Paoli High School

Paoli, Oklahoma
Teacher: Melinda Alfred

 

Is It Time For Local Communities
To Initiate A Rite Of Passage For AmericanYouth?

By Jamie Tenille White

12th grade

 

 

Teenagers are abruptly shifting from childhood to adulthood. They are getting married and having children while still in high school.  Doesn't this sound like the life of an adult? They cannot handle a spouse or a child at their age. Going on dates, seeing a movie, and attending school are healthy activities for teenagers. They are maturing too early, wanting to live their adult life before they can even vote. The youth are confused about the age they should take on certain responsibilities. Society needs to clear up this blurry line between being a child and being an adult. Having a rite of passage will help stop youth from prematurely believing they are adults and instead, tell them when they are.  It is time to stop this confusion and issue a rite of passage. Initiating this rite will indeed show our youth the positive way to becoming an adult.

           

A rite of passage means the process we go through to become an adult. Society might believe that graduating from high school or getting a driver's license gives us the title "adult". Instead, we need a task to undertake to be labeled an adult. In Native American cultures, it was not unusual for a tribe to send a young boy into the woods for his task. There, he would prove himself an adult by surviving and persevering through whatever obstacles he faced. When he returned, he would no longer be considered a boy, but a man. These days, a way I believe the youth could prove their readiness is by participating in a camp. They would be assigned certain tasks such as cook, homemaker or garbage collector. They would have the same responsibilities as an adult such as working to make a living. They would have to pay bills and manage a household. Youth would obtain responsibility and maturity through this camp. The teenagers would prove that they are ready and willing to be a man or woman.

           

The youth are no longer living teenage lives. Instead, they are having serious relationships that lead to early marriage.  Growing up, I had a best friend I shared many secrets with.  As we got older and into high school, she met a guy she eventually fell in love with.  They had a great relationship, but she was abandoning her youth for him.  Classmates and teachers noticed she was not as social and outgoing as she used to be. She constantly talked of marriage and how wonderful it would be.  The two married and now, after one year, are divorcing.  She gave up her fun, adolescent years for a bad marriage.  If only our society would have stepped in and said, "You're too young to wed.  You're not yet an adult." 

           

Teenagers associate themselves with narcotics, tobacco, and alcohol – all things they should not possess.  Being in contact with these substances, teenagers feel older and more mature.  They believe they will get the respect of an adult if they practice adult activities.  Our society is permitting these inappropriate activities to develop into a rite of passage.  Why is our society allowing this to go on?

             

Other activities teenagers indulge in are gambling, pornography, violence, gangs, parties, and sex. They are abandoning their adolescence and moving straight into adulthood. Even teenage superstars are being too mature for their age. An example of that is pop star Britney Spears. Tabloids are posting Spears on the front of magazines and on the news because of her body. She is a world wide sex symbol at the young age of 18. She is another example of teenagers growing up too soon. Is this a role model for our youth?  We need to set standards and issue a rite of passage for our teens.

           

Teenagers are banding together and using any activities they can find to feel older and receive attention and respect from adult figures. Children are handling guns, smoking in school bathrooms, and drinking at local parties. Kids are looking for a way to reach out and say, "Look at me! I'm an adult!" Teenagers need a true, positive way to become an adult. Our society should stop teenagers from swaying into unruly acts and show them the correct method to becoming an adult.

           

Associating with older friends makes some youth act differently. They pretend as if they are older to fit in with the group. The youth want them to believe they are mature and popular. Teenagers are designing their own transitions into adulthood and our communities are adding no help. We have no right of passage in our culture. Turning 18 or getting a driver's license is no longer a way to become an adult.

           

No tests or trials are offered for adolescents.  No one has to prove themselves to the adult world that they are ready and capable of adult responsibilities like marriage or paying bills. Our culture has not sustained any rite of passage for our youth to experience, therefore, teenagers have to make their own.  It does not have to be hard to understand.  It should be easy for our youth to grasp the idea that they are not adults until our society declares, "You're an adult."  Teenagers want to feel loved and appreciated by adults.  By partaking in adult activities, teenagers believe they will get the same respect grown-ups receive. Teenagers are choosing immoral ways of acting mature. Let's stop this confusion  between children and adults and do something about it. 

           

In conclusion, I feel it is important that our society takes this issue seriously. Other cultures believe it is important, why shouldn't we? Becoming an adult should be a significant time in a person's life, not just another ordinary day.  It is time for a line to be drawn between adult and child, for our society to issue a right of passage for the youth of America.

 

 

Answers To Required Reading

 

1.  The future of young people who in the United States were becoming less than they might be.

 

2. The effects of artificially separating children from a knowledge of birth love and death.

 

3.  Yes. Culture is something you or the people in your communities make. Everyone has a different belief and should make their culture fit them and their personality. People change at different rates, it's their culture.

 

4. (3) an integration of primitive and civilized.

 

5.  I believe it is a good idea for parents to enforce boundaries and structures. We do not want our generation to be known as Generation X. I want our generation to be taught how to better themselves for our world. Many adolescents have not been shown the correct path to follow in order to make something of themselves.

 

6.  a. A drug deal took place in the bathroom.

     b.  Student had alcohol in the beds of their trucks.

     c.  A girl came to school while on drugs.

 

7.  No, I really don't have a solution.  Black teenagers everywhere do have many problems fitting into our society. Not everyone suspects African-Americans do bad things; it's stereotypical.  I do not know what to offer on this problem.

 

8.  No, I love going to school and classes, interacting with kids my own age. I want to learn in class.  No, I don't think I would be very happy because I would not have my friends there with me.

 

9.  I somewhat agree on both the statements.  I do not really know how to live in the real world with a job.  I believe they should show up more about people in real life situations.  It would be very interesting and I would learn how to live in our societies today.

 

10.  It is true.  Every adolescent needs a mentor.  I have someone to talk to and it has helped a lot.  Kids need someone to help them through the hard times, and there is a lot of those as a teenager. Adolescent years are very difficult to handle and we need adults there to support us and

listen to our problems.