Newell-Fonda High School
Newell, Iowa
Teacher: Connie Doonan
America’s Youth and the Quest for A Right of Passage
By Nikki Hazen
12th Grade
In the 1920’s, families had a large number of children for several reasons. One of the reasons they had a lot of children was so they could help with the chores on the farm. Children were capable of helping with activities like tending the garden, cleaning the house, and herding the sheep, among many other chores. When the children donated their time to their parents, the parents didn’t need to hire help and were able to make a larger income. However, as time progressed and technology rapidly continued to develop, children stopped helping their parents and began to play with their friends and wander into a new world full of trouble, hate, and greed. Children in the 1990’s have very little responsibility and need some type of challenge in their lives to smooth the transition from being a child to an adult.
Gangs, murders, rape are all the result of misled children. When defenseless children attempt to raise because there are no adult figures around to guide them in the right direction, they lean on their friends for help. In large cities where parents are in their offices all day, children often ban together for support. They form their own families where outsiders aren’t welcome and parents and adults are often considered to be evil. They shelter themselves from the outside world to protect what they feel is their “family”. These groups, often called gangs, symbolize themselves to become separate from society. They may use a certain type of hand signal or may even wear a certain type of clothing upon their body. One of the most common types of apparel is the bandana. In gangs, the bandana is mostly around the head. These new “families” occasionally allow new members to join under certain circumstances. Moreover, they must first pass a test of willpower by passing a test of guts. Much like how the Indians had to survive alone in the wilderness to become an adult, the gang members must pass a test, such as surviving a brutal beating. One rumor that circulates a while ago was that the prospective gang member had to drive around the city at night without their headlights on. When an innocent passerby flashed their lights at the gang member, the new member had to chase the car down and kill the person. The members of the gang were only searching for a test to see if someone was worthy of being a part of their family. Much like society today, we need a test to qualify adolescents into the adult world. Not as drastic as the requirements of the gangs, but something to prove that adolescents are capable of becoming responsible adults.
The test for the rite of passage would be very hard to think of. The test shouldn’t be based on beauty because that would quite obviously discriminate against a large number of people. Society already places too much emphasis on beauty. People don’t need to be thin to be pretty. The rite of passage could possibly be a test of brains, because in order to get anywhere in today’s society, Americans must be capable of certain requirements. The requirements wouldn’t have to be difficult, such as physics or biology, but simply the knowledge of the everyday world. If a person can’t calculate simple math, they shouldn’t be allowed a high paying job where brains are needed.
Children of today’s world are obviously crying out for help. Why else would there be problems with society, such as gangs and drugs? If parents would just sit down with their children for even ten minutes a day and talk with them about life and all of its mysteries, that could mean all the difference in the world to that child. The children wouldn’t need to lean upon one another for support and protection and would therefore put respect in the minds of young adolescents. Granted, children do enjoy their freedom, but unfortunately, too many children have taken advantage of that freedom. They have no limits as to what they can and can’t do; including drugs, guns, robbery, and even participating in gang rapes which increases teenage pregnancy in America.
Hopefully this paper has shown about the needs and problems that children and adolescents face today. Adolescents have problems and worries, just as adults do. Many children are being rushed from a carefree childhood to a worrisome adult in a very short period of time. Children need time to be kids, they need time to play in their sandboxes, ride their bicycles to the swimming pool, and even make mud pies in the backyard. Children don’t need to be worrying about cleaning the house, making supper, and babysitting for younger siblings. When children aren’t treated as children, they often rebel later on. If parents would just spend a little more time with their children and less time at work, the world might be able to create a rite of passage for America’s youth. Until then, let the kids be kids and the adults can worry about all the problems.
Answers To Right Of Passage Questions
1.At the beginning of Margaret Mead’s preface, she said that young people in the United States were becoming less and less than they might be. The Army commercial says that we need to be the best we can be, and Margaret Mead points out that America’s youth are not being the best they could be.
2. I don’t think that misconceptions about race and color are an insult to today’s culture anymore. Back in the 1920’s, African-American people and other
Minorities were not accepted very well in America. In the 1990’s minorities are living next door to each other and even go to school together. They accept
each other for whom they are inside and are not biased about the outside.
3. I believe that culture is man-made and that man is free to design it closer to the desires of his own heart, because if culture wasn’t man made, every human on Earth would have the same culture and beliefs. Quite obviously, we don’t have the same beliefs because our culture doesn’t readily accept the consumption of dog meat by humans, whereas dog meat is a main part of the Korean diet. In the dictionary, culture is listed as the act of developing the intellectual and moral facilities especially by education.
4. Margaret Mead was advocating a greater knowledge and control over the civilizing process.
5. I don’t feel that adults need to recognize what is going on and enforce “boundaries and structure” because I feel that a majority of teens are growing up perfectly normal. There is a small portion of America’s youth that are headed in the wrong direction and need some help. For the most part, I feel that America’s youth are just fine and are capable of surviving and growing up into healthy, normal adults.
6.
1. I saw a group of kids smoking after school.
2. I saw some people drunk at a party.
3. I saw some people I work with smoking pot.
7. The Black teenager could maybe act more friendly if he is normally in a bad or suspicious mood. He could also try to smile once in a while. If he is hanging
out with the wrong group of friends, he could find some new ones and he could also try talking with the sales clerks and explain how the discrimination
makes him feel.
8. I wouldn’t be happy if I had to go to a private, single sex school or be home schooled because I would miss all the excitement that happens at public
schools, like rowdy bus trips and just being able to see my friends.
9. I believe that Pete Seeger’s comment is somewhat true, because schools don’t really teach you how to live. They teach you basic education but not stuff like how to survive in the wilderness, life in the big city, and what to do if someone attacks you.
10. I feel that “the bottom line” is mostly true, because even a child from a wealthy family needs someone to talk to and listen to them. Our society has too many movies about situations where children from the “inner city” have more problems than the rest of us.