Establishing Rites of Passage to Ease the Transition to Adulthood: Interview with Dr. Vern Poythress RPF0125
Radical Personal Finance
Joshua J. Sheats, MSFS, CFP, CLU, ChFC, CASL, RHU, REBC, CAP
4.2 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2014
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My guest today is Dr. Vern Poythress. Dr. Poythress is a mathematician and a theologian. Most important for this discussion, he and his wife, Diane, are parents to two children, both boys.
Dr. Poythress authored an article entitled "How I Helped My Boys to Become Christian Men," in which he outlined his family's approach to establishing a formal rite of passage for his sons to become men at 12 or 13 years old.
His formal test and qualifications for them included religious training, knowledge, and behavior, specific acts of service to others, and specific areas of wisdom needed in an adult life.
Much of this conversation is built on the Judeo-Christian tradition and Dr. Poythress outlines much of his curriculum from a religious perspective.
It's key to recognize, however, that most cultures have a rite of passage for young men and women; these ceremonies vary and many are cultural, not religious. For example, toward the end of the interview we discuss the tradition of the debutante ball, a "coming-out" party for young women.
If this concept interests you, consider designing your own curriculum based on your family's vision and values. Certainly, anything you intentionally design will be better than the negative rites of passage we currently promulgate in our culture.
Enjoy!
Joshua
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast. |
| 0:02.1 | My name is Joshua Sheets. |
| 0:03.5 | Today is Tuesday, December 23, 2014. |
| 0:07.6 | Thank you for being here. |
| 0:09.2 | I'm thrilled to bring in today's interview. |
| 0:10.8 | It's a little bit different than the normal in-depth |
| 0:14.0 | technological financial content but I think it may be a valuable contribution |
| 0:18.0 | especially for those of you who have children one of the aspects of |
| 0:21.7 | financial planning that I think about is how can we develop independent autonomous |
| 0:27.4 | adults? Knowing and recognizing that many of the major mistakes that young people make happen early in their life, |
| 0:35.2 | I think a lot about how can we transition from dependence to independence, |
| 0:41.0 | or dependence to independence to interdependence to |
| 0:43.0 | interdependence, which is also a valid concept. |
| 0:46.0 | And my guest today is a man named Dr. Verne Poitress, |
| 0:50.0 | and I was first introduced to him by a listener who sent me an article with an essay that he had written. |
| 0:55.0 | That essay is linked in the show notes today. |
| 0:58.7 | And I thought it was interesting enough that I reached out to Dr Poitress for an interview and I'm glad I did. Dr Poitress has an interesting |
| 1:05.7 | background. He has probably spent more time in academic studies than many people. |
| 1:12.2 | He obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the |
| 1:15.0 | California Institute of Technology back in 1966, ultimately completed a |
| 1:19.8 | PhD in mathematics from Harvard University in 1970. |
| 1:24.3 | He taught mathematics for a year and then became a student at Westminster Theological Seminary, |
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