Rockridge High School
Teacher: Barbara Downey
Do the Youth of America Need a Rite of
Passage?
By Shawn Berberich
No matter where a person looks in today’s society, the evening news, magazines, and newspapers, radio broadcasts, and even on the internet, one sees examples of adolescents who are committing crimes, drinking alcohol, using illegal drugs and committing suicide. These events have become such usual occurrences because of the lack of acceptance into adulthood. Adolescents want acceptance, but are unable to find it in the adult world. So in an effort to find acceptance, teens have created their own subculture. Unfortunately the prerequisites that they choose to be a part of the initiation into their culture are dangerous, not only to themselves but also to all of the people around them. The crimes that we have taken to be part of our everyday lives will continue to be so until our society initiates a rite of passage for the youth of America.
Throughout history cultures all over the world have had their own rites of passage to symbolize the change form childhood to adulthood. The American Indians had their vision quest where the youth was sent off into the wilderness without any food or water. They were left alone until they found a “spiritual guardian” that would lead the path into true adulthood. In the Jewish religion there is the Bar Mitzvah and the Bat Mitzvah. These are ceremonies that mark the passage of a young person into adulthood after a period of religious instruction.
However, the majority of the adolescents in America have no formal ceremony to mark the change to adulthood. There are several key times in an adolescent’s life where more responsibility is taken on. For example, at sixteen the driver’s license is gained, and at the age of eighteen the rite to vote is gained. These times are major milestones, but they are not acknowledged by all as signs of adulthood. The age of twenty-one is the generally accepted age of the beginning of adulthood. However, not every one agrees on this age either. Some adults begin to treat teenagers as adults as soon as they begin junior high school, but some continue to treat teenagers as children well into their twenties. This vast difference in opinion only serves to confuse youth and drive them to seek acceptance elsewhere.
Americans need to come up with some way to show that a child is no longer a child but has achieved the status of an adult. There needs to be a very specific outline of what it means to be an adult. Youth are unsure of what is expected in the role of adult and therefore cannot act as adults until they are taught somehow what is expected of them.
One way that the young people of America can learn about being an adult is to be in the work force. Once a person reaches adulthood, he/she is expected to hold a job until the age of retirement. To have a summer job or any part-time work is a great way to learn responsibility, punctuality, and teamwork; all are needed to be a successful adult. When a person has a job he/she is given specific tasks that they are expected to carry out with little or no supervision. These tasks need to be completed efficiently and accurately in the allowed time. Responsibility is a key element in the job market and in the adult world in general. Something else that teens must learn when you get a job is punctuality. The managers and supervisors are not likely to put up with excessive tardiness or absence. If there is a record of absence or tardiness, the chances for promotion and advancement are severely diminished. Teamwork is another thing that must be learned in order for someone to be a valued employee. One must learn how to handle conflict with co-workers, how to work together as a team, and how to address problems with management.
To help ease their involvement into the workforce, youth could participate in a career-mentoring program. The idea is relatively new and the benefits of mentoring programs have not yet been realized by the general public. When a young person is paired with someone who is older and already accepted in the adult world, the possibilities for learning are innumerable. The adolescent involved learns how to interact with the older generations (and in turn the mentor learns about the youth as well). Through the interaction with the adult the teen learns many lessons about life and how to be an adult, whether this is through stories, conversation, or experience.
If one looks at the current education system in America, he/she can see that there are several opportunities to make small changes that would greatly benefit the youth that the schools were set up to help. There are few courses that are offered in most high schools today that teach adolescents about the real world. There are, of course, the required classes such as Consumer Economics and American Government that teach basic facts about the adult world. There are a few classes that are aimed at teaching teenagers how to live as adults and what is expected of them as adults (for example classes such as Parenting and Adult Living). However, these classes are not enough. There needs to be far more classes that are designed to shape the adolescents into responsible and able adults. Something that would help is for the student to go into the workplace and see first hand what goes on and what the job requires. The practice of teen job shadowing is a great way for the students to learn about different careers and the responsibilities of various jobs.
One day in the near future I hope to turn on the television or open a newspaper and not find a reporter telling the story of “just another teen related tragedy.” If the people of America join together to create a rite of passage for youth, then the stories of the adolescents of America committing crimes will not be the norm, but instead the exception. With the initiation of a rite of passage the world can only benefit.
Questions
What does Margaret Mead say at the start of her 1961 Preface to Coming Of Age In Samoa that is reminiscent of a current Army recruiting commercial?
In the preface to Coming Of Age In Samoa Margaret Mead talks about the youth of America and how they will shape the future of the country and how they should strive to reach their goals, because it is they who will inherit the nation and be in charge of the country when they come of age.
Which of the following issues of the 1920’s are no longer issues of today?
The importance of the language spoken in the home.
Family pressures on children.
Misconceptions about race and color.
The effects of artificially separating children from a knowledge of birth, love, and death.
In my opinion all of these issues are still present and still very much issues of today.
The importance of the language spoken in the home effects the children of everyone in the nation. If the parents speak limited or no English than the chances that the children will succeed in school are not good.
Family pressure is something that also effects all youths at some time or another. Weather it is in the form of death of a family member or the loss of a parent due to divorce.
The problems that the nation faces due to misconceptions of race and color are some of the biggest problems that we face today. All of us are subjected to or at least aware of the racial inequality that is a part of the daily lives of most American’s who are members of a minority.
The effects of artificially separating children from a knowledge of birth, love, and death is something that some parents do in an attempt to spare their children the pain that are accompanied be these things. The effects of this, no matter the intent, are negative. The child or youth misses out on the things that are needed to prepare them for the world.
Do you agree with Margaret Mead that “culture is man-made and that man is free to design it closer to the desired of his own heart”? What definition of “culture” do you find in your dictionary?
I do believe that culture is man made. The members of a society see the problems with their culture; they locate the cause and alter the culture to provide for a solution. A single person is most likely not able to redesign a culture to make it closer to his or her own heart’s desire. But man as a whole is able to shape its culture to fit the needs and desires of the people.
The definition of culture that is found in my dictionary is: the civilization of a given race or nation at a given time, its customs, its arts, and its conveniences.
In her writings Margaret Mead was advocating:
a return to primitive ways
greater knowledge and control over the civilizing process
an integration of the primitive and the civilized
none of the above
In her work Margaret Mead was advocating a greater knowledge and control over the civilizing process. She wanted people to understand where they came from and how they became who they are
Comment on Susan’s speech (page 60 A Tribe Apart). Do you and your peers really want adults to recognize what is going on and to enforce “boundaries and structure”?
I think that Susan was very brave and daring to give such a speech to her class and to all the teachers and administrators at her school. I can not answer for my peers, but I do want adults to recognize what is going on and to set boundaries for me. I feel that this in the most important at school. I am there to learn; and if the teachers are not doing their job to enforce the rules, than it is creating an atmosphere where the people who are there to accomplish something are disrupted by the childish and sometimes dangerous antics of those who do not care if they do well is school.
Write three things that you “absolutely, positively know, saw, or experienced concerning drugs and alcohol among” students at your school.
a. 1. I have been offered drugs on three different occasions
I have been asked to give someone the name of someone that they could buy drugs from
I have known three people who have brought alcohol to school or who have come to school while under the influence of alcohol
Do you have a solution for the “plight of the black
teenager”? (page 88 A Tribe Apart)
I believe that, unfortunately, the only thing that will solve this problem is time. Minorities in the United States have been victims of discrimination for centuries. Although there have been advances in “equal rites” there is still a long way to go. In my opinion as long as the white majority sees only the negative stories of black teenagers steeling, dealing drugs, and being involved in gang violence they will never be able to see the good things that are being done by African Americans. The media covers all the criminal cases, but the cases where black people are concerned receive the most time and the most focus. Until this trend is reversed the “plight of the black teenager” will only worsen.
Would it be a relief if all you had to do was “go to classes and learn”? Would you be happier if you were home-schooled or attended a single-sex private school where academics were presented in an exciting way and learning was admired even by peers?
It would be a great relief if all I had to do at school was go to class. If I did not have to worry every day about the cloths that I wear, the way I look, the other students, and the possible problems that may arise during the day my grades would be better and I would be a generally happier person. I do not believe that I would be happy to be home-schooled or at a single-sex private school. I need the practice of interaction with other people. In the adult world I know that I will have to deal with people that I do not particularly like, but I will have to learn to deal with them, school is the perfect place to learn this skill.
Comment on the line from Peter Seeger: “Schools are like prisons because they don’t teach you how to live.” And Jonathan’s comment “People in school are dulled by the remoteness to the real world.” Would more classes incorporating community-based learning be helpful? (incorporating activities with relevance to actual real life situations)
I would not say that schools are like prisons, but Seeger is very right, they do not teach you how to live. I also agree with Jonathan’s comment. The majority of high school students are so bored in school that they look to other things to amuse themselves. I do not know anyone who can find excitement in trigonometric graphing, sentence structuring, or ionic bonding in chemical equations. We are told that we need to take these types of classes, but we are unable to relate them to anything that we will be doing later in life. I think that more classes than incorporate actual real life situations would be very helpful. I think that classes such as Consumer Economics and American Government are helpful, these type of classes teach us things that we will be dealing with in every day life.
Comment on the “bottom line” (page 364 A Tribe Apart)
I think that the “bottom line” is right on the mark. Every adolescent needs to feel that they belong to the greater whole that is society. We want to be recognized as people with distinct personalities and ideas. We want to be heard and loved and simply talked to. It the adults of today keep treating the youths as a different species than the generation gap will continue to grow until there will be no way to ever bridge it.