Many teens in America today are faced with confusion and hardship. Adults expect certain expectations from teens that some just can’t serve up to. They are going through so much with their bodies and emotions changing that their stress levels go over the extremity, making it hard for American youth to handle all the pressures the world is putting on them. With all the pressures set forth on teens, local communities need to initiate a rite of passage for American youth. 

All teens want to be known and respected as human beings and adults. Sometimes people put too much emphasis on being a grown-up that kids some- times forget what it is like to be kids. It’s like our society wants us to go straight from being a kid to an adult; skipping the era in between that is the most important aspect of a person’s life. Yes, there is a time in everybody’s life where they need to have fun and not worry about life, but when people reach a certain age, usually around the pre-teens, they need to take inconsideration of what their outlook may be for the future. Things will be changing for them and they are going to have to face more difficulties and challenges. When people hit that certain age, they feel that they are growing up and maturing into an adult and would like to be respected as one, and not referred to as being a “child” or “kid”.

The transition from changing from a child to a teen to an adult is an important issue that people need to stress in our society. Our society should not expect certain expectations from teens to become adults. They need that period in their lives to live and explore since their bodies, emotions, thoughts, and feelings, are constantly changing all the time, leaving them in a state of confusion and anger. Some teens become rebellious during this time in their lives because they want to go out and explore and learn things on their own without parents and adults guiding them every step of the way.  Usually during this changing period from being a child to a teen, parents will find that their teen may become aloof and may seem hard to deal with at times. When teens reach that certain age, they feel that they don’t need their parents dependence as much as they did when they were younger. They want to be more independent, learning from their own mistakes.

Teens going through the changing period from a teen to an adult need adults there to take an active part in their lives. In today’s world teens do not have that opportunity to talk to their parents because of both parents working.  Many parents don’t even know what is going on in their child’s lives because of too much involvement in work and bringing in money for the family to survive. Society wonders why teens are into gangs, violence, and drugs. It’s because teens don’t have their parents at home to discipline them, teach them moral values, and set structures for them. Yes, teens do need a certain limit and standards to follow, but without adults there to give those limits and standards to them,  it causes our society to turn out the way that it is. Teens also get involved in things because they no it is illegal and they want to see if they can get away with it without getting caught. If adults would just take more times out of their lives to sit down and talk to their child and ask them how their day was, I bet it would help the teen open up more, talk about their problems, and feel that someone actually cares about them.

The rite of passage in today’s society needs to be focused on in more depth.  It is necessary that there is a rite of passage for the American youth because people can’t expect to live their lives without the adolescent ages being a big factor in growing up.  It would just make our society more messed up than it already is. Teens are supposed to look up to the commercial on army recruiting about “being all you can be”, but in this society that we live in now, it is almost impossible to live up to that expectation because there is not enough encouragement in the world today to get teens focused on their goals. Their parents are not there to support them, influence them, or tell them what to do because of work, so teens just slack off and don’t reach their full potential that they could have achieved. That is a sad part about our society that drastically needs to be changed.  What teens get out of it is that if their parents don’t care much about their lives and what they do, and have no time for them, then why should they care about what they do. They begin to think that they can do anything, whether it be bad or good for them because their parents don’t show any concern for them.

Reasons for societies and local communities to have a rite of passage for American youth is that teens need to be heard when it comes to their opinions about society and how they feel life treats them. It is the governments job to help improve ways to make their lives easier so they can achieve and become “all that they can be” in the world. Teens still do need adults in there lives. In the 1920’s teens never had to worry about not having a parent there because there was always one there. Teens never got involved in all the gang, drugs, sex, and violence in 1920’s as they do in 1990’s because they had restrictions that teens these days don’t have. Maybe our society should change.