Palaima: The dangers of rushing through life’s stages

[On-line title: “The dangers of rushing into the working world”]

Posted: 2:04 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/opinion/palaima-the-dangers-of-rushing-into-the-working-wo/nSNSt/

By Tom Palaima  Special to the Austin American-Statesman

PRINT EDITION Friday, September 28, 2012

“There is a time to every purpose under heaven.” But is that time four or five years long and what is it for?

Several years ago, I heard my friend Ira Iscoe, Ashbel Smith Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, give a talk on Erik Erikson’s theories about the developmental stages of man. Iscoe’s talk was typically lucid. His and Erickson’s ideas have rattled around in my brain, heart and soul as I have thought about how what the ancient Greeks called a “teknon,” literally ‘birthed thing,” develops into a socialized adult.

The Greeks were not alone in emphasizing the “thing-ness” of young human beings. Continue reading →