Reflection Paper Number 6

There are many different ways that one can become educated. Each person and culture has their own specific way that they take and use for future generations. In every culture though, there is this idea of Rites of Passages. Rites of Passages are a sort of ritual event that marks a person’s status or progression over time. This idea becomes very important in different cultures and religions because they have many different ceremonies for each progression. For instance, there is the idea of puberty, marriage, etc.
In the article Sitting Quietly, you see how the boys in that particular culture were brought up to get that stature of becoming men. They did this by fighting off this Forest Thing. I guess the idea was they trained when they were younger by their father to then be thrown in the forest to see if what they learned would actually apply to their task. In the end though, the task was completed and they had their own Rite of Passage by having their names changed and becoming known as men.
In the book Facing Mt. Kenya, Jomo Keyatta spends his time trying to establish the history and tradition of the Gikuyu society. The book continued to explain how oral tradition was very important for the children in this society. This tradition gave the children a hand on experience to learn exactly what they would have to be doing in the future.
By the article of The Sambia, the culture in New Guinea was basically these farmers that move around a lot. Their main focus was to train young boys the importance of becoming men to then have sex with women to produce children. This would then start the cycle again. They would do this by teaching the boys the ritual secret to success in this area. This was done by focusing on the men’s private parts, by putting it in their mouths to grasp exactly what they were supposed to understand, and threatening the children to keep it a secret; this was all done to gain the knowledge of importance it was to have those relations with the women.
These four concepts are very different than formal education. When one is formally educated they are taught different types of skills and tasks in a formal atmosphere. It is more of a black and white picture. But in these cultures, the formality is basically not found because each one has their own way of teaching and supplying the knowledge of that particular culture to those particular children.
In a classroom though, I hope to have that sense of formal education, but my personal Rites of Passage as well.