History of Rites of the Passage Programme

In 2020 a group of staff, learners and parents at Green School NZ came together for an initial conversation starter. We asked, “What do we want for our children. How do we support them in our environment to become strong, confident young adults?”.

Since then we have developed a unique programme for Green School NZ, especially for our Year 7-9 learners which mark their Rites of Passage Journeys.

Benefits of a coming of age Rites of Passage

• Rites of passage support young people in the process of becoming whole, reflective and contributing members of the family and community.

• Young people come out of the experience with a new and empowering story that helps them take responsibility for the decisions that set the course of their future.

• Young people are supported while creating the story of who they are and the kind of life they want to build based on the exploration of their own personal values. We also help them find the story that connects them to their community (identity building).

• Through this self-exploration, initiates emerge with a stronger sense of personal responsibility for all aspects of their lives, taking full responsibility for their own actions as an adult.

• Understanding of healthy and appropriate paths to adulthood

• Understanding and taking responsibility

Significance of Rites of Passage journey

There comes a moment in the life of every youth where they leave Childhood behind, and step into that phase of development we call Adolescence, or the teen-age years, during which time they cultivate the capacities, knowledge and skills they will need to step powerfully into adulthood in our modern world. This transition requires a true transformation of a person, because being a child and being a young adult require us to be, in some very important respects, entirely different kinds of people. The two largest themes tend to be moving from dependence to independence (always of course interdependent), and becoming a sexual being (puberty). These necessary changes require young people to transform how they see themselves in the world, to tell a new story about who they are, how they want to be, and what they are contributing to the world.

Through exploring the power of the Coming of Age our youth with deep dive and expolre “Who are you really?” They will try out their childhood answers, and often find that those don’t really work anymore. They will have to find new answers to some crucial questions: What are my strengths? What are my challenges? How can I contribute? What do I care about? Where do I want to grow? What do I value? What kind of person do I want to be?

Family Journey

It is easy to think that a rite of passage is primarily about the transformation of the youth who are experiencing it, but in reality, each youth is part of a family, and a community, and who they are now as a child is actually shaped and held by those people. To truly invite a youth to leave childhood and become a young adult means asking those who have been holding them as a child to give up that knowing of them, and make room for something new, something bigger to emerge. The arrival of adolescence inherently brings big changes to the whole family and community!

Saying goodbye to the child they have known can be surprisingly difficult for family members. Especially for parents/guardians, a large part of our identity comes from our role as a caregiver for our child. What does it mean for us if we no longer have a child to nurture and protect? The task of parents and primary caregivers is to gracefully give up our role as a parent/guardian of a child, and discover a new meaningful purpose in being the parent/guardian of a young adult (which requires very different things from us). This is why Rite of Passage Journeys, our Coming of Age experiences include significant ceremonies and activities that support parents and community members in powerfully reimagining their sense of both self and family, to support and make room for the new youth who is returning.

Community participation

Each Middle Schooler will need one support person present for at least the opening and closing ceremony for the two days of Rites of Passage. We understand not everyone can attend every school event, and we believe it takes a village, so the support person can be a parent/guardian, a close family member or friend or a volunteering GSNZ community member.

Dates and details - Please see the Community event calendar here for the Rites of Passage programme details.