Alan Oliver: Child to Young Adult in the Transition Zone

Change is difficult to handle, especially when you are an adult. Old attitudes and ways of coping are resistant to change and adaptation to new circumstances. We assume youth are more flexible - they can roll with the punches.

It is often forgotten that youth have a high security need and have not yet developed the coping skills required when a transition takes place. Transitions - whether they are moving to a new home, divorce, death or new schools - test the child's ability to survive and thrive as life's changes overtake them and sweep them and their families onward. When a dual cultural environment is added, when the youth is born into another culture but is growing up in a Western environment, it complicates the adjustment and can lead to problems.

In almost all cultures throughout the world there is a transition process in which young boys and girls are formally initiated into the adult roles and responsibilities of their culture. These trainings and ceremonies are called "rites of passage" or "coming of age" events in these cultures. The activities included in this process are often practical (i.e. learning how to hunt or how to sew) and include new rituals and ceremonies, history and traditions that teach tribal mores and values and tests strength or endurance. There is always a spiritual element that deals with purpose and responsibilities. This process is basic since it seems to be in all cultures and serves a crucial part in the young person becoming a responsible adult in that community.

In modern, Western culture this important transition process has either been eliminated or has become so vague and fragmented as to be meaningless. With the exception of Jewish culture, which still retains the bar mitzvah and the Hispanic culture with its quincenera for 15-year-old girls, our rites of passage tend to be isolated and fragmented, getting a driver's license, securing a first job for pay, voting, a first sexual experience or perhaps getting into a gang. It is ironic that one of the most rigorous uses of the passage model is entering a gang structure where there are tests to surmount and skills to learn followed by a ceremony.

For the major transitions between schools, the process often includes a visit to the new school at the end of the school year and perhaps some older students or a representative of the new school answering questions on a visit to the graduating class. Transition programs are connected to values, citizenship, responsibilities, health and behavior of the newly emerging young adult.

If we want to influence and guide our children to become responsible and successful adults, these types of programs should be created and implemented in our schools, our communities and our homes. They must reflect our society with its many different cultures. They should include intentional activities in the final months of the fifth and eighth grades, along with summer experiences and more activities in the first months of the sixth and ninth grades. Schools justifiably emphasize competency education in reading, writing, math, social studies and science. They also have a role to play in human transformation and future success as a mature citizen in a just society. These transition periods offer crucial times for these transformations.

There is now an opportunity to create this program model because of a new program at RAMS funded through the add-back, city budget process with the backing of Supervisor Jake McGoldrick. A program is being designed, using a naval metaphor (i.e. become the captain of your own ship/life), for the transition between elementary school and middle school and between middle school and high school. This program is called the RAMS Life Adventure Program and will complete its initial phase by June 30, 2002.

If you have ideas, reactions and suggestions for the project, please contact Alan Oliver at 668-5955, ext. 375, or by e-mail at A7oliversm@aol.com#. A survey form of seven questions is available if you want to formally submit your comments. Students and their parents who are about to go through one of these transitions or who have recently gone through this transition process are urged to be involved in helping to develop this model.

Alan Oliver is the coordinator for RAMS Life Adventure Program.