CHAPTER THREE - Adolescent Issues and Coming-of-Age Ceremonies

C: EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

38. Parents and Children: Transmission

Up to one hour.
Type: Values clarification using role play.)

Summary of points from most sections

The aim of this activity is to draw together different threads of discussion from different positions, in order to enhance integration of this unit.

• Divide the group into four equal sections, and have each discuss and answer the list of questions together, in role, bearing in mind the materials previously presented in this Chapter. They should write up the main points on posterboard.
  It does not matter if the teenage groups are mixed, or single sex.

  Group A - Community leaders or synagogue committee
  Group B - Teenage boys, aged almost 13 to 16
  Group C - Teenage girls, aged almost 12 to 16
  Group D - Educators and youth counsellors

  Question A: To us, the central elements of Bar/Bat Mitzvah are:
  1.
  2.
  3.
  4.

  Question B: We believe having a Bar/Bat Mitzvah is/is not important because:
  1.
  2.
  3.
  4.

  Question C: We feel that a Bar/Bat Mitzvah should be about:
  1.
  2.
  3.
  4.

• Hang up the poster-board responses and allow the groups time to walk around and see what other groups have posted, looking for similarities and differences.
• The sub-groups are re-formed.
  • They should consider helpful inputs from the way other groups saw the same issues and how the ideas relate to the assumed roles.
  • Were answers consistent; did they offer useful guidelines?
• Bring the entire group together. Go around the group and ask whether 'adults' or 'teenagers' in the role play were able to say what they wanted out of a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, with examples of the major points.
• Ask whether there is a meeting of expectations between the different members of the community and, out of role, how the group members feel about this. Address particularly the role of parents and their children, and any outstanding issues.
• At this stage, outstanding issues can be viewed from the perspectives brought in this chapter, to see if they can be resolved.
• To conclude, the group is asked to recommend what the Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremony or status should be transmitting from one generation to the next, who should be involved - and what they hope this will achieve for the individual teenager, the parents and the community.