Last Tuesday, our homeschool group had a graduation celebration, including a Mass, for the high school students and eighth graders. The priest had a fitting homily on becoming an adult and trust. Trusting others is a vital part of our faith, this is what calls us to look for the positive intent of others and we need to trust people who love us.
Answers.com has this to say about adults:
Personal characteristic (some qualities that symbolize adultness in most cultures.... )
- Self-control - restraint, emotional control.
- Stability - stable personality, strength.
- Independence - ability to self-regulate.
- Seriousness - ability to deal with life in a serious manner.
- Responsibility - accountability, commitment and reliability.
- Method/Tact - ability to think ahead and plan for the future, patience.
- Endurance - ability and willingness to cope with difficulties that present themselves.
- Experience - breadth of mind, understanding.
- Objectivity - perspective and realism.
Social status (this fits in fairly well with some recent discussions on how we should treat our own children and how children are actually treated by most people)
Adults, as a class, especially middle-age adults, enjoy an elevated status in society. This so-called “Adult Privilege” works in the same way as “White Privilege” by conferring often unspoken advantages, exemptions or immunities to members of the class; it also takes the form of adultism, which is a predisposition towards adults, inherently biased against children, youth, and all young people who aren't addressed or viewed as adults. For example, while society fixates on the supposedly immoral and destructive behavior of youth, adults are not held accountable when they often display the same if not worse behavior in certain areas such as drug abuse,[1] obesity and crime.[2] Ironically the status we afford adults for their maturity includes the privilege to act immaturely.With such apparent double standards, some social critics have defined adulthood as an “organization” or “institution” that believes “they should always have the right to command and be obeyed.”[3]
