On Pentecost Island initiates of the tribe take a leap of faith as they bungee jump, attached only by a tree vine, from the top of a 30 metre tower. In Mongolia, the Kazakh tribe teach their children to hunt with golden eagles. In Brazil, Satere-Mawe teens endure the stings of bullet ants. It is well-established that adolescents in these communities exhibit high levels of emotional intelligence, confidence and resilience following participation in these rites of passage. These are all values we want in our girls, but I’m fairly certain most of us are unwilling to have a home-made bungee tower in the backyard, an oversized carnivorous bird as a pet or leave our children on top of a bull-ant nest. And that’s okay because the power of rites of passage rest not in the activity but in the culture that supports the emotional journey prompted by that activity, and there are less brutal ways to support a transition into adulthood.
Queenwood offers much to develop the perseverance, integrity and resilience required in adult life. School camps are slightly less extreme than bungee jumps and insect stings but the point of the physical challenge is the same. When girls come away surprised at what they can achieve, they learn in a powerful way that anxiety is not a reliable indicator of potential. School can also be an invaluable path towards adulthood because it provides a context in which young people can make meaningful choices for themselves.
To make the transition towards independence in the world, each of us must shift away from dependence on our parents. For girls to make this move they need to develop new systems of support and they often look to mentors and peers. They might be encouraged or inspired by a teacher in the classroom, by a peer in the playground, by a coach on the sports field, by a director or conductor on the stage. Every time she achieves something new, something that she thought was beyond her, she grows a little in confidence and aspiration. There is no substitute for the encouragement of our parents, but having a wide network of positive relationships provides even more light and oxygen for that growth.
Many of us remember school activities well into our adult lives. The history of centuries of traditional rites of passage would suggest that this is because adolescence ‘is opportune for major learning… At this age, at the threshold of adolescence, it is possible to take great steps, as if one were wearing “seven league boots” with which one can take giant strides’ (Mahdi, 1996). In our school years, our world expands and we begin to develop a powerful sense of self that stays with us long into adulthood. This presents a quandary in the current COVID-19 climate. Girls have been in lockdown with their nuclear family largely working in the virtual environment. Their world grew smaller, with limited opportunities to play sport, try new activities, socialise or simply take risks. There were certainly perks – a little extra sleep in the mornings and quality time with family on the weekends – but for a period of time their lives have lacked certain elements which we know to be crucial for adolescent development.
This seems at first sight to be a loss, but perhaps when this tumultuous period has come to a close, we will be able to re-frame our discussion of COVID-19 as a contemporary rite of passage. Ethnographer Arnold van Gennep proposes that there are three commonalities in most rites of passage – severance, threshold and incorporation. Severance is when the initiate is removed from their usual routine or environment and is subjected to forced isolation; this certainly occurred during lockdown. Threshold involves some form of suffering or ordeal that, once overcome, redefines the initiate’s place within the community. COVID-19 has created daunting and unfamiliar circumstances only overcome when the girls put the needs of the community above their own. Incorporation involves returning to contribute to the community by enacting all that they have learnt during the process.
It is my sense that the girls have certainly emerged from lockdown more resilient, independent and able to act with initiative and maturity. Crucially, they have witnessed first-hand that a community willing to make sacrifices in order to protect the most vulnerable galvanises and emerges stronger. It will be interesting to see whether, in the longer term, this generation is inoculated by this experience and better prepared for the blows and stresses of adult life. We are not at the end yet, but when we are, we should mark the successful conclusion of this unconventional rite of passage in the same way as they do in Brazil, Mongolia and the Pentecost Islands – we should celebrate!