“BEWILDERED” CHILDREN

Evening Star, Issue 20510, 14 June 1930, Page 15

“BEWILDERED” CHILDREN

RADIO AND TALKIES INFLUENCE LONDON, May 25. How modern life and modern ideas bewilder the child of to-day was described by the Bishop of Winchester in a sermon at Bournemouth to a congregation of teachers attending the National Union Conference. “The machinery of the intelligence is becoming blocked,” said the bishop, “by impressions that are battering _ at tho mental door of tho_ modern child. The newspapers, the wireless, talking pictures—all are bringing boys and girls into contact with other lives, other ages, adventures of every sort, and with men and women of all kinds, some of whom are admirable and some very queer. “Matters of sox arc discussed to-day by boys and, girls with complete freedom, and in books and pictures we constantly find stories of stimulus in that direction. “Contracts aro made almost every hour with hundreds of disconnected events involving ono-half the interests of mankind. No wonder the mind of the child is looking for guidance. “Parents are often powerless to help because they aro bewildered themselves, and the old background of life which t-o homo supplied is no longer forthcoming. The tradition of the home exists no longer. You cannot bo sentimental over a third-class villa in a dull, monotonous street in which tho family have only lived for live years.”