Chapter 3: The Education of a Samoan Child
Summary
Mead describes the type of education that children receive from newborn to adulthood. When they are born, their mothers take care of the baby. After six months of being born, the mother no longer takes care of them and an older sibling -mainly girls- will be held with this responsibility. After one of the children starts to mature, they typically pass the responsibility of taking care of the baby to a younger sibling and start learning what adults do. Girls at this stage will learn about shores in the house, and boys about fishing, or other outdoor activities.
Discussion
I am finding this book to be extremely interesting because I can relate to some of the family traditions of the Samoans. This is not a direct family tradition, but something common to Mexico where I was raised. Although not exactly the same principle, but similar extremely similar is what rural families tend to do. The young girls start helping out with taking care of babies, learning to cook, and activities as such. The young boys start learning about what their dad does every day, and they try to perfection this skills throughout their lifes.
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