
Journal fortiguy's Journal: Rites of passage are more than just for teenagers 2
Everyone knows about the coming of age things that kids have to do or go through or whatever. But more and more, there are additional events/rites/etc for middle aged people.
Some of these have been around for ages, things like getting married and having kids. These are big changes in life and are definitely a trial of your endurance and patience and how grown up you are.
But there are other challenges that maybe should have been part of the teenage events that weren't. These are things like taking a sick day to play a game on release day, dating two people at once, or how to deal with elderly sick family members (parents, grandparents, etc.)
Everyone assumes we learn our ethics from somewhere, but in truth we only get a vague sort of direction from school (apart from the very direct message that plagarism and bullying are bad) and if you had the bad luck to be a latch key kid you didn't get a lot of guidance from home.
Ethics should be a topic in school from kindergarten right through the end. It should be either worked into each course, and/or it should be a course on its own. Its sad but true that many people need to have this beaten into them before they realize its not just a fairy tale, its the way things really work.
Then maybe the general population would start holding elected and public officials accountable for their actions. If everyone knows right from wrong, then why should any group in society get away with doing wrong? That goes for politicians, doctors, police, religious groups,
An added side effect could be that more people would find they like the work that lawyers do, and the reasons they do it. Apparently Canada has a shortage of lawyers so this could help that problem too. Too bad the solution is long term...
Anyway, a clear sense of ethics is what people need to traverse these coming of age rites of passage - be they teenagers, twenty-somethings, or older.
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