MODERN YOUTH.

Matamata Record, Volume X, Issue 812, 14 March 1927, Page 2

MODERN YOUTH.

DOES IT GET A CHANCE? Gratitude Out of Date. A defence of modorn youth by a woman of 76, Mrs Creighton, widow of a former Bishop -of London, was a striking feature of the Church Congress' at Southport lately. Oldedr people, she said, did not realiste what a difficult time this wa s for youth, with disillusionment in the aiir. They must not believe they had a Claim on the gratitude of the young, who asked, “Why should I owe lyou gratitude? You brought me into the world for your own pleasure; I did not ask to come.”

Mrs Crlaighton said' that in the piais-t children were looked upon as the property of thleiir parents, and especially their fathers, and) as existing for the good of t’heir parents. All that was now changed. The modern despot in thte family wa s tJhe child, not the father. .Parents were supposed to exist for the good of their hfilcjren, not children for th>a yood of liheir parents. The war had precipitated the change. Men who had faced responsibility on the battlefield could not -be expected) to submit to parental rule.

Whatever 'the elders might think about it, the young at present meant to be independent, and it wa 3 clear that the whole character of the! relationship between old and young was changing. How were parents to meet this? Parents, whether father or mother, should have an individual life of their own. ' They should not, as they often gloried iln ttolny, live for theitr children. No form of selfishness was so insidious as family selfishness. The devotion of parents, etpecMly perhaps of mothers, could he -mere selfishness.

It was often asserted that ’the attiof the young at present, and

e.'_, -eialy since the war, amounted to a revolution, ’that the individual parent wa s powerless to resist the tendency of the age. Revolt was in the aiir. The young were determined to go their own way, to xjeify authority. They should not try. to shut their eyes to the greatness of this, -change which was taking place., To resist it would be : futil-e. ThMy had to .seek the good in it, to discover liow the! evil -was to be avoided and work with. the good.

The elders were first in the field,

aind th|:y moist h«amd on wtnat they learnt to the next generation. But the mistake was to hand'it on as the final truth. The advantage of being the first in the would be. lost by the leaders it they tried to make too much of it. They might believe that they had a claim the gratitude of tfhe young, hut thjire w>ais real'ly no answer to the question, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, put by tlhe young: “Why should I owe you gratitude? You brought me into the-world for your own pleasure. I did toot ask to come.” Gratitude should nevcir be demanded or expected. It was a gracious gilft. At -present there was a tendency to fussi too much about the young. They were treated and spoken of as if they were a caste, (even it they were not treated as untouchables.

“Wlei isolate) -them. We -plan separate organisations of aid kinds for them, and we -grieve: when)they refuse to fit into the organisations which we created. We watch cfudi notice! and criticise, h-ut, although -we may persuad|e ou-rselvete to the contrary, that does not mean that we understand. We igli-neralise from our imperfect observation, and so the young, like the working classes, -or our -domestics, or those we speak of as ‘the poor,’ really become a castel tfn our thinking, i “Peiih-aps we elders, when we look ha’ck with regret to tihe cultured leisure,, the comfortable prosperity, to the wfclll ordered homes of Victorian days, do not sufficiently realise what a difficult time this is -being for the young. There is disillusionment in fine aiir. Everything is feHn-g questioned. We see the immense need for hard, steady work, and some of the young ask, “Why -should I work,’’ and o-thors, “What is the -good of any work? What purpose is there in life at all?’ ‘and they go oln to dirown thought in a fevelrish rush after pleasure which leaves thiem still unsat-, i'sfied.

“Yet there are plenty of signs 'of their -capacity for response ito any real -call, 'as quick and .ready -as was tihe response in those first -diays. of thie- .war. What they m ( eed is the inspiring call, the leader who will show them -the great cause.? We neer prophets, and there seems to be no word from the- Lord. - ,

“We elders must givls what leadership we can; not so much by trying to point out special work to be done, or the need foir hard work, as by the courage with which we reward it, by our joy i)u it, 'by our constant effort -to press forward.’'