In traditional societies it has long been accepted that young people need a rite of passage and the guidance of wise elders to ease them through this transition. It s absolutely ludicrous that our society does not actively support adolescents over the threshold into adulthood. A rite of passage symbolically represents the end of an old life and the birth of a new one. This new status was then recognized and validated by the community. In modern Western society, most teens do not have wise elders whom they trust and respect to guide them in how to live a responsible and fulfilling life.
Many adolescents look only to their peers for guidance.
If society does not provide them, they will inevitably invent their own. It s almost as if teenagers are in touch with an archetypal need to have a symbolic death of themselves as children in order to become adults. Without proper instruction from elders, who have had their own rites of passage, they have come up with these harmful alternatives. Kids need other adults, elders, to turn to for information, support and education. In the absence of mentors, they will turn to their peers who, in most cases, are as lost and confused and uncertain as they are.