and the misconceptions about race and color because the “melting pot” idea takes affect.  The effects of artificially separating children from a knowledge of love and death are also quite important because the media today associates sex with love, and sleep with death.  Children should not grow up with the wrong assumptions.

 

A3-  I do agree with Margaret Mead that culture is man-made, but I don’t believe she realizes that everyone’s culture is unique to their own backgrounds and beliefs.

 

A4-  Margaret Mead was advocating a greater knowledge and control over the civilizing process.

 

A5-  I do not think that adults would even want to recognize what is really going on, so they really cannot enforce boundaries and structures.  Until every parent suspects their own child, nothing will come out of discussing the situation at hand.

 

A6-  I have seen my peers drink, smoke, and chew tobacco.

 

A7-  No, I don’t have a solution for the “plight of the black teenager,” and I really don’t think anyone does.  The racist adults from the civil rights time are still living today and they keep passing their hatred to the receiving generations, and until those prejudices die, a solution will not be soluble.

 

A8-  I know that I am quite lucky when it comes to a question such as this, because living where I do and going to this school, all I have to do is go to class and learn.  I would not want to be home-schooled because then I would not obtain the social skills that I would in the real world.

 

A9-  Yes, I would want more classes that incorporated real life situations, because right now it seems as though most of the knowledge that is impounded in our heads will not be useful in the long run.

 

A10-  I agree with the first line, that “Every adolescent needs a mentor . . ..”  Everyone needs someone else to look up to.