Saturday, September 12, 2009

Initiation Rites and Learning


The teaching that one receives at home is considered the first step in a life of education. The culture that one grows up with is inherited from the immediate family as well as from the culture centric point of view of similar relatives. By having the family as a starting stone in learning about life, rites of passage rituals become a sort of test that one must pass in order to become accepted within the culture. The parents or the senior leveled individuals of a culture are responsible for the teaching of the young ones as they were once taught by their elders.

Different cultures have different ways of passing down their traditions, beliefs, and ways of thinking. There are acceptable ways of behavior that differ from culture to culture. Learning what is right and what is wrong can be considered something that differs depending on the eye of the beholder. What is considered an essential lesson in one culture may not be considered as such in another. With the appearances of formal schools, the role of sole teachers changed from the families to the formal school teachers. Still within certain cultural communities, the formal schools did not have dramatic changes in the point of view of the cultures that they belonged to. In the twenty first century as laws against segregation are established, the schools continue to be segregate by culture. In this manner, the cultural teachings is still shared by the community and the schools.

Rites of passage ceremonies have varied throughout the years. What used to be considered a direct change from child to adult is now considered unlikely with a period in between known as adolescence. The period of adolescence in western culture has diminished the effectiveness of rites of passage ceremonies and has left them to become nothing more than traditional ceremonies such as birthdays. American rites of passage ceremonies are now being compared to high school graduations or college graduations. The passage to adulthood has been blurred from a definite change to a gradual growth. But rites of passages ceremonies continue to be a form of continuous lesson taught by the elders in a specific culture.

No comments:

Post a Comment