AGE AND YOUTH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23969, 20 May 1941, Page 9

AGE AND YOUTH

BUILDING NEW WORLD PLACE FOR COMPULSION continuation' schools "It is my contention that since we have failed to energise youth to purposeful living for itself and for democracy by voluntary methods we must, if we are to discharge the proper duty of the age group, consider the principle of compulsion," said Mr. D. M. Rao, principal of the Auckland Training College, when addressing the Rotary Club at its weekly luncheon yesterday. His subject was "Serving Youth—an Appeal to Age," and among the guests present were 50 sons and daughters of Rotarians. Mr. Kae at the outset referred to the many undertakings that the Auckland Rotary Club had underwritten to foster voluntary or official agencies that sought to point the way to young people to build a better world. After the last war youth came much to the fore, he said, and castigated the mistakes of their eiders in every field. Many of the conservative safeguards imposed by age were withdrawn, and youth had been given its head. Youth's Failure "As we survey the results, however," said Mr. Rae, "1 doubt if we are convinced that we have reached the Eldorado about which we dreamed. I doubt that youth has made any distinct positive contribution, unless there be any virtue in pushing Mother Grundy into the background." He bolieved that if they financed wellequipped gymnasia, art- and' craft centres, libraries and art galleries, and opened them free to the youth of the city, they would be unable to compete with the cinema, the radio, the barroom and the'street. People were especially nervous at this time about anything savouring of compulsion, but compulsion was essential to the whole theory and machinery of democracy. It was the foundation of the educational system on which democracy was built. The vital problem was to use it as a means to freedom, and not regard it as an end in itself. Legislation Needed The number who benefited from the many voluntary educational organisations was small, and the older generation must no longer stand idly by while youth destroyed its birthright. At Rugby, in England, every young person between .16 and 20 was obliged, unless employed in some form of full-time education, to attend a continuation school for a minimum of eight hours weekly. \Ye could well afford eight hours of the working week for our younu people to attend organised schools. It would be necessary to have legislation whereby youth was no longer cut adrift at M in the wageearning world. The new world would demand more from its youth than ever before, and they must be better prepared.