The Molding of Adolescence - Essay Example

However, in the same writing, he argues about the impact of society when he laments the teenage years as a time when he "couldn't own property or do any interesting or fulfilling work, and he had no choice but to attend high school for several more years before getting on with his 'real life". While biology propels the body into adulthood, society meters its progress and deliberates the impact of socialization. Unfortunately, Mead's book, which also found that teenagers are a product of their culture, was heavily criticized and its results were questioned.

In fact, both books highlight the need for teaching children how to learn and the vital skill of being able to think and write critically. These are traits of nurture that nature could never provide. Margaret Mead made several of the same points as Epstein in her book, yet was heavily criticized by Derek Freeman. Though Freeman's criticism largely rested on the quality of the process and not the results, his criticism does attempt to neutralize the view that adolescence is the product of culture.

Clearly, both Epstein and Mead were correct in their assessment that adolescence is molded from cultural expectations. We see this when a young man steps up to be the breadwinner when a father has suddenly disappeared from the family scene. It is apparent when a young girl becomes the homemaker when the family faces life without their mother. Freeman, though maybe technically correct, did sociology and anthropology a disservice by diminishing the importance of Mead's work and her revolutionary insights.

Epstein's view that we should teach our children how to learn and send them off as teenagers to discover knowledge makes more sense in a globalized community with few borders or obstacles to information.