(8-22-16)
Definitions of adult/adulthood
“adulthood”, like “childhood” and similar ideas, is a social construction — life simply “is”; human beings have found it useful to apply our symbolic capabilities (principally language) to divide this continuous flow into chunks (ideas, concepts) that can then be played with for various purposes (some helpful, some not so helpful); most of our most majestic, inspiring achievements (aspirations of social equality, democracy, satellites, the periodic table, the internet, the theory of evolution, the plow) and heinous failings (slavery, religious wars, prejudice, genocide) have come about through in imposition of abstract ideas onto the surface of reality.
- what we mean by “adult” can be based on a number of considerations:
- based on age
- based on events (coming of age ceremonies)
- based on role(s)
- based on biology
- are you an adult?
- What does “being an adult” mean to you?
- Do you think of yourself as an adult?
- Does your significant other (if you have one) think of you as an adult?
- Does your parent think of you as an adult? (yeah, the answer to this one is probably: “Are you kidding?”)
- Should I think of you as an adult? (Actually, there are some pretty good reasons why the answer to this one should be: “Yes.” Can you imagine why this would be? Consider what you know about the effect of expectations and social roles; consider also the literature on the effects of agency/involvement on learning.)
- Am I an adult? (Careful, the answer isn’t as straight forward as it might seem. I’m used to be an “adult” if I went to the movies at The Palace but not when I went to the Starplex)
Organizations for a class such as ours:
- two major organizational can be seen in many, possibly most, developmental classes:
- developmental (temporal, sequential): e.g., early, middle, late
- thematic (topical, issue): e.g., love, work, play
- these two can be combined/integrated
- What would be some advantages (disadvantages) of a developmental organizations?
- What would be some advantages (disadvantages) of a thematic organizations?