YOUTH AND ITS DANGERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 21 November 1924, Page 4

YOUTH AND ITS DANGERS.

The school year is nearing an end, and in a few weeks numbers of children will be saying good-bye to their teachers, and soon after they will be setting out into life. During the they have been at school parents and teachers have done their best to train them for the journey which lies ahead, and they look forward to their children’s future with great hope and keen interest. Some of the children will take up trades; others will enter upon professional careers. How they will fare depends to a very large extent upon themselves. For the boy or girl ready to apply himself or herself whole-heartedly to whatever work is undertaken, there is a great .field of opportunity. New Zealand is a land of opportunity, and young people who do not take advantage of what,their beautiful country offers have only themselves to blame. The question of how a beneficial influence can be exercised over young people from the time they leave school until they reach manhood and womanhood is at present the subject of much thought by leading people in Australian and New Zealand cities, and it is, in our opinion, one of

first importance..- So many promising lives are spoilt in youth that every good effort to save young people from the dangers is worthy of support. Boys are perhaps subjected to greater temptations than girls, and many a youth has made a serious mistake through having a wrong idea of what is the manly life to lead. After leaving school many boys seem to think that thej r are sufficiently grown up to act independently of their parents, and they are not willing to submit to the discipline and control of their days of childhood. . Parents who desire to guide their youths carefully along the dangerous pathway of the few years until they reach manhood are faced with a problem of no small difficulty. Some fail to realise that their youths are beyond the child stage and thqt methods suitable for childhood are quite unsui, /ble for youth. Other parents perhaps credit youth with too much sense of responsibility and proper knowledge to. protect them. The problem is to find a method by which the parents ’ influence can be maintained and youth guided safely through the difficult years. The temperament of each boy is, of course, all-important, and parents should know their boys’ natures better than anyone else does. In the years of youth ambitions and great objectives arise, and we think that there are very few youths who do not desire to make rapid progress and a great success of life. But if these ambitious desires are not taken up and encouraged they may soon give place to laxity and carelessness of a dangerous type. Parents should do all they can to encourage their boys to: look up to noble things and hold high principles. Wholesome literature, a liking for one or more of the fine arts, a love of healthy .sports, and friendships with good-living people are all matters of great importance to youth. By influencing youths in these directions, and appealing to-—not lecturing at —them to follow the highest standards much good can be done,*and we hope that parents, who have boys and girls who are soon to venture forth into the world, will not fail to realise the importance of the matter.