66 Alarming Erosion Of Responsibility” Seen

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30934, 15 December 1965, Page 13

66 Alarming Erosion Of Responsibility” Seen

“There is enough evidence around us to indicate an alarming erosion of responsibility and the general loosening of moral restraints that inevitably accompanies such a trend,” the principal of St. Thomas of Canterbury College (the Rev. J. I. McClintock) said at the college's prize-giving. "We as educators are finding it necessary to place more and more emphasis on fostering responsibility in those entrusted to our care,” he said. “This stress is called for to counteract those forces which are strongly at work today to break down the sense of responsibility. “Our task is stated simply enough: we must, by word and still more by example, manifest those principles on which a sense of responsibility is based, and then we must be ready to afford the children under our care a due measure of liberty to follow, or not to follow, these principles. Double Standard “This, you will agree, Is a duty that demands a high degree of wisdom and human understanding, and especially a bond of sympathy and cooperation between parents and teachers who share the task. The danger of a double standard, as between home and school, is most serious where we are concerned with the question of what is to be

expected as responsible behaviour in the adolescent. It is reasonable to ask for the utmost co-operation from parents in this matter, and 1 hasten to add that the vast majority of parents are not slow to see the advantages of this sort of liaison. Brother McClintock said. “It is necessary to point out, however, that even with the most enlightened school policy, the school remains to some extent an artificial and inhibiting influence on the pupil. “This means that, where there is any difference in the pupil’s attitudes and behaviour in the school on the one hand and in the home and social environment on the other, in nearly every case the real mind and character will be revealed outside the school. Looking at the situation in another way, we, as teachers, must admit that the degree of moral and social responsibility shown by our pupils when outside our immediate con-, trol is a fair measure of the efficacy of our teaching.” Brother McClintock emphasised that growth in responsibility was the product of a wise use of freedom. Nothing was more likely to break down responsiblity in the young than giving them a degree of freedom for which they were not yet ready, he said. Unlimited Freedom “An almost unlimited freedom to do what they like, go where they like, and follow whatever fashions or craze happens to be in control for the moment, often brings its own retribution in the form of boredom and an unhappy restlessness. Some form of delinquent behaviour is the usual sequel to this state of mind.

“Responsibility can be an awesome burden for those who hold in their hands the future of Church and State; but the decisions made at the summit can be effective for human welfare only when the sense of personal and social responsibility is fostered widely and assiduously at the base. “Parents and teachers know better than most the need for training truly - responsible young men in to-day’s world, and the difficulties involved. We can succeed only if we close ranks in a spirit of mutual understanding and enlightened commitment to the world around us,” Brother McClintock said.