"Environment, Not Youth, Changing’

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31631, 18 March 1968, Page 14

"Environment, Not Youth, Changing’

Young people were different, many said, but he was surprised how alike they were to their predecessors, the headmaster of Christ’s College (Mr N. A. H. Creese) said at the Roman Catholic Christian Family Movement convention on Saturday.

The environment for young persons was changing but it was wrong to' think that young people themselves had suddenly changed. That could cause adults to change the ends of education and upbringing of children when the adults ought to be adapting the means.

The environmental changes included an extraordinary explosion in education. More children were studying to School Certificate and beyond That was a new social phenomenon which meant that 16 to 19-year-old youths were often better educated than their parents, although that was not to say they were wiser than their parents, said Mr Creese For the first time the young Wi.hin society were solidifying into a group as young people. Although psyche logists said the young took their ideals not from their peers but from adults who were not necessarily their parents, today many young people were turning for their ideals and their general line not to their elders but to their peers.

“Here lies a challenge for us, the elders,” he said. There seemed in some sectors a curious abdication ot adult authority. It was possible to get the feeling among teachers and parents that somehow or another adults ought to be very careful and shy of using adult authority “I think this is nonsense.” Mr Creese said parents far too readily left their problems to what they considered an expert rather than tackling

them themselves. The young had a right to authority. In sports, the arts and education they accepted authority 7 as natural and accepted it willingly because they recognised that the authority, if it was a good one. was based in a skill and knowledge superior to their own. “So, too, in the business of living, the young people have a right to demand that theii elders should exercise reason able authority over them,” said Mr Creese. When adults and teachers forgot that virtues were learned by practice like anything else, that one had to start with habituation and (rules, one of the results was I that young people got fed up I Despite the curious fear of : giving a lead and control to young people it was a phenomenon of the age that a most violent spotlight was turned on them all the time.

“Perhaps a little judicious neglect, and I mean judicious neglect, and not just neglect, would not be a very bad thing for young people today,” said Mr Creese.

Mankind faced today a situation never faced before, where mass communications media were so efficient and available that absolutely everything now was talked about in front of children Most parents agreed it was unwise to talk about everything in front of children bu’ in fact it was. “I think that somehow, sometime we have got to face the problem of exposure of young people to all, literally all, the things that are said on the television and written ; in the newspapers.” I In parents and teachers courage was the one thing more necessary than anything else, Mr Creese said.