Attaining a specific chronological age of maturity stipulated in law is not enough to make one an adult. Virginia Woolf, an English writer in the twentieth-century quotes, ” One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.” It is evident that experiences with people and nature play a key role in transition to adulthood. In the past, different societies had different rites of passage celebrated to mark the transition from adolescence to manhood as opposed to the current society. The author of “Passage to Manhood”, Michael Thompson, a child psychologist, writes, “We fail to provide a meaningful, challenging path that speaks to the souls of a majority of boys.” (Thompson 1). In the American culture, most children struggle with the pressures of transiting into adulthood without understanding its meaning.
During his flight, Thompson got to ask a young boy who was headed for a summer camp, his thoughts on manhood. The boy claimed that the daunting challenges he would experience at the camp would help him discover his manhood. From the boys answer, Thompson noted that going to school only did not make the boy discover his manhood; he writes, “Didn't he get that from school and varsity athletics? No. Though he did well in school and had bright college prospects, the school didn't address his hunger to be a man, not even playing sports.” (Thompson 1). Acquiring basic survival skills, completing goals and overcoming challenges will help boys become responsible adults as Thompson noted, “The key to his manhood lay with the counselors who accompany him on the journey and with his companions whose lives he would protect and who would, in turn, look out for him. Past the rain, the bugs, the smelling bad, he would discover his manhood in the community and in the kind of challenge that only nature offers up.” (Thompson 1).
Leadership and teamwork skills are cultivated through accomplishing tasks in a group where an individual contribution can be recognized, enhancing one's self-esteem, Thompson writes, “Every boy yearns to be a man, and traditional societies always took boys away from their parents to pass an initiation rite. We no longer have such rituals, but boys still wonder: What is the test, where do I find it, how do I pass it, and who will recognize that moment when I pass from boyhood to manhood.” (Thompson 1). For this reason, American society should develop special rites of passage to facilitate this transition as an official acknowledgment of manhood.
Work Cited
Thompson, Michael. "Passage Into Manhood - The Boston Globe - Boston.Com - Op-Ed - News." Archive.boston.com. N.p., 2005. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
