Reference Information
Title: Coming of Age in Samoa
Author: Margaret Mead
Editors: Williams Morrow and Company (1928)
Chapter 14: Education for Choice (15 pages)
Summary
In what is the final chapter of "Coming of Age in Samoa", Mead talks about the education of youth in America. She mainly talks about how children have so many decisions to make a young age. Mead discusses how there is this American theory where everyone has endless amounts of possibilities. Because of this, people feel overwhelmed by their choices even though there are not nearly as many of them as they think there are.
She also talks about how parents raise their kids in ways that are conflicting to outside the home. She concludes by saying in a civilization of many choices, parents must teach their children "how to think, not what to think."
Discussion
Even though this book was written in the 30's, I feel like a lot of her conclusions still ring true today. I think that the American sense that anyone can be whoever they want if they work hard just isn't realistic. Because of this, I think a lot of people get railroaded into something they don't want to do and stick it out longer than they should.
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