The story ...
Sixth grade was the year that I felt most secure. The school had a sort of code/ethos that I understood. The teachers did a pretty good job of controlling it. The environment and behavior fit the stated and unstated code. The principal enforced the rules.
Most sixth graders knew that they better guard themselves from the hurt inflicted by other "Selfs" or they'd suffer - If they didn't learn how by sixth grade then they certainly learned it when they moved on to middle school. It's easier when you think and act like the group - do groupthink. For me, academics came easy and I was able to work in an around the rules to safely be more like the "true" me - our class was the oldest and most capable within the whole school - we were sixth graders.
There were so many questions that I assumed that my parents, teachers, or pastor could answer - if I could just ask, sit still and learn. For me, disillusionment began in Junior High School. They didn't have all the answers and I felt on my own.
I imagine the only church in town spending less time talking about the doctrines that “we” believe and more time focusing on what scripture teaches us about Him, me, and us. There would be groups of people, within the community, that'd work out their faith together – groups that could be a bit less guarded and open among the safety of their friends.
Just for today ...
"They be who they are - yet I want them just so. When each grows his way - me and we are okayer." Am I a Poet?