PREPARATION FOR ADULT LIFE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27679, 8 June 1955, Page 17

PREPARATION FOR ADULT LIFE

Responsibility To . Children .

MR ALGIE’S VIEWS ON PROBLEM

There were more alluriijg temptations in the way of youth than ever before, and in the face of this threat, all interested in children had to co-operate to see that young New Zealanders were equipped not only to earn a living but also to live a good life, the Minister of Education (Mr R. M. Algie) told an audience of children and adults when he officially handed over the new commercial and homecraft wing at the Avonside Girls’ High School yesterday. Much was heard and seen from time to time of juvenile delinquency, said Mr Algie, but when he looked at the children of New Zealand fie refused to believe that in their bright faces, their obviously, fine minds and fine little bodies, he was looking at examples of potential deliquency. Mr Algie said he believed that life today for young people was more complex than in his young days, and teinptations were more alluring.. From his home had stemmed everything that he had enjoyed; but now in the great cities so much of life was lived outside the home that homes like his were the exception. In his day, there fiad been no Totalisator Agency Board gambling, and no broadcasting service to tell about dividends, said Mr Algie. There had been no literature of the cheap, comic type that was about today. He had thrilled to the stories of Captain Marryat and Edward S. Ellis, and “the fellows who had scalped the Red Indians." Film Portrayals of Violence Recently, said Mr Algie, he had gone with the film censor to see a film comprising the pieces that had been cut from films. The censor had arranged his film as Caeser had arranged all Gaul, in three parts—sections for violence, sex, and general poor quality. He was bound to say that he had found the section dealing with violence the most revolting of the three. The sex section he had been inclined to regard as a portrayal of human weakness, but the violence section he had looked on as .the portrayal of humafi vice. He had come away from the showing feeling physically revolted and ‘unclean. When he had been told that the sort of material he had been shown was in common circulation in countries overseas, he had wondered how it could be combated, said Mr Algie. There were only three ways—through the home, through the school, and through the clergy. But parents were not entitled to throw their burden on the school or the clergy. It was no good parents sending children to church if they were not also interested, said Mr Algie. A secondary school boy or girl sometimes wondered why Sunday school and church were so important for them, but were so irrelevant to their mother and father. In the face of sqxual immorality, alcoholic excesses, and gambling depravity, Mr Algie said, parents had to stand behind their children to see that they did not fall by the way. He wished everyone could stand in front of children, as he and teachers, did, said Mr Algie. “When you see them in the mass, it is impossible to escape from the responsibility that is ours,” said the Minister. When life z was so complex, the means of battling against its temptations had to be highly developed, he said. The need for spiritual equipment in life was as great as the need for academic and scientific knowledge and parents could not assume that somebody else would provide it.