MODERN YOUTH.

Putaruru Press, Volume V, Issue 176, 17 March 1927, Page 2

MODERN YOUTH.

DOES IT GET A CHANCE ? Gratitude Out of Date. A defence of modern youth by a woman of 76, Mrs Gireighton, widow of a former Bishop of London, was a striking feature of the Church Congress at Southport lately. Oldetr people, she said, did not realise what a difficult time tihis was tor youth, with disillusionment in the air. Thej r must not believe they had a claim on the gratitude of tlf>e young, Who asked, “Why should I owe you gratitude? You brought me into the world for your own pleasure; I did not ask to come.” Mrs Crlsighton said that in the post children were looked upon as the property of tlileiir parents, and especially their fathers, and as existing for the good of their parents. All that was now changed. The modern despot in tlite family was tlhe child, not the father. Parents were supposed to exist for the good of their hilcjren, not children for th=i yood of tiheir 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 was clear that the whole charac-teta* 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. doiny, live for tbeilr children. No form of selfishness was so insidious as family selfishness. The d&votibn of parents, especially perhaps of mothers, could toe mere selfishness. It was often asserted that the attitude bf the young at present, and especialy since the war, amounted to a revolution, ’that tfhe individual parent was powerles-s to resist the tendency of the age. Revolt was in the air. The young were determined to go their own way, to deify authority. They should not try to shut their eyes tu the greatness of this change which was taking place. To resist it would be futile. Tiitey had to seek the good in it, to discover how the evil was to be avoided and work w'ith the good. The elders were first in the field, and thtey must hand, on w|hat 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 fijeld would be lost by tlie leaders if they tried to make too much of it. They might believe that they had a -claim <|!l the g|ratitude of the you-nig, but th|;.re w<% 'real'ly no answer to the question, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, put by ffiie young: “Why should I owe you gratitu-dte? You brought me into the ■ world for your own pleasure. I did mot ask to come.” Gratitude should nevdtr be demanded or expected. It was a gracious gift. At present there was a tendency to fuss- too much about the young. They were treated and spoken of as if they were a caste, teven if they, were not treated as uratouchalbles. "Wfe: isolate them. We plan separate of ganisations of all kinds for them, and we grievt? when they refuse to fit into the organisations which we created. We watclh and notice and criticise, tut, although we may persuade ourselves to the contrary, that does not mean that we understand. We gkneralise from our imperfect observation, and so the young, like the working classes, or our domestics, or | those we epeak of as ‘the poor/ really, become a caste* fin our thinking. “Perhaps we elders, when we look - tack with regret to She cultured leisj ure, the comfortable prosperity, to i the wfjll ordered homes of Victorian I days, do not sufficiently realise what ! a difficult, time this i's being for the ; young. There is disillusionment :u the air. Evclryitthing i s tjailng questioned. We see the immense need for I hard, steady work, and some of the young ask, “Why should I work,” and othfcrs, “What is the good of any work? Vtaat purpose is there in life at all?’ and they go eta to drown thought in a fevetrish rush after pleasure which leaves them still unsatisfied. “Yet there ore plenty of signs of their capacity for response to any real call, as quick and ready’ as was « tlhe response in those first days of this war. What they in'eed is the inspiring call, the leader who will show them the groat cause. We necr prophets, and tliere seems to be no word from the Lord. “We elders mulct givia what leadership We can; not so much by trying to point out special work to be done, or the need loir han d work, as by the j courage with whidh we reward it. by our joy iln it, by our constant effort to press forward.-