Are You In The Adolescent Age?
In the next phase of life, you enter the age of adolescence -- usually as a student of life and of your culture ... learning who you are, how to live and gaining the skills and knowledge you need to survive.
But many cultures go beyond the basics, and work on teaching skills and sharing knowledge that will allow you to not only be self sustainable, but support a family.
More and more cultures are developing tools to also teach how to thrive not only in the environment you grew up in, but to have the skills to adapt and succeed in the future as the world changes.
The Times They Are A Changing
For centuries the world has moved slowly, and in many parts of the world you could expect to take up the profession your family had done for generations. They were the ones who taught you the career skills of being a farmer, herder, merchant, scholar, artisan or healer.
Families shared not only living quarters ... but work rooms, studios and stables did double duty as sleeping areas and play rooms. Children took workers their meals, and absorbed the basics of the family business by being at the sides of their parents as business was done.
But now, children in the modern age are separated from their parents ... who go off to offices, factories and work rooms the children rarely visit, if at all. Children become students, and a taught by strangers their parents rarely meet other than Parents Day or when their is a problem. Others teach not only how to read and right, but the real life navigation of right and wrong.
And these teachers rarely have any career skills other than the business of teaching -- so learning focuses on academics and a standard curriculum of basic society endorsed knowledge -- reading, writing, doing sums and higher mathematics, science, literature, geography, government and possibly learning a foreign language. Music and art and the human side of figuring out who you are and what you believe ... are optional and often overlooked or left out.
Becoming A Student
Growing up is not easy ... and there are lots of teenage tasks to master .. or just get through. The stage of exploring the world gives way to trying to find your life calling and focusing on what you need to learn.
In the area of academics, there are the critical tasks of ...
- learning the basic skills
- discovering your life path
- discovering your life calling and purpose
- figuring out and understanding your potential
- learning basic life lessons
Challenges
The challenges are many ... from learning about heartbreak and betrayal ... to breaking out of the pack to establish your own identity and building a solid foundation of self worth.
Many teenagers struggle with learning the unwritten rules of the culture, which might differ radically from those of your family. Emotions run rampant as hormones turn on, you struggle with accepting yourself in a world that wants you to be somebody else. Combine that with new tests and trials everyday, and everyone at some time ends up embarrassed, making mistakes right in front of your peers and friend.
Add to that the need to decide to stay within the safety of the herd or strike out on your own -- and find your own thing or bliss ... and the challenges can feel overwhelming. All while you are coming of age into manhood or womanhood.
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