The Maori Adolescent

Te Ao Hou, June 1965, Page 7

The Maori Adolescent by Manu Bennett The symptoms and patterns by which we identify the adolescent, as laid down by the experts, would seem to indicate that no matter what race or culture forms the background to this individual, he will always stand out as a breed apart. He is the person who stands between two distinct patterns of existence: the existence of childhood, and the existence of adulthood. This is the critical turning-point described by St Paul: ‘When I was a child I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things.’ The age of the adolescent is the period of the putting away of childish things in order to become a man.