Experiences At Youth Forum

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31658, 19 April 1968, Page 14

Experiences At Youth Forum

The World Youth Forum in the United States from January 7 to April 10 had been a great way to find out about other ways of life, said Mr G. M. Abbot, of Christchurch, who returned from the forum this week.

Mr Abbot was one of 34 persons aged between 16 and 19 from different countries who attended the forum, sponsored by the Columbia Broadcasting Service. Members of the party visited several cities, including New York, Washington, San Francisco, St Louis and Richmond, observing mainly American education methods. They met the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations (U Thant), United States Government officials and State officials.

In New York Mr Abbot met Mr M. Lynch, a member of the New Zealand delegation t 6 the United Nations, who was teaching at Shirley Boys’ High School while Mr Abbot was a pupil there. He was head prefect last year. Mr Abbot said he spent a lot of time in schools talking about New Zealand. Many people did not know anything about the country and one asked what it was like swimming in coral lagoons. However, Americans did not know as much about their own country as New Zealanders knew about theirs, he said. They did not seem to have the same broad education about their surroundings. Mr Abbot noticed great pressure put on high school students to pass their grades. This was emphasised much more than it was in New Zealand. “I would much rather have learnt under our high school system than under the American system. We seem to have had a lot more personal con-

tact with our teachers,” he said. Discussing the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, Mr Abbot said: “We were in a bus in Philadelphia just leaving a forum concert and we had been singing the civil rights song “We Shall Over-

come” when we heard the news. For a while we were all quiet and after that we could talk of nothing else but civil rights and racial equality for the next few days. “The American in our party was a Negro and he was pretty upset but he took it well enough,” Mr Abbot said. He said that the reaction to President Johnson’s bombing cessation announcement was at first one of disbelief. “In eastern United States 1 found the move was eventually welcomed as most factions there tended towards peace. In the mid-west it tended to be slightly the other way as people there seem to favour stepping up the bombing, although the majority with this feeling is not very large,” said Mr Abbot. Mr Abbot will leave on April 26 for eight months in Sarawak as part of the Volunteer Service Abroad scheme. He will teach at a high school in Semunjan. When he returns to New Zealand he intends to study law.