Coming of Age in a Negative Light?

Hi, all!

I'm not sure what's happened to Norma, but since she hasn't posted her topic, I'm going to put something up here so you can start discussing and get your posts in.

So, my question for you this week is whether or not you think coming of age can ever be a bad thing. Is there something to be said for never growing up? Are there drawbacks to moving from innocence to experience, ignorance to knowledge? What are some of them and have you personally experienced them? Is this movement toward coming of age worth it, though? Why or why not?

You don't have to answer every question...but you could break your responses up into two parts/posts if you want (and earn a point per post for those of you who need to get your participation in--hint, hint!).

To sacrifice is to be accepted?

I know it's not my week to post but I was watching Gangland (best show ever!) and came across this video. It's about gang initiations and, though it is short, it is most definitely powerful.

http://www.history.com/shows/gangland/videos/gang-initiation-riuals#gang-initiation-riuals

What do you guys think? What do you think about the idea that sacrificing yourself shows dedication, making you worthy of acceptance?

Glass Castle

In The Glass Castle, Jeannette's family is dysfunctional, like in the movies Stand by Me and Now and Then. How does the coming of age process differ from the movies and The Glass Castle? Do you think Jeannette's coming of age process was more significant than in the movies because it came from her family or is it just as equal? Does the book make you feel like your own coming of age moments aren't as significant because you didn't have to get over the hardships she had to face growing up? Do you think the mom had any coming of age moments during the book?
Sorry I posted it so late, I was thinking about it all this morning and then forgot, I'm a terrible student.

"You think too much."

So I figured I should mention something about Flowers too so I’m making another discussion topic. In Flowers for Algernon Charlie grew both intellectually and emotionally. But it seemed as though his intellectual growth hindered his emotional growth. Do you think it is the same for “normal” people? Does our intellect obstruct our emotions? Everyone’s heard people say, “you think too much,” I wouldn’t be surprised if that exact phrase has been uttered to each of you. The question is, can you think too much? Are there certain aspects of life or situations in which you should simply follow your heart (for lack of a better term)? When should we allow our instincts to take over for our logical minds? How do these situations play into one’s coming of age?

Ender's Game

Since we didn't have a blog last week I thought I'd bring back Ender's Game because it's my favorite book of all time (besides Harry Potter of course). In class the bulk of our discussion was focused on the morality of the bugger war and Graff's actions. I want this blog to be focused on Ender and the other young soldiers, like Bean, Petra, Dink, etc. So I have a few questions, who of the kids at Battle School/Commander School do you believe had a significant rite of passage/coming of age moment? Did they grow together as a team or was each an individual journey? In the real world, do you think children would be able to handle battle school, or is this book entirely unrealistic? Would children be able to handle boot camp, today's form of battle school?

P.S.

I would love to see some more back and forth between comments, maybe we can make this more of a discussion as oppose to just a collaboration of opinions.

Guess Who's horrible at remembering to post :)

I keep forgetting to post comments on the blog so I'm started a new topic. If you feel so inclined, post a story where you came of age in an educational setting. For example, Kathryn emailed me saying I had neglected to meet the requirements on this blog. That email instigated this chain reaction that eventually made me realize I had to get off my butt. And thus, I came of age... a little bit. So ya, if you ever went to the principal's office for karate chopping some kid in the jugular or something like that, post it!

Compare and Contrast

This week we talked about the assigned reading, Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult. There were many different rites of passages that were touched on so the question I have is how can you relate to them? Was there a specific rite of passage from any of the characters that you have experienced, is there anything similar between your rites of passage and there's? Or is the cultural barrier to big to be breached and there's no way to relate? This could pertain to any of the characters that you want to compare to yourself or even contrast if you have no comparisons.