In defence of British youth

Press, 15 September 1976, Page 9

In defence of British youth

NZPA London' Despite what the "oldies” think, Britain’s teen-agers of today 'are not hooligans or layabouts. In fact, they are no worse than their parents were, according to an official British study.

A survey of 15,000 16-year-olds shows that most get on well with their parents, and want to help others, have a steady job, and get married. They are not sex-crazed, dishonest, lazy, or stupid. Relatively few are involved in crime, they work hard for their pocket-money, and they are not spendthrifts.

Their main ambition is to be married between the ages of 22 and 25, and most want two children.

But — probably like their parents — they do not like school and homework; and they do drink more than their mums and dads did at their age. All this emerges from a National Children’s Bureau study of a group of boys and girls all born in the same week in March, 1958. The report shows that today’s teen-agers have conservative attitudes towards sex and marriage, but it says that more than half of them play truant from school and complain about doing their homework, which they say is boring. One-third told their interviewers that they did not like school, and one-tenth dismissed it as a waste of time.

But 60 per cent said that they got on with their school work and behaved quietly in the classroom. The general dislike of school seemed to carry through to leisure activities: while almost two-thirds said that they often watched television, only 27 per cent said that they read any books apart from school books. Although only one-third of the children smoked (6 per cent, more than 10 cigarettes a day), half said that in the week before the survey they had had an alcoholic drink, and one-fifth said they

drank illegally in public houses.

“In simple numerical terms, the present concern over teen-age drinking may seem to be justified,” the report says.

After reports last week that some students' had vodka or gin for lunch, students angrily denied this, saying that even if they had wanted those drinks they could not afford it.

Almost three-fourths of those interviewed said that they had been taught how babies are conceived, but fewer than one-third had been told how to take care of babies, and two-fifths said that they had not had lessons in the practical problems of family life. The students thought that they should be given more information on the practical aspects of child care, 16 per cent also wanting more information about reproduction and more than one-third asking for instruction about venereal diseases.

The survey seems to support earlier accusations that British schools are failing to prepare children for the problems of everyday living. One teacher said yesterday that too much time was wasted on theory in such subjects as cookery and sewing when the students should be learning by doing these things. Dr James Hemming, a sociologist and educationalist said that many of Britain’s secondary school students were not well-prepared for life, and the survey backs him up; it says that 2 per cent of all students cannot read newspapers and notices well enough to cope with everyday needs, and that 2.6 per cent cannot make the calculations required for day-to-day shopping.

Teachers reported that one-sixth of the teen-agers in the survey had practically no ability in mathematics or social studies; 28 per cent lacked modern language skills; 19 per cent had little knowledge of science; and one in nine was without basic skills in English. Dr Hemming commented: The schools do not educate the whole person in preparation for a full life, but only half the person in preparation for a one-sided life. “It is small wonder that young people are kicking against the over-all education that is unfair to students and a danger to society.”