Book Reading #40 - Coming of Age in Samoa

Title:
Chapter 14: Education for Choice

Reference:
Mead, Margaret. Coming of Age in Samoa. Harper Perennial, 1928 (1971)

Summary:
In this chapter, Mead tries to analyze her findings in terms how our adolescence could benefit from her larger picture.  She points to our problem as the constant conflict within the young people of double standards everywhere.  Making young people make difficult and life changes choices puts a heavy burden on them.  For instance the girl going into a job at the age of 15 or 16 puts her under her own authority when her parents have been trying to teach her morals that are counter to society for the previous part of her life.

Mead says while many solutions could be looked at, most would be a backtrack to our society.  She says that the only way to fix this imbalance is to train our young one in the way in which they can think on their own, not instilling values directly ourselves.

Discussion:
This chapter gathered all the information she found from her study and gave her interpretation of how all these things add up and could make a significant impact on adolescent girls.  I did not agree with her conclusion because I believe in an absolute set of moral standards.  If we just teach our kids how to think, I see no real difference in the way they are today.  It seems like through social factors their maturity would be the same at the age they are at, and simply showing them methods to think for themselves has no real effect in the end.