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THE FIGHTING WITHOUT. THE FEAR WITHIN.

By

Dr. J Henderson Lightbody

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I                Identification

CHAPTER II               Opinions

CHAPTER III              Responsibilities

CHAPTER IV              Freedom                     

CHAPTER V               Turmoil & Triumph      

CHAPTER VI              Motivation

CHAPTER VII            Talents

CHAPTER VIII           Energy

CHAPTER IX              Co-practioners

INTRODUCTION

A huge dome shaped object, hidden in the wooded hills near a town in America is called by scientists, “the world’s biggest ear”.  The ‘Ear’ makes it possible to transmit live television across the ocean.  This gigantic: 177 feet electronic ear trumpet is made of aluminium and steel, built to the precision of the finest watches and weighing 340 tons.  It can pick up an incredible minute signal from the satellite transmitter three thousand miles in space, multiplying it one billion times, and send it out across the nation - as telephone calls, television programmes, or news pictures.

The need for this device was urgent to cope with the rapidly increasing international phone calls each year.  Then there is increasing demand for world-wide news for people who want to see events and places ‘live’.  The scientific wizards say that in space communication matters, we can hear a star squeak 200 million light years away.  Dr. Janner says, “Communication is the art and science crucial to success.”  An essential element though, in good communication is that of listening.

Good communication demands three essential E’s - Energy, Enthusiasm and Excitement.  Boredom is its enemy.  A fourth E we can add is ‘Enjoyment’.  There is another essential element in communication, that is to be brief.  This element, as many can verify when listening to communicators is all too often abused.  Yet sociologists tell us the retention rate for the average person is about twenty minutes.  A major skill for communicating therefore is to be concise rather than copious, so as to be economic with your listener’s or reader’s attention.

Life revolves round communication and to find meaning we must discover something bigger than ourselves.  You don’t have to know Who’s who, to know What’s what. C.S. Lewis says, “Only practise of faith resulting in the habit of faith will gradually do that.”

The basis of true religion, it cannot be denied is faith.  “Faith is not the spare wheel of the car, its the driving wheel”.  Then again true religion is not only an outward expression but an inward experience.

Most of the older established organisations were started by groups of people owing allegiance to one or other of the chief religious denominations.  Many of them were started as an attempt by earnest young men and women from public schools and universities to justify their creed by work as well as faith.  The older uniformed organisations, many of the settlements and many of our largest clubs owe their inceptions to those self-sacrificing people who devoted their lives to this pioneer work.  Gradually, however, a new spirit began to creep in, and groups sprang up in which there was no closing prayers or Sunday services, and where the leaders, though certainly justified of their works, were motivated rather by ethics than creed.

It is thought by some, that young adolescents had three main interests - politics, sex, and religion.  Yet mixing with adolescents we shall find that there is certainly no subject, with the possible exception of pop music, television, films, and the pools, which is more often discussed than religion, if by religion we mean the problems of leading a good life and the problem of finding a meaning and purpose in life.

The purpose of this book is to share some thoughts pertaining to the young adults, and how they face the fighting without and the fear within.

It has been suggested that religion is regularly in the forefront of any discussion young people raise. When young people present slick arguments to the merits of religion we must have the slick answer.  For instance, many young people take a great deal of trouble to point out why they do not go to church - there are those who assert that they are every bit as good; if not better, than those who go; those who give the impression that they regard church-going as evidence of a want of faith in the Creator, and those who stay away because they fail to see the use of it and anyhow the minister and congregation irritate them.

A very telling method of pointing out the superficiality of these arguments is to say, ‘Very well then, let us take your reasons for not going to church and let us see if they could be regarded as equally valid excuses for not going to the cinema’.  It works like this: I do not go to the cinema because:

1.    My father and mother made me go too often when I was young.

2.    No one at the cinema ever speaks to me.

3.    Every time I go someone asks me for money.

4.    The man in charge never visits me and isn’t interested in me.

5.    The people who do go don’t practice what the films teach them.

It is not suggested that such arguments alone are enough to turn young people into ardent church-goers, but it does force them to consider how superficial their reasons are and to face the fact that they are not valid reasons at all but merely excuses.

Young people are quick to appreciate that there is obviously something wrong in much of our political life, and with standards of some leaders in the community, and their sense of decency and order is outraged.  As a boy said once, “If I kept my machine at work in the way God keeps the world, I should lose my job”.  The only possible answer to this attitude is to ask, ‘Do you clean your machine?’  For God relies on man to keep the machine clean for him, and we, as a community form the only body of Christ on earth.  God relies on man to clean the world for him.

But the essence of religion is that it should provide standards, a way of living, a way of choosing, and a purpose in life.  We must not offer religion as though it were a sort of insurance policy.  “The things, good Lord, that we pray for, give us grace to labour for”.

Religious experience is life at its fullest or nothing at all.  If it is something valuable to us and we wish to pass it on we cannot keep our spiritual experience in a glass case or reserved compartment.  Religion has too often been represented to young people as the easy way out, as though once you believe, you know all the answers and are secure in this world and in the next - no problems, no more doubts, no longer do you say, ‘the good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not do, that I do,’ - you are always sure, always right, always happy.  For most of us this is simply not true, and it certainly does not seem to have been true for the saints of God.  Religious faith is not a soft option, but a standard to be attained and struggled for, it is a challenge to humanity, not an opiate, a prize or a bomb-proof shelter of the spirit.  Always the Christian is crying; “Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief”, his great glory being his faith that even his inability to believe can be helped.

There are those young people who go through a phase of atheism, and those who are going through the emotional hotbed of religious experience.  There are also those young people who wish to argue for the sake of arguing.  It is a phase of their growth, but there are times when it pays to be ruthless, dealing with them rather in the manner which is appropriate then.

Religion is not meant to be outer-garments, not a stepping stone for personal improvement in social status.  True religion is a religion which insists on an internal God and not a distant external God.

C.S. Lewis said, “Believe in God and you will have to face hours when it seems obvious that this material world is the only reality, disbelieve in him and you must face hours when this material world seems to shout at you that it is all.  No conviction religious or irreligious, will, itself, end once for all (those doubts) in the soul”.

The trouble so often can be to quote Jonathan Swift: “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another”.

Paul Schellenberg says, “For many people today, mainstream Christianity while promoting a valid code of conduct, requires a suspension of reason, a blind faith, that is unacceptable - causing them to drift away from the church and reject formal worship.  For others the answer lies in fundamentalism and the solidity that unquestioning faith provides". ”  Schellenberg adds, "As the millennium approaches, and increasing numbers of people seek greater meaning in their lives, it seems to us that the real answers may well have been there all along; answers which regard neither the abandonment of reason nor the surrender of individual responsibility”.

Nobody knows all the answers, but if we know our Bible, we would thereby know some of the answers, we are all trying to find at this moment.  Thinking like this causes me to say that communication is the conveyor belt for a successful, vibrant, and active society.  Communication between people, means, sharing ideas, the conveying of messages, the convincing, the converting, the caring for others, individually or in groups, large or small.  The Bible tells us to ‘forget not’ - the two essentials in life, ‘To do and to communicate’.  To persuade is the key challenge of communication. 

The Bible is the greatest ‘tool’ of communication afforded to people and it is a ‘tool’ when used wisely, provides support, guidance and stability to an otherwise unstable society.  You know an article which is in use every day doesn’t need dusting.  I wonder if your Bible needs dusting?

The fighting without and the fear within is often a result of self-centredness, and to be self-centred, is to be an immense distance from God.

Almost by nature man has been religious, that is looking to something claimed as supernatural, something outside himself, be it security, guidance or direction through the labyrinth of life’s pitfalls, snares or obstacles.

Many observe certain rituals to appease the gods and to find favour through their observances.

The late Professor William Barclay said, “The Christian both as a man and a Christian must be involved in the community.  It was never more difficult to be a Christian within the community than today - and never was it more necessary”.  He added, “This is an age when people are marrying to get divorced, and divorcing to get married”.

This book is an attempt to examine two questions many of us are confronted with and in particular the young adult, and these are: 1) Is our religion active or passive? And 2) Is our society controlling or caring?

“The dwarf sees furthest when mounted on the giant’s shoulders”.  

CHAPTER ONE                    

IDENTIFICATION    

Who are they?  Young adults are the people going through a transitional period.  Not only are they facing changes of emotion and physic but have to cope with changing from the school environment to the workplace.  They are coping with desiring more independence, no longer getting pocket money but handing in money for their household keep.  Now they are dependent on themselves for buying clothes according to the fashion.  Some may feel more secure within their peer group than at home.  Able to discuss more private things with their own age group than with their parents or other adults.  It is a process familiar to most who have come of age.

Like most individuals in whatever dimension of life we find ourselves, they have dreams of well-being.  But have to face the reality of - is well-being the same as being well-off.  Most people experience a fair degree of well-being.  But some experience more than others, and they can tell us as much.

We have therefore to wonder: what traits of personality, what circumstances of life, what states of mind correlate with well- being, with that enduring, joyful, and joy-spreading spirit that enables us to sense that being alive is the most wonderful of gifts?  We shouldn’t expect a single, simplistic answer, because complex human qualities such as, intelligence, kindness, and happiness inevitably have many determinants.  Simple-shaped explanations cannot explain strong traits.

In general young individuals will be honest enough to tell us they have moods, temporary though they may be.  Judgement and values change according to mood.  Moods put a different colouring to assessments of substance and surroundings and can be prone to exaggerations.  In a depressed mood ‘My thoughts become negative and pessimistic’, said a young woman adding, ‘it’s as if I am seeing things through dark-coloured glasses’.  ‘In a blue mood even my favourite ice-cream tastes stale’, said another.  Feeling elated we think we’ll ever be so.  When the elation turns to gloom, we can hardly recall the jubilation.

The experience of religion by grace can be a positive step to provide a model for human relationships.  To be instruments of grace is to approach others with an accepting attitude that values their individuality and affirms their worthwhileness.  Abdication from self is a prerequisite for a full life.

One man’s conviction was ‘Everybody longs to be loved and longs to know that he or she is lovable.  Consequently the greatest thing that we can do is to help somebody know that they are loved and capable of loving’.  This is living beyond self.

A vicar who had heard disturbing reports about certain members of his congregation, decided the situation warranted a dramatic response.  What he did was to bring a coffin into his Sunday service, and placed it beneath his pulpit, with the lid open.  At the end of his sermon he invited his congregation to walk down and look into the coffin and what they saw they were to bury.  The bottom of the coffin had a mirror fitted, so that when you looked inside you saw yourself.

For many people religion is nothing more than a cultural habit - something not so much practiced as professed by those who adhere to their community’s attitudes and traditions.  So we have nominal church membership along with faithful church membership.

In the United Kingdom and a number of western countries in particular, it can be claimed that most young people will have had some ‘taste’ of religious experience - that is the outward expression.

Bible Societies proclaim that most homes have a Bible even if it is just an ornament on a shelf.  The young adult’s experience of the Christian religion has many folds - from witnessing a sister’s wedding or a brother’s, or witnessing the funeral of a near relative or friend, the baptism or christening of a baby.  Those who have opted for a career in the forces will certainly meet the padre in the early part of training.  Then there is the admission to hospital, and form filling, which asks what religion are you?  In addition they may meet the hospital chaplain, and most schools have some form of religious connections.

The new hospital chaplain was reading a notice in the ward Sister’s office.  He noticed a lot of names with R.C. after them, and some had P. after their names.  When the Sister came in to her office, the chaplain remarked that there are a lot of Roman Catholics in her ward.  “What makes you say that”, asked the Sister.  The chaplain pointed to the notice on the board.  “That’s the breakfast list - those who want Rice Crispies and those who want Porridge”,  she explained.

Religion it must be said for some is only an outward form - a show of piety, and weak on force.  Like taking an egg and piercing two pin-holes at either end and blowing the contents out - you are left with the form but not the force.

It cannot be overstressed, however, that social issues result in conflicting standards of conduct, and constantly shifting economic conditions create for many young people a disturbed status.  Some are, as Margaret Mead points out, “Cut adrift without anchorage of respected home standards or group religious values”.

Theorists are in abundance to give us their expertise on how to make wrong, right.  Of course, ‘Theories which we believe become facts, and theories we don’t believe, remain theories’.

What we need is a society which is more caring than controlling.  Scientific modes of interpretation of the adolescent period and methodological approach to this period may in the final analysis simply remove one problem to replace it with another, though this was not the original intention.

It must be wrong for society to treat young adults as mere statistics, and in an impersonal manner.  The older generation must trade in their hunches, prejudices, doubts and negations, and involve young adults in the decision making, and affairs of the community.

They have values which ought to be encouraged.  They have sincerity which ought to be tapped.  Many people of course, may be sincere but may be sincerely wrong.

If I had a cheque for, say £1000 and take it to my nearest bank for cash.  The teller asks me: “Do you have an account at this bank?”  I reply, “No, not at this bank or any other bank”.  He then asks: “On what do you expect cash for your cheque/”  I reply, “Sincerity”. 

Some people are very hard to take sincerely.  A tramp climbed the steps of a Bible College, only to be ushered back down the steps by the College administrator.  As they were descending the steps, the tramp uttered: “You have got it wrong - I am not here to make a nuisance of myself.  I have a gift for the work your College does”, and at this point he put his hand in his well worn coat and produced £3000 - he had received a legacy but was happier handing it over to a worthwhile cause.

An important ingredient in any relationship must be sincerity.  Relationships are formed by a grafting process of mutual understanding and the element of support and respect.  Seeing the good in another as the highest common denominator.

Grafting is not a word peculiar to gardeners alone.  Surgeons use this word in their work too.

A gardener who had an orchard with about three hundred trees, was asked if he grafted his trees.  He replied: “Do you think I waste my land growing ungrafted trees?”  He added “What value could I ever expect from the old stock?”  When he was asked to explain the process of grafting, he duly explained,  “When a tree has grown to a certain height, I lop the top off and graft on to it”.  He pointed to a ‘father’ tree, because all the grafts for the other trees were taken from it.  If the other trees had been allowed to follow the course of nature their fruit would have been only the size of a raspberry, and consist mainly of thick skin and seeds.  This tree, from which the grafts are taken, bears luscious fruit the size of a plum with very thin skin and tiny seed; and of course all the grafted trees bear fruit like it.

He left one tree with the old fruit beneath the graft and the good fruit above the graft.  From this you can see the value of grafting.  How can a poor tree bear good fruit?  Only by grafting.  Now if a man can do this, cannot God graft his peace and passion into our spiritual lives?

The use of grafting by the surgeon - A Chinese woman burned her arm badly and was taken to hospital.  In order to prevent serious contraction due to the scaring it was found necessary to graft some new skin onto her arm.  Owing to her age and ill nourishment, the skin graft was too poor and did not ‘take’.  Then a foreign nurse offered a piece of her skin and the operation was carried out successfully.  The new skin knit with the old, and the woman left hospital with her arm perfectly healed; but there remained a patch of white foreign skin on her yellow arm to tell the tale of the past.

The need for identification within a community can be met when all see a need for a type of grafting of the world of the older generation and the world of the younger generation - no longer segregation but integration.

The young adult’s experience is that of parental power and peer group pressures, in addition they have social anxieties and career worries.  As a thirteen year old moaned, “Being this age isn’t easy you know.  I feel like an adult trapped in a child’s body”.  There is a struggle to separate from parents and define their personality identity.  A challenge for many in attempting to establish who they are is, “Am I living in a way which is deeply satisfying to me which truly expresses me?”  They discover that feeling liked, affirmed and encouraged by intimate friends and family, promotes both health and happiness.  When they are ‘down’ - parents seem inhuman, but when elated, parents’ traits are admirable.  Teenagers descend from elation or ascend from gloom in a short space of time.  A snub from a friend and it seems the world is about to end.  But then comes a phone call and all’s forgotten.  In what are called communal societies the identity is that of a group identity, rather than a personal identity which develops.

To many young adults, parents pose a threat to their autonomy.  For others the role change can be ‘too grown -up’ and ‘responsible’ (to the detriment of their needs to play and express dependency), and being too childlike and dependent (to the detriment of their self-sufficiency and autonomy).  The responsibility for any debts they incurred by themselves.  The greatest fear is now that of feeling insufficient - or how to attain self-sufficiency in the world at large.  Frustration as well as the fulfilment of our desires is an unavoidable aspect of being alive.  Aggravation and frustration seem sometimes to be like shadows, inseparable.  Their desire to feel, and be seen as grown-up and autonomous- this is experienced in a number of ways - smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol against parents wishes.

B. Sugarman, “High teenager commitment, as measured by such as smoking, going out with girls, wearing teenage fashions etc. was associated with favourable attitudes to school, to poor conduct according to teachers’ ratings, and to ‘under’ achievement relative to IQ as measured at the age of 11”.

Berger tells us, “The Chinese ‘brainwasher’ conspires with his victim in fabricating a new life-style for him, just as the psychoanalyst with his patient.  Of course in both situations the victim/patient comes to believe that he is ‘discovering’ truths about himself that were there long before this particular conspiracy got under way”.

Young adults unable to get a job and a feeling of low status - is a seed-bed for aggression. Low wages, poor housing conditions, family rows over lack of money and other social deprivations are factors which in general are causes for aggression - the insecurity of situations like this.  There is a sense of helplessness (unsettled and unhappy).

In reply to the question posed in this chapter, adolescence is a development stage.  Teenagers wish to belong and yet wish to be separate.  They need the recognition and acceptance of society and at the same time assert their individuality.  They need a role!  They struggle through all sorts of crises in relation to dress, manner, relationships, and attitudes as they attempt to make some meaningful relationship with their own world.

Alan Train says, “In respect adolescents can be divided into four groups: A)  Those who have reached the crossroads and made a commitment;  B)  Those who are at the crossroads and have not yet committed themselves; C)  Those who have made a commitment without encountering the crossroads; and  D)  Those whose drive towards the crossroads is diffused”.

There are needs to be answered, these may be tabulated as follows:

1.    The need for a clear picture of the world.  The adolescent must know where he stands in relation to all around him.

2.    The need of an objective in life.  His expectation - centred on objectives to be achieved.

3.    The need to feel part of things.  Relations and sense of value.

4.    The need for  stimulation.  Severe boredom can lead to severe problems.

5.    The need for a sense of rootedness.  (Bond with mother for instance)  He needs a bond for future development.

All of us have a built-in need to create our own identity.  The strong desire for independence, a sense of self, is seen as a characteristic of any human being.

Train says, “All people behave in ways consistent with the perception they have of themselves.  Acceptance as a person is extremely important”.

In Western Society in particular, communities appear as ‘bits and pieces’ those who observe and those who are being observed.  In a way this may be likened to taking a tray and then pour sand into it freely - the sand falls into various heaps or mounds until the tray is shaken and then the sand finds its own level across the tray.

The adolescent’s identity crisis can be defined this way - children play roles, adolescents experiment with them - during this period to try out a number of role and identities without commitment.  However pressures to commit themselves are built up, and somewhere between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four there is often an identity crisis when a young person is forced to make up his mind which of all these bits and pieces of identity to hang on to, which to suppress.  The basis of this is partly the necessity of adopting one job rather than another, to choose a particular spouse, to make some decision about political and religious attitudes and to choose a style of life.  At this stage the choice is helped by the existence of alternative models to identify with, and of a number of ‘social types’ in the community.  A young person in Britain might consider becoming a scientist or a teacher but would be unlikely to contemplate becoming a witch-doctor or a gangster.  To have formed an ego-identity is to have a feeling of being at home in your own body , a sense of knowing where you are going, and an inner assurance of anticipated recognition from those who count.

The course of identity-formation does not always run smoothly, and a number of intermediate and temporarily successful states of this identity are commonly found in young people.  1)  A conflict between two or more alternative identities which cannot be reconciled, such as wishing to be a clergyman and a whisky distiller: if the two cannot be combined ( e.g. making sacramental wine, or being a Benedictine monk), one is usually chosen and the other relegated to weekends or holidays.  2)  A state of ‘moratorium’ in which decisions about identity are postponed.  After going to university (which itself provides such a moratorium) some students travel to remote and exotic lands to ‘find out who they are’.  3)  Forming a prestigeful identity which cannot really be sustained, and requires continual confirmation from others.  4)  There are various pathological conditions - forming a totally unrealistic identity as in paranoia, and forming no identity at all as in schizophrenia.

There are forces in the personality to achieve a unified identity and this is controlled by outside forces to keep it realistic.  Another force which plays its part in the producing of a favourable self-image and which provides sufficient self-esteem.  Self-ratings are usually somewhat more generous than ratings given by others.  However the self-image depends on reactions of others; this is why such a lot of effort is put into self-presentation, the manipulation of others perceptions.  What happens if others’ evaluations are more favourable than self-evaluation?  Experiments show that this is found to be uncomfortable - but not so unpleasant as the opposite situation.

The need of self-esteem is limited by reality; otherwise behaviour becomes absurd and preposterous, and there is continual lack of confirmation by others.  This happens in the case of paranoia.  In fact people vary widely in their feelings of esteem, from conceit to inferiority.  Both extremes usually reflect failure to perceive accurately the present responses of others, and can be regarded as failures of judgement.  A mythical psychotherapist is said to have told a patient who suffered from  feelings of inferiority, “But you really are inferior”.  The real reason people feel inferior is usually that they have been unduly rejected by their parents, or have chosen too elevated a comparison group.  It is quite possible to select prestigeful items out of long list of self-attributes and roles once played, and such items often become a favourite item of conversation.  However, the total self-esteem is greatly affected by the ego-deal.  This self-esteem depends jointly on a person’s position in a series of evaluative dimensions.  Values depend on the group, so self-esteem depends on whether the group values a person’s attributes - but a group will have been joined because it does value them.  The self is not at work all the time: people are not continually trying to discover, sustain or present a self-image.  For example, when at home rather than at work, in the audience rather than on stage the self-esteem is not very active.

Most people feel self-conscious when appearing in front of an audience, and some people feel very anxious.  It has been found that these effects are greater when the audience is large, and fails to give positive responses.  The performer is the centre of attention for a number of people and his performance will be assessed, so that there is the danger that he will receive disapproving reactions, and self-esteem (rather than self-image) may be damaged.  

When someone addresses any kind of audience it is no good his speaking in the informal ‘familial’ style - he won’t be heard properly, it is inevitable that he must put on some kind of ‘performance’.  Once he does so he is accepting a certain definition of the situation and presenting a certain face: he is someone who is able to perform before this audience and is worth attending to.  It is this implicit claim which creates the risk of loss of face.

There are many social situations where other people can be regarded as a kind of audience and where one’s performances may be assessed.  A question - to what extent do you feel mainly.. the observer or the observed?

CHAPTER TWO

OPINIONS

Robert Collyer had to leave school while still very young to work in a factory in Fewton, Yorkshire.  Eventually he emigrated to America where he became successful as a clergyman and writer.  He often spoke of the harsh clang of the factory bell which used to waken him each morning.  When he heard the old factory was to be demolished, he wrote to a friend in Yorkshire to ask for a part of the bell as a souvenir.  To his consternation, the whole bell arrived.

Robert offered it to the Cornell University, warning the staff that the bell “made the worst clang that ever vexed the heavens”.  When it was installed, he was invited to ring it for the first time.  He pulled the rope and was amazed to hear it sounding clear and sweet.

The harsh din he remembered had been in the mind of an overworked, sleepy little boy, not in the bell at all.

How often de we vex ourselves with the memory of some slight or setback which perhaps never really existed?

Robert Collyer’s inner thoughts were changed, and he took on another opinion which contrasted with his first thinking.

Young adults, if not before hand, they almost certainly are at a stage of formulating their own opinion and quite often capable of expressing their own viewpoint, whether it be in any of the ‘socialization’ agencies, namely the family, the church or the immediate community.

The family has always been thought of as the institution most strongly shaping, or socializing the young, in the way it passes standards, values, opinions, taboos, rights and wrongs.  For many centuries prior to the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 18^th century the family, whether in close proximity to numbers of other families or in comparative isolation, was likely to be  a closely knit unit extending beyond two generations and through marriage.  Economically it depended on all, including the children, for labour and production in order that all might survive.

Where young adults seem to be on a bridge between independence and freedom, it is important not to force issues on them indeed their cry might be ‘Do not rescue me prematurely’:  as one part of adolescence response to adults wanting to force the issue.  There is a fear of rejection.  But urgent and passionate preaching of the Gospel, at the right time and in the right place, is far removed from an over anxiety which makes us want to burgle men’s souls.  Over-anxiety springs in fact, from our own inner uncertainty.  But sooner or later the young have to move off the bridge, if only because of the pressure of those following behind and if they move forward it is to discover that independence and freedom take on new responsibilities.  Whilst on the bridge he can experience deepening of relations, a growing confidence in relating to different groups, and an awareness of self.  All human development takes place through relationships.

In the matter of Christianity many are confused as to the Gospel teaching of peace and the value of human life and the Church’s whole hearted acceptance of war.  The compromise made seventeen centuries ago between Roman philosophy of war and domination, and early Church doctrine of peace and humility, is still present to confuse the modern teenager.

Then again some attitudes may be a result of the social environment - creating rebellion against authority, philosophical perplexities, the flavouring of idealism, conflict and struggle - all this goes with or is ascribed to a period of physical development.  Determinism and opinion are part of the developing process.  Influence is a controlling and guiding factor important to the young person’s growth.  Influence from the family situation, from the workplace, from the immediate neighbourhood or even institutions such as the uniformed organizations such as the Boys Brigade or the Girl Guides.  These are all formations which have an influential direction.  Institutions such as the church or college play a major role in direction for teenagers despite the gloom of emptying church pews and empty sermons from pulpits. 

Can the social distance scale between teenagers and adults be bridged?   Can the attitudes of adults and young people merge at some point of reconciliation, where prejudices, biases, hunches, conflict disappear in ever decreasing circles.

The adult attitude towards teenagers in general falls into two categories, these are: 1) Ascribed Behaviour,

a)    precocious (‘forward’); b) badly dressed (‘slovenly’ or ‘over-dressed’); c) easily led and influenced (‘sheep-like’); d) lazy (‘workshy’ or ‘feckless’).  2)  Prescribed Behaviour, a) should help in or about the house; b) should have more discipline; c) should have more training in housecraft.

Adolescent attitudes to adults.  The exercise of authority by parents and other adults is by no means invariably met with disapproval.  Approving : e.g. ‘Grown ups should not spoil their children’, ‘Mothers should teach their children manners’, and ‘fathers should make their children do as they are told’.  Disapproving:  ‘Grown ups should not boss us around’, ‘Mothers should not shout at us’, ‘fathers should not hit us’.  These statements of opinion are found in Frank Musgrove’s book, ‘Youth and the Social Order’.  These attitudes might be called inter-generation attitudes.

Musgrove says, During the past two hundred years young people in English society have moved through three broad status phases: the first from the 1780s to the 1860s, was a period of high status, the second, from the 1860s to 1910, a period of low status; the third phase according to Musgrove was from the 1920s up to the present day, a high status phase. ‘Young people’ between 10 and 20, no longer young children, but not yet adults chronologically, socially or legally, have enjoyed status which has varied with population changes and economic opportunity.  The best indices of their status are probably the amount of marriages among them and the extent of their independent ‘income’.

Musgrove then says that, “this is a proposition which calls for critical approval”.  Protective measures are a two-edged device: while they may signify concern for the welfare of the young they also define them as separate, non-adult population, inhabiting a less than adult world.  The need for protection and distinctive treatment underlines their less than adult status.

Vance Packard in his book “Hidden Persuaders”, demonstrates how gullible our opinion can be when he tells about the market salesman trying to persuade people to purchase a certain soap powder.  What he did was to hand out three different packets, one coloured blue, the second coloured yellow, and a third coloured blue and yellow; to a group and asked them to report back their findings on the results in their washing.  The opinions he received were: the blue packet - ‘was too strong’. The yellow packet, ‘still left my clothes dirty’, and the third packet, the blue and yellow, ‘fine, wonderful’.  Yet it was the same powder in each packet, only the packets were different in colour. 

A lot of us have opinions about public speakers whether in politics, religion or drama.  Some people express their opinion in rather a crude fashion, like the heckler at an outdoor political meeting who called to the speaker, “Look at him spouting there - I bet he can’t even tell us the number of toes a pig has”,  at that the speaker replied, “Yes I can take off your shoes and count them”.

Good communication is vital to express your opinion - communication consists of 1) getting your message across, and 2) listening.  Young people sometimes say words to the effect that, “My friends listen to me, but my parents only hear me talk”.  Often they are right, familiarity breeds inattention.  Typically family members are so convinced they know what another family member is going to say that they don’t bother to listen.  They finish the speaker’s sentence, give an answer before they’ve heard the question, or just switch off.  ( a plug can be plugged in but is powerless until it is switched on!)  Other times they may hear what the person is saying but pay little attention to what the person is feeling.

Listening should not be a passive process, but an active one.  How can you as a parent be a better listener with your adolescent?  Firstly pay attention, and secondly listen with your ears and your eyes.  Don’t interrupt with questions and comments.  Like adults, adolescents need to sound off.  When they are crying and upset, they don’t want advice, they want understanding.  Don’t jump in when you think you’ve got the gist of what your adolescent is saying.  Let them speak their piece and give their opinion.  Most of us are uncomfortable with silence, we feel a compulsive need to help the conversation going.  But attentive silence allows the speaker to collect their thoughts.

The goal of active listening is to understand another person’s point of view, to see things through that person’s eyes, ‘to walk a mile in his shoes’, and to share his feelings.  This doesn’t mean that you and your adolescent will always agree.  You won’t.  But when family members stop assuming and start listening, the climate for communication in your home will improve.  These methods can be applied in a wider sense in the immediate community.

There is a Chinese proverb which says, “Before you walk a mile, you must take the first step”.  The first step in good communication, successful communication is the ability to listen.

Jesus Christ, no less, was a great communicator.  His life story cites many instances of this in practice.  His words were holy, harmless and undefiled.  His words never offended against good manners, nor turned the mind to dishonourable things.  He spoke with grace.  He told the truth.  He spoke simply so that the common people heard him gladly.  He spoke as one who had heard or received a message from God.  At twelve years of age he spoke to doctors of law and doctors of theology, and left them amazed.  He taught as having authority. (Matt 7:29).  For instance see the stories of ‘The Prodigal Son’, ‘The Good Samaritan’, ‘The Lost Sheep’, ‘The Wedding Feast’, ‘The Ten Virgins’, ‘The Pharisee and the Publican’, ‘The Parable of the Sower’.

There are numerous scenes where Jesus is an active listener, ‘Before Pilot’, ‘The Judgement Hall’, even on the cross he listened to the cry, ‘Remember me’, from he who was on the cross beside him, and his reply ‘Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise..’.

Jesus used parables to communicate his opinions, his teachings and a way of life.  Parables used as illustrations - what is an illustration?  An illustration can be likened to a ‘window’.  Something you look through not at.  Very much like the car windscreen when driving you look through not at.

Communicating of opinion need not be for the family unit only, though that might be a good starting point, but should be freely expressed publicly if it has relevance.  Relationships, experiences, and situations express a person’s position in a community.  There may be limitations placed on an individual’s life e.g. education, social mobility, health, life span.

Aspects of social life are to be found in ideas and culture to which people are exposed and which they experience.  In addition there are differing possibilities of controlling and changing circumstances - and by and large the expressing of your opinion can be vital and certainly is important, whether a consensus may be reached or not.  You have the right to contribute and communicate your opinion for effective social life.  Aspects, indeed, of social-stability is the awareness people have and the opinions they hold about their positions. 

The woman police chief inspector, who, when asked by the television interviewer: “What do your superiors think about that…”.  She replied , “I have no superiors - only seniors”.  She was assertive in her opinion and expressed it emphatically.

Peter Worsley says, “A man’s social status on earth has no significance and says nothing about his moral worth.  What matters, “ adds Worsley, “is his relationship with the supernatural, and he should devote himself to the cultivation of this relationship”.  Elsewhere, Worsley says, “The ideal, for him (man) is withdrawal from active involvement in daily life and dedication to a life of prayer and meditation - a monastic existence; for those that cannot meet this ideal, secular responsibilities should be accepted and fulfilled but should not displace a concern with salvation”.

I am not denying there has to be some value in monastic life but that seem to me to be for the individual alone - unless, of course, we count his praying, to be for others too.  Jesus did not lead a monastic life!

The relationship of religious beliefs to the world of daily life is more complex as many examples show.  There are many ways in which religious beliefs give ‘meaning’ to life - Calvin stressed indifference to worldly pleasures in favour of the realization of God’s will on earth, but according to Max Weber “This contributed to the growth of avaricious, profit-making and quite worldly spirit of the capitalist entrepreneur.

What is generally called social motivation can be summarised thus: most people spend a great deal of their time engaged in some kind of social interaction.  They live together, work together, and spend spare time with their friends.  Why do they do this?  Why do we not all behave like hermits, living and working alone?  In fact for most individuals solitary confinement, or other forms of isolation for more than short periods, are very unpleasant indeed.  Loss of ‘face’ in the Far East is a cause of suicide, and rejection of friends in our own society is a common source of stress and distress.  The explanation given by earlier thinkers was that humans (and most animals) have a ‘herd instinct’ or ‘gregarious instinct’ which draws them, together.  It is now realised that people seek a number of more specific goals in social situations - help with work or other activities, friendships, guidance, power, admiration, and so on.

Different people seek different things in social situations.  In the present state of knowledge it looks as if social behaviour is the product of at least seven drives. A ‘drive’ can be defined as a persistent tendency to seek certain goals.  As well as directing people towards goals, a drive is a source of energy; when the drive is operating there is a general increase of vigour.  Much the same is true of biological drives such as hunger; when a person is hungry he will seek food with increased effort.  Furthermore the drive can be subdivided into a number of more specific ones for salt, sugar, and so on: animals deprived of one of these substances will select a diet which makes good the deficit.  It is necessary to postulate there various forms of motivation to account for variations in the behaviour of the same person on different occasions, e.g. when hungry and not, and to describe differences between different people in the goal to pursue, and the energy with which they do it.  There have been many means of measuring drive-states devised which can probably assess unconscious as well as conscious aspect of motivation - there are many experts who have produced what are called ‘projection tests’.

The goals of dependency are close and submissive relations with parents, and later on with other people, where the other person provides help, guidance and protection.  Dependent behaviour may be directed to people in power and authority, or towards equals.  This is the earliest kind of attachment to other people: most children develop a pattern of dependency towards their parents, and often have to be trained out of it at about the age of five.  Studies of Institutionalised children show that the  ones who have never experienced parental nurture are very low in independency, while those who have are very high.

Dependency may be aroused in adults in situations which are new and frightening, and where others know the ropes.  Dependence or submission is closely related to its opposite dominance, in that some people may show both types of behaviour on different occasions.  This is called ‘authoritarian personality’ and is submissive to people of greater power or status, and dominant to those of less.  The theory is that authoritarians come from homes where parents have been very domineering and strict.  An explanation has been given that they are continuing the relationship they had with their parents while in their dominant role they are imitating their parents.

Sociologists, psychologists and others seem to revel in the exercise of graphs, categorising and analysing various personality dimensions.  Some of this categorising is to establish such things as behavioural patterns and personality traits, which are arrived at from their observations of social interaction.  I agree that there must be a considerable degree of synchronising of interaction styles for there to be social behaviour at all.

“Psychology can throw much light on the nature of love, and help a person to self-understanding, and a proper relationship with others; it can help him to an attitude which is fundamentally independent of the emotional whirl.  In doing so it prevents the individual from being closed within his emotional experience, and maintains the possibility of being open to the Christian message which alone does justice to the depth of the nature of love”, said Erastus Evans.

Martin Buber talks about the between - Buber suggests that when two persons meet in the relationship there is something between them which is greater than both, which must be served if anything of a lasting value is to be achieved through their coming together.  In this attitude there is something analogous to the Christian belief whether Buber intended this or not.  The Christian believes the bond is permanent and of healing value, when this Between is Christ.

Philip Mairet says, “There are many cases in which no such treatment is divisible or necessary, cases where the burden could well be borne in the community, and the subject’s difficulties would abate, if those in the environment took a little more trouble with a little wisdom”.  There are always strains in life both in the church and in the world.

The older teenager as with the older generation needs to feel he is at home, and has significance in the society into which he is born, where love, marriage and work find their fulfilment, and where self-denial and death itself consummate and consecrate the eternal meaning of a person having been given a life to lead.  Concrete membership in an actual community which in aspiration and cooperative endeavour is constantly becoming, that redeemed active society.

It is my firm conviction that a community voice can only be defined as such when all the fragments or segments of accountable age speak as one.  I do not mean arriving at a consensus all the time - I mean through a sharing and caring process.

For instance - parents drawing their adolescents into discussion, to listen to their opinions before reaching a decision - communities involving young adults in community decisions, in voicing the community’s thinking, feeling and action.  A community Voice!

In the Christian realm many hear ‘voices’, quite often believing them to be the voice of God.  The story is told of a young man from an evangelical home who constantly used the phrase ‘God spoke to me”, to describe any religious guidance or intuition that came to him in the course of his devotions.  One day he told his parents he thought God was telling him to move to the next town - then he wondered if this was the voice of the Devil.  In the course of a day or so he became very agitated and upset.  His parents tried to help him with spiritual counsel but without success.  It was not long before he began to develop other signs of schizophrenia and it became clear that he was hallucinating.  This is not to disparage the fact that God can and does speak directly to individuals - it is a question of differentiating between the voice of God and other 'voices'.

A patient was walking up a ward one day claiming he was Napoleon.  A doctor asked him, “Who told you that?”  He replied, “God”.  A voice from the next bed called out, “No I didn’t”. 

CHAPTER THREE

RESPONSIBILITIES

For the young adult having adopted the responsibility of the change from the pocket money period; to contributing to their own wardrobe, their independence widens by the day.  No longer going on holiday with their parents but rather with their own friends.  In many cases they have more empathy with and among their friends than in other areas of life including the family unit.

Each of us must be prepared to cope with responsibility thrust upon us by our very existence.  We need to be prepared to take the flak with the good.

Because of legislation parents are responsible for making sure their children attend school.  Teachers’ are responsible for educating in the three R’s, of these children.  Parents are also responsible for the conduct of their children whether at school or out of school.  Police are responsible, and the courts, for enforcing the law of the land.  Clergy have a responsibility to expound the Bible teaching in grace, simplicity, authoritatively, unafraid, not muzzled.  Youth workers have a responsibility in club-settings to develop autonomy and leadership qualities, building confidence and self-esteem, and respect.

Probably parents have the greatest responsibility right from their child’s birth - the vows taken at baptism - ‘should not be taken lightly’.  Some parents however, say, “We will not influence our children in matters of religion”.  But why not?  The ads will!  The press will!  The radio will!  The movies will!  The T.V. will!  The neighbours will!  The politicians will!  The forces of evil will!  Shall we ignore our children, may God forgive us if we do.

Adults should not expect adolescents to adhere to responsibility if they themselves are somewhat short in that department.

Good citizenship is a mark of responsibility.  Young adults have also to cope with responsibility such as their dress sense, their behaviour, their ‘membership’ be it to the family, the workplace, the college, the community and not least to society at large… Add to that personal hygiene, manners, and self-discipline.

Even children have responsibility, the Good Book says, ‘They are to honour their father and mother’, and this is a commandment.

So whether as a parent, guardian, supervisor or superintending, responsibility is an unavoidable factor.  It is not something we adopt, but it is something to which we have to adapt.  He who opts out of this has little self-esteem or self-worth.

A few opposites to responsibility might well be worth mentioning.  If we fail to service our car.  If we ignore the instruction of the Highway code.  If we neglect someone close to us on a birthday.  If we ignore the telephone bill, all of these and many ,more are marks of foolishness.

Ruth Lane’s definition of foolishness is summed up like this:

Two fools had cars they thought perfection,

They met one day at an intersection.

Tooted their horns and made a connection.

A police car came and made an inspection,

An ambulance came and made a collection.

All that is left is a recollection,

And two less votes in the next election.

The late President of America, Harry Truman had a plaque which always sat on his desk throughout his administration and it read: “The buck stops here”.

Independence does not mean a free-ride.  Adolescents need as we all need, to learn that privileges carry responsibilities.  If your son wants to use the car, you should expect him to refill the tank before he comes home and to check the oil and tyres periodically.  You might let him use the car on Saturday nights in exchange for washing the car and helping to keep the garage in order.  If your daughter wants to have some friends over when you’re going out, she should be responsible for enforcing family rules (no alcohol, no drugs, no smoking, no mess left for you to clean up).

When parents know that their adolescent is making a mistake, stand back, the temptation to intervene is strong.  But unless health and safety are at risk, try to resist.  Adolescents need to learn from their mistakes.  When you are tempted to take charge, ask yourself ‘What would happen if I didn’t interfere?’  Even if the consequences are serious (your son’s bike will be stolen if he’s forgetting to lock it) allow that to happen.  When you take charge you are preventing your adolescent from developing and exercising a sense of personal responsibility.  Suppose your daughter is chronically late for school.  You could drag her out of bed, march her to the breakfast table, and threaten to make her stay in all day Saturday if she’s late one more time.  When you do, she will be angry and resentful and look for a way to punish you back (like sulking all day or refusing to do the chores).  All she has learned is that you can make her week-end miserable.  Why not knock on her door at 7; give her a fifteen minute warning, but let her be late and bear the consequences: no breakfast, walking to school, being kept in after school.  Let her ‘suffer’, but don’t rub it in.  Independence also means the right to make mistakes occasionally, without being humiliated and belittled by your parents.

Adolescents are as individually variable as any other age group in our society.  Parents who accept stereotypes about teenagers and applying them to their own adolescents, regardless of that adolescent’s particular needs and capabilities, end up behaving in stereotypical ways themselves.  One common pattern is for parents who have had  an easy-going relationship with their child to suddenly, without provocation clamp down when that child becomes adolescent.  Why?  Because they expect adolescence to be trouble.  Not surprisingly, the adolescent sees this change in the parents behaviour as unfair.  The parents hyper-vigilance has the opposite effect of what they intended   The adolescent rebels, and the parents’ assumption that all teenagers are rebellious is confirmed.  This vicious cycle can be avoided if you trust your child as a child and not as a stereotype adolescent.

Consistency in enforcement, consistency with your spouse (don’t let the adolescent play one of you off against the other).  Consistency with your values and beliefs.  Consistency in face of pressure from your adolescent.  Accept your adolescent as an individual.  It is a responsibility of parents and others for support, guidance, understanding, interpreting and extending experience, enabling young people to make their own choice and to understand the factors that can be considered in making them and the consequences of making them.  Sustaining and developing interests and enjoyments, experienced at school and elsewhere.  Discovering new skills, interests and talents are all ‘part and parcel’ of development.  The elsewhere is the experience gained outside of compulsory situations.

In this environment, learning how to establish satisfactory social and personal relationships, and not least, learning how to accept responsibility in the community is healthy development.  A tragedy which must be avoided is that of too many of our young adults having a less than acceptable self-image.

The function of social systems distribute favourable self-images unequally throughout a population -creating often an ‘us and them’ syndrome.  So we find a limit placed upon the development and creative potential.  The ‘experts’ call this stratification.  To this extent that significant membership in society depends on your place on the prestige ladder of society, thus creating unequal participation and apathy and lack of motivation for the less privileged.  This in turn creates hostility, suspicion and distrust amongst the various segments of society, and this limits the possibilities of extensive social integration.

Professor William Barclay said, “It is the determination always to seek the other man’s highest good, no matter what he does to you.  Insult, injury, indifference -it does not matter; nothing but good will.  It has been defined as purpose, not passion.  It is an attitude to the other person”.

Situations of the adverse can be rectified if those who are aware of them come together and publicise them.  Sometimes this can be done through existing pressure groups.  But more often requires a pressure group set-up specially for this purpose.

On the responsibility ladder of life - we can say, “This I know we cannot climb higher than God, and we can never sink beneath his love”.  The moment a soldier adorns his uniform he finds martial stirrings in his breast - he adopts new responsibilities.  When a nurse adorns her uniform she finds stirrings of responsibilities within her.  Physicians, clergymen; officers - acquire all kinds of distinctive mannerisms, even speech motor habits, such as military bearing, sanctimonious diction, or bedside manners.

Roles like these carry with them both certain actions and the emotions and the attitudes that belong to these actions.  The man who has recently been commissioned as an officer, especially if he has come up through the ranks has feelings of change, wearing the new insignia perhaps finds it a bit embarrassing - something he merely put on - as if a kind of disguise - yet he must maintain a certain bearing.

Social institutions of Britain - particularly our educational institution - have fashioned adolescents, characterised by a degree of realism commonly supposed to be the hallmark of the mature adult.  Many investigators have been surprised and dismayed by the down to earth and practical appraisal which the young in the post war years, make of their present condition and future prospects.  They accurately perceive the implications for their future lives and careers of the educational provision  which they receive after the age of eleven.  They neither respect or even desire jobs which are out of line with the level of their educational competence; in their early teens they expect to marry at the age which is in fact most common among workers they expect to join; the majority of them know with a remarkable degree of accuracy what they earn in the jobs they expect, both initially and in adult years.  These are of course generalisations, but hold a fundamental belief.

The cry for more integration of the young adult would put an end to the stigmata of being spectators or observers remaining detached because his involvement is inaccessible - this involvement simply means being involved as a human being in the more personal business of living as a vibrant and real participant of community living.

Of course the purpose of life, even the significancy of death and the hereafter, which may raise questions on these topics could be avoided by calling them ‘meaningless’.

To have a vibrant, real community, it seems to me, there has to be involvement of members each with a valid contribution to offer.  For any section of the community too detached or distant does not portray a caring community and encourages the spectator syndrome.  This in turn creates a controlling community and a non-caring society at large.

We do not come to know God by keeping ourselves at a distance or detached.  Knowing God is more like friendship or a marriage than a laboratory experiment.

Severed heads and limbs in a dissecting room do not constitute a whole man.  Scattered bricks and mortar do not constitute a house.  Fragmenting a community into adults and adolescents does not reflect a healthy society.  Fragmentation here constitutes cheating, or at least bluffing.

If the computer churns out a mistake we are too ready to blame the computer which is unable to reply to our blameology.  But the mistake is not the computer’s fault - it is the fault of the person feeding the information into it!

A ‘No-smoking’ sign is easily shown to be nothing but paint or ink on a card; but if anyone thinks this will excuse him from observing it, the usher will soon show him differently.

When someone claims that what is on the card is nothing but ink he is telling the truth in a certain simple, literal sense.  But if he means it has therefore no claim on his attention as a message (in fact a prohibition) he is talking nonsense.

CHAPTER FOUR

FREEDOM

For a number of this age group (the older teenager) there is the feeling of greater freedom.  They have broken the shackles of the home (now only lodgers), they have broken with school with all its restrictions and codes of practice.  There is now the feeling of being emancipated.

‘An adolescent is more than a tool, more than an instrument, he is a man with a soul’.  Emancipation is freedom, liberty - true liberty however, can only come from an inner change in men’s nature.  Perfect liberty, as theologians were long to maintain, lay in conformity to God’s will.

Christians are called to a life of freedom, not of the flesh, but as willing slaves to one another.

In emancipation there is no finality, it is a continuing process of development.  There are tasks still to be worked at and N. J. Havighurst; lists no less than ten of these which he calls ‘developmental tasks’ which every adolescent has to undertake.  The community should understand how the adolescent can be helped by the community to achieve this maturity.  Havighurst’s suggestions are: 1) Achieving new and more mature relationships with age-mates of both sexes, 2) Achieving a masculine or feminine role.  3)  Accepting one’s physic and using the body effectively.  4)  Achieving emotional independence of parents and other adults.  5)  Achieving assurance of economic independence.  6)  Selecting and preparing for an occupation.  7)  Preparing for marriage and family life.  8)  Developing intellectual skills and concepts necessary for civic competence.  9)  Desiring and achieving socially responsible behaviour.  10) Requiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behaviour.

“Ethics is that part of the Christian religion which deals with behaviour”, said Prof. Barclay.

“A characteristic of an adolescent can be the marked change in attitude to parents - this is common, but very varied.  Earlier the child may first realise his responsibility to his parents, but later the feeling of ‘growing up’ and the intensification of individual friendship and of group interests often lead to a lessening of the influence of the parents, though affection may remain as great or even increase.  Some adolescents rise to high levels of idealism, sometimes impracticable ones, and this may lead to a critical attitude towards a parent who is more realistic” said C.W. Valentine.

From cliques to couples - from conformity to individuality.  It is much easier for young adults to feel and act independently when they are living away from home.  A large part of forging an identity and achieving independence is establishing a life-style of your own.  This is difficult to do, when you are living in your parents home and still subject to their rules.  Parent - young adult relationships are smoother and closer when the young adult has a separate residence.  If your mother has ever come for an extended visit, you know how difficult it can be to assert ‘But this is how I do it’  when everything you do provokes a suggestion, a criticism, or a pained look.  Self-assertion is even more difficult for the young adult, who isn’t sure how she would do it, given free choice.

Independence (emancipation) can create financial autonomy and with it stress when now controlling the purse strings, the young adult needs to demonstrate financial responsibility.

It is natural for parents to feel left out when their adolescent leaves home and doesn’t report back regularly.  But some decrease in communication is normal and healthy.  The plain fact is that the young adult doesn’t need you as much as he used to.

The time has come for the parents to get out of the adolescent’s daily life.  The young adolescent needs freedom to make mistakes.  From these mistakes is a learning process, controlling the budget , choosing friends more selectively and so on.  The adolescent needs to know how to bail themselves out.  ‘Putting a little distance between them and the family is part of the process’, says Steinberg.

In this industrial society of the United Kingdom, industrialism demands men of merit and not aristocracy.  Industrialism sees the individual’s rights and the individual is important - these have to be present.  Believe it or not, faith was the basic structure of the state - even a scientist has faith - in his discoveries and observations and results.  In industrialism there are attached both industrial ideas with community law and order.  Religion was central to this ideology.  That the sacred part of religion should be maintained was acceptable.  Political power could change men and social institutes.  Power plus reason was the seed-bed for new social order.

Sociologists saw an evolution from society to society.  Durkheim’s ‘Division of labour’ tended to be conservative - he suggested two types of social order, 1) MECHANICAL and 2)ORGANIC.  It was he who said, ALTRUISTIC - ‘A group was more important than the individual’.  Similarities and norms effect individuals in a direct way. 

For emancipation to be realised for young people, inequality must be addressed, relationships must flourish, limitations a thing of the dim and distant past.  Control balanced by care cannot be ignored for there to be an active community.

Whether it is a controlling or caring (or both) agency, local government has a vital role to play in any community, and for any individual of that community.

Raynor states, “What the nature is for service in local government is not clear.  It can hardly be for prestige and status, and the cynical view that it is a way of improving one’s business ignores the fact that local businessmen can do this better through various voluntary organisations.  It would seem, as Birch says, ‘that it is furthering the course of the national political parties at a local level, that makes people stand.  However, we may be at the point when local government, which has up till now been manned by shopkeepers and local trades, will pass to more highly educated and articulate members of the middle class”.  Raynor adds, “The recent revival of interest in the community and development of the community consciousness, manifest themselves in a growing concern for the quality of life in the local environment”.  Raynor further states, “The pressure to improve civic amenities, local movements of consumer protection local branches of Civic Trust, and above all the setting up of local pressure groups to demand improved services in things like education, attract the more intelligent and socially mobile middle class, and bring a new vigour to local administration”.

Some of us may be about to ‘throw the towel in’ at this point.  But let me remind you that Jesus Himself gave responsibility for discharging his teachings, to fishermen, shepherds, civil servants as well as kings and generals and statesmen. 

Moreover, any policy arrived at in the country arises from interplay between the various government ministries, members of Parliament, and various interest groups.  The rationale behind these groups is the desire to influence public policy in their interest.     

Blondel makes a useful distinction of these groups when he calls them, “1)  Protective Groups: out to defend some interest, such as trades unions or professional associations and 2)  Promotional Groups: who are out to sponsor various causes, such as N.S.P.C.  It is difficult to assess precisely the influence of such groups on governments, though it is clear that no legislation is now proposed unless the views of interested bodies have been taken into account”.

I would not expect every reader to agree in total with these comments but I am sure there is a strong element of truth contained and expressed in them.  When did you hear of a politician telling 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth’? It is a House of Commons offense to use the word liar - so we shall just say that they are often economic with the truth.

If there is a section of the community seeking the truth, it is surely the young adult.  My experience with young adults is that truth is fundamental to their development.  Truth is important to them.

An American was asked, does President Nixon speak the truth, and the reply he received was, “When the President clenches his fists - he is telling the truth.  When the President waves his hands in the air - he is telling the truth.  But when the President opens his mouth ---.”  I Remember an army officer asking me just shortly before I was demobbed from the army, “What are you going to be?” and I replied, “Happy”.  He wasn’t too enamoured.  But the relief of casting-off the shackles of the army codes of practice and regulations was something to look forward to - this was for me emancipation.

A young man from Paisley felt he was being shackled by things around him in his home town, that he decided to make a new life for himself in America.  So off he went.  As soon as he settled in America he opened a shop - a small business of his own.  He put up his name in large print above the door of the shop, and added the letters M.F.P.  Some months later, a man who knew him from Paisley entered his shop and the greetings were warm and welcoming.  Eventually the visitor said, “I see you have letters after your name too”.  Then he asked if his friend had attended college.  “No”, came back the reply, “M.F.P. stands for Man From Paisley”. 

Frustration is an awful force to contend with as many of us can claim.  It can destroy our self-worth and our self-esteem and provide numerous ‘dead ends’ for many.  Some may reach the point of not living but only existing.

A young biology teacher, was desperate to be a doctor, but every medical school he applied to turned him down.  It took him some time to come to terms with this frustration.  Later he decided he would apply for a counsellor’s post.  So he wrote to various departments and sources for counselling but again they did not want to know.  So one day driving his car, he drove the car over a ravine - he managed to stagger from his car - but then pulled out a gun and shot himself.  This was despite the fact that his wife loved him, his students loved him, his friends loved him.

It was just too great a thing to be emancipated from frustrations.  From shackles that thwart development and growth.

I remember as a schoolboy ‘star’ footballer I was selected to attend a football coaching course at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock - during a school vacation.  We were expected to play like puppets on a string - paying attention to the master’s voice of the coaches.  I was glad when the course was finished.  I felt muzzled, harnessed, stifled, stunted - there was no freedom to express one’s own natural ability - everything was mechanical stereotyped.  Maybe this is why football is in such a bad state today - naturally gifted players are not allowed to flourish, they must follow the instructions from the ‘experts’ the managers, many of whom were no experts on the playing field themselves.

In this chapter we are prescribing and describing freedom from the shackles.  Freedom makes sense but ‘Free from what?’.  Some freedoms have been looked at in some measure but what is the wider context in which freedom makes sense and how can it be presented in a way that makes sense to people today?

Attitudes may require adjustment - it may mean with reference to the maturer adult changing from the ‘It aye has been’ syndrome.  There is a wide spread notion that by looking at the way things are you should be able to discover the way things ought to be.

Often, all too often me thinks, young people are thought of as things, devolved of dignity, uniqueness and worth of the human person.  Entities to be manipulated.  It seems at face value that they are more and more a society of spectators.  Robbed of dignity and this in turn, in a vicious cycle saps their initiative, commitment and even clear thinking itself.

Where little interaction is evident, expectations are limited and this fosters a feeling of insecurity.  A society which operates to a system becomes impersonal and detached and passive.  This detachment for the younger generation creates spectator’s knowledge.  The motto enforced upon them is ‘leave me out of this’.

The end result of this scenario is crystal clear, it brings about a sense of depersonalising and demoralising.  These two words cannot be divorced and indeed arrive at a point where the distinction between them disappears.

The wider picture of young people today as cited elsewhere is determination and they want to accelerate the tempo of development without fear of depersonalising and demoralising.

Scientific laws do not prescribe what must happen; they describe what has happened.

CHAPTER FIVE

TURMOIL & TRIUMPH

A college principal once said, “There is no emotion without motion”.  For the young adult, quite often the emotions reveal themselves in various ways.  A regular emotion is the attraction of the opposite sex.  Another emotion is that of aggression; but whatever the emotion those involved, be it parent, educators or others concerned all should seek to find the motion.  If you like the causes and effects.  Charles Darwin is reputed to be the pioneer in the field of emotions - how emotions function.  Dr. W. Dryden explains emotions as being healthy anger or unhealthy anger with reference to aggression.  Dryden says, “If unhealthy anger - get out of  yourself.  Immerse your self on pleasurable pursuits, so the ratio of positive and negative experiences is heavily in favour of the positive”.  Adds Dryden, “Involve yourself in projects that take up your energies”. 

“All youthful enthusiasm is inspired by feeling, and it is right that it should be so, but if constructive thinking does not follow full adulthood is never achieved”, said Dr. Brew.

The first twelve years of a child’s life is spent learning to use the tools of education.  By the time he has achieved this facility he faces the various changes about to take place as he enters adolescence including coping with adjustments of emotions of life, he is groping his way through an emotional tangle and feeling his way towards thinking for himself - his idealism is high and his practical application may have much to be desired, but he is testing his feelings in certain subjects.  It appears, that some never pass beyond this stage.  They never seem to reach the way out of feeling, and all their adjustments to life are coloured by their emotional responses.  Quite often, they reach conclusions.  We ought to help them harness feeling to thinking.

All of them enjoy music, arts, crafts, drama, and can be encouraged to make their own music, to occupy themselves in their favourite craft, or to perform in some type of play, but the time comes when this joy in doing must develop into appreciation and discrimination.  This in a true sense is repeating his experience of childhood.  At first the child is content to draw - he enjoys the feeling of covering the paper with scribbles; then he draws cups and saucers, and houses and trees; but later on though he still enjoys the feeling of expressing himself in this medium, he discovers that his execution is poor.  It is at this stage he wants to know how to do it, or at least how other people do it.  He is ripe then for some instruction inperspective, shading and all the tricks of the artist’s stock in trade.  In the same way through drama, through music and arts, the adolescent can be made ready for discussion on how the job is done, and there is no real appreciation without sound knowledge of the techniques and difficulty of  any art.  Indeed we might go further and say that we can never fully appreciate any art that we have not at least tried to practice.  Love of art and real full appreciation are two different things, just as loving people does not necessarily mean that we fully understand and appreciate them.  Appreciation is merely more highly developed feeling - that is feeling coloured by thought.  The important thing at this stage is how adolescents feel about newspaper articles, books, talks and discussions; how they feel about the library, about films they see and the speeches they hear over the radio or the television.

It is a field of great opportunity because the adolescent is very receptive to ideas that feel right to him - unlike the adult whose emotional entanglements have taught him to suspect his feelings since they always seem to lead him into some sort of trouble.

Everyone has to work out his own salvation and his own philosophy of life, and adolescence is the time when in childish puzzlement asks ‘What is time?’, ‘Where does tomorrow go?’, ‘Which is the dream life and which is the reality?’.

The objections of young people have produced ‘the utility and the futility’ arguments.  This affects responses to every subject whether it is religion or keep-fit.  “Suppose I was to become a religious or keep-fit freak, what difference would it make, my dad says its just the same rates and taxes no matter what blinking government we’ve got”, said a youth.  Charles Darwin, “The expression of Emotions in Man and Animals”.  Eventually he saw emotional expression as the channeling of energy, which he called ‘nerve force’. 

Emotions are part of our on-going living.  “Emotions are apparently officially respectable in health sciences.  For example, a 2500 page Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry contains no systematic study of emotions and an index of some 20000 entries, contains less than thirty entries under ‘emotion’ or ‘emotions’.  But many psychotherapists (psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors) use techniques to relieve emotional distress.  They may also try to induce emotions and intensify them.  This is often manipulative, or even dangerous, since emotions can be ‘dynamite’.  Many psychotherapists, since unfortunately their training does not usually include work on their own emotional blocks, fumble just as much in the face of a patient’s emotions as the man in the street would”, said Sean Haldane.

“In addition to being inconsistent with reality, rigid demands are undemocratic; they do not recognise the right of an individual to his or her own viewpoint”, says Dr. Dryden.  He cites the story of King Canute which shows how unrealistic our rigid demands can be.  If you recall, King Canute believed that the tide had to obey his command and to go out and come in as he insisted.  Of course his demand had no effect on the rhythm of the tide, showing clearly that what we demand does not come into being because we demand that this should be so.

“Aggression has two meanings.  By one meaning it is directly or indirectly a reaction to frustration.  By the other meaning it is one of the two main sources of an individual’s energy.  Immensely complex problems arise out of further consideration of this simple statement”, said D. W. Winicott.

Winicott declares, “I must make a general observation.  It is wise to assume that fundamentally all individuals are essentially alike, and this is in spite of the heredity factors which make us what we are and make us individually distinct”.  Winicott goes on, “There are some features in human nature, that can be found in all infants, and in all children, and in all people of whatever age, and a comprehensive statement of the development of the human personality from earliest infancy to adult independence would be applicable to all human beings whatever, their sex, race, colour of skin, creed, or social setting.  Appearances may vary, but there are common denominators in human affairs”.  Aggressive behaviour may also be directed against the individual himself as a consequence of an exaggerated sense of guilt.

Maier distinguishes between three main types of frustration behaviour, fixation, aggression and regression.

In fixation the behaviour pattern cannot be modified, and may seem intelligent; it does not allow adjustment to a specific situation.  Such behaviour can sometimes be observed in children with strictly formed habits and at school futile efforts to keep up in a certain subject may lead to a pupil’s being unable to grasp something really quite simple.  Difficulties with mathematics at school sometimes provide examples of such fixation.  At times fixation takes the form of resigned disinclination.

Aggression implies that the individual makes blind attacks as a reaction to frustration.  Aggression is not always directed against the immediate cause of frustration.  A school child who has been subjected to criticism or ironic comments by his teacher, or an adult who has been reprimanded by his superior at work, often works off his irritation on those he can command, but who are quite innocent in this connection, or he bangs the door and kicks the furniture.  The need of a scapegoat is a general phenomena besides being a fascinating theme in the history of religion.

Regression means a return to earlier and more primitive forms of behaviour.  A grown up who cannot have his way may scream and act like a child, while a child may revert to the baby stage to gain its ends.  Bed-wetting and thumb-sucking, or marked dependency on the mother at a stage when this dependency has usually been overcome, are examples of what may be signs of regression due to frustration.

Other forms of defence mechanisms based on Freud’s personality dynamics.  Rationalisation is the justification of an act after it has been performed, to avoid feelings of guilt from blameworthy behaviour.  It also appears in eager assurances of, for example, enjoyment of a situation which is actually experienced as disturbing and unpleasant.  A pupil who has failed in his work at school may make excuses to himself by claiming that the teacher was unfair, or that he had a cold - which he makes seem more serious than it was.

Compensation means failure in one field of endeavour leads to greater efforts to succeed in another and their gain longed-for approval.  A boy who finds it difficult to shine in  intellectual subjects in school may instead devote himself eagerly to gymnastics in order to be all the better there.

Projection is a method of avoiding guilty feelings by attributing one’s own mistakes and bad features to another.  A lazy person accuses others of laziness.

Regression, regarded in Freud’s psychoanalysis as a central defence mechanism - is a process by which a person endeavours to defend himself against painful impulses, not accepted by society, by banishing them to the unconscious.

Still another way of avoiding frustration conflict situations is to retire within one’s self, a method that seems to require less energy than other measures mentioned here.  Different forms of withdrawal are day-dreaming, wool-gathering, general lack of interest and the abuse of drugs, such as alcohol.

Excessive employment of the mechanisms mentioned here as a consequence of continued frustration is very similar to neurotic behaviour, but a distinction is usually drawn between the two.  The behaviour pattern evoked by frustration is attached to a certain situation, while the neurotic pattern is more generalised.

People resort to defence mechanisms in order to achieve a tolerable existence, and individuals differ greatly both in respect of the situations which evoke such defence, and in the particular mechanisms they employ.  Some understanding of how they function is necessary as a background to an account of emotional development.

The aggressor may appear as a tough, uncaring lout.  Psychologists claim that very often these people, unlike common belief - are fragile.  If he were strong within himself he would have no need to act aggressively.  A sense of failure and frustration leads to either despair or angry aggression.

When a person feels strong in himself he will have no need to protect himself: he will become less aggressive.  We all need self-esteems to survive.

a)   Do anything wrong ….. blame external factors

b)  We always exaggerate the part we play in shaping events.

c)   We always assume someone else is going to have to change.

d)  We invent personal hardships before events occur in order to avoid failure.  In other words, the excuses come before the event, as a guarantee of safety.

The concept of ‘normal’ in behaviour varies from culture to culture and from time to time within a particular culture to illustrate one may cite Jung’s suggestion that, at least until recent times, introversion tended to be the norm in Eastern society whereas in Western society the norm has always been that of extroversion.  Similarly, the cluster of attitudes and traits which Adorno has described as ‘authoritarian personality’ is almost certainly less acceptable in Britain today than it was in 1900.

The precise criteria in terms of which an individual member of any particular society, at any particular time is judged to be ‘abnormal’ are difficult to specify.  In general, however, the normal individual

a)   Approximates to the average in his, behaviour, dress etc.

b)  Is effective, well organised and attempts to solve life’s problems.

c)   Is relatively stable and predictable.

d)  Has a degree of insight.

More particularly, and in our society, the middle class norm for what is desirable seems to be as follows:

A ‘normal’ or ‘adjusted’ person is calm, stable, reasonably predictable, effective, extroverted and social - one who opts in and not out of society.  He cares for others and contributes to society; he is verbally and not physically aggressive; he is non-neurotic and non-psychotic and he is basically conforming - yet ‘doing his own thing’.  It is also characteristic of him that he accepts deferred gratification.

The non-adjusted person or problem members of our society are those who do not show these behaviours.  As adults they will probably be labelled ‘neurotic’, ‘psychotic’ or ‘psychopathic’.  In school they are to be seen in the children who are non-achievers, playing truant, not conforming to school rules, behaving aggressively, experimenting with drugs, stealing and vandalising, and withdrawing.

Looking at emotions in a group setting we find that feelings about people and events independent of the group are of course experienced by members of the group, and in any case are to some extent ‘contagious’.  They may therefore be thought of as group emotions, though the group as such does not feel, it is individual members of the group who experience an identity of feeling.

Members of the group also have feelings about the group itself.  They have a high or low regard for it; they may identify themselves with it strongly or casually, they may feel strongly about its well-being and its reputation or they may not.  The general level of feeling among members of regard for the group, identification with it and concern for its well-being and good name is sometimes referred to as the group’s morale.  This is the meaning which the term ‘group morale’ is meant to convey here, but it is not a very satisfactory term to use as it is defined in a variety of ways by different writers, and most of the investigations made into its nature have been related primarily to the degree of satisfaction which individuals gain from their membership experience.  Although a higher or lower morale is a concept of the average morale of all members.  The range of morale - feelings about and towards the group - may be very wide in a group, in which case the concept of the average group make their morale manifest through their enthusiasm and purposefulness of speech and action.  Even before they have achieved it they express their expectation of satisfaction through goals reached, and their past experience of satisfaction or disappointment will affect their expectation.   

Apathy is often an attempt made to explain it away as a ‘matural characteristic’ of young people, or a deliberately adopted attitude.  In fact it should be recognised as a system of lack of satisfaction, and lack of expectation of satisfaction, and should prompt re-examining of needs of the apathetic members and the possibilities which membership offers them of satisfying these.

Groups can be observed to be more or less cohesive, and this cohesiveness is a manifestation of the members’ feelings about the group.  Cartwright and Zander define cohesiveness as the resultant of all forces acting in all members to remain in the group.  At any one time there must be a number of forces acting upon each of the members, some in one direction and some in the other.  So long as the balance of forces is towards the group for any individual, he will remain in it, and if the balance turns in the other direction he will leave it.  Cohesiveness itself, however, is not necessarily a sign of well-being in the members, for cohesiveness and apathy may simply be the extreme unattractiveness of any available alternative.  To put the point in the extreme, and in youth work terms, boredom in company inside with light, warmth and background noise may be rather better than boredom outside in the cold.  Moreover, high cohesiveness can also result from an over-depending on the group and an inability of the members to be socially competent enough to make satisfying relationships outside it.  It is therefore important to be aware or whether his membership is remaining mainly for lack of anything else or whether it is the result of more positive forces.  If necessary he must help the group to generate more positive forces for itself.  The demonstration of his and his helpers accepting an unpatronising interest in the young people themselves is usually the first essential step in this case.  It makes it possible for the young people to bring to light, often for themselves their real needs.

Morale often rises to a climax around a special event from which members derive and expect to derive much common satisfaction, and in which they have invested much effort in the expectation of satisfaction.  When the excitement is over, the level of morale may tend to fall.  It is important not to depend too much on special events.  The every day life (of the group) needs to be adequately satisfying.

A likeable emotion, of course, is the smile.  Think about it, a smile costs nothing, but gives much.  It enriches those who receive it, without making poorer those who give it.  It takes a moment, but the memory of it can last forever.  None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor but that he can be made rich by it.

A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in business, and is the countersign of friendship.  It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it’s nature’s best antidote for trouble.

Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.

Some people are too tired to give a smile.  Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile as much as he who has not more to give.

CHAPTER SIX

MOTIVATION

If we take one example of possible motivation.

Workers involved with older teenagers can utilise the elements thus far cited in this manuscript, such as, opinions, emancipation, emotions etc. and use them in programmes for groups or clubs.  How can this be done?  What is the end product? Are workers working on an assembly line, of which the older teenager is another stage in the progress of life? Some would accept this as the case.

Apart from some periods in history and probably this present period, which Andrew Starr refers to as the ‘age of anxiety’: an age when every traditional belief is questioned and in which the sense of historical continuity has been lost.  The forms which religious belief and practice have taken are extremely varied, but, discounting modern prejudice, for the moment, it is surely reasonable to assume that there is in man a basic need for religion.

This view is disputed of course by many intelligent people today.  However if in reality man is naturally religious it might well be expected that that religious phenomena would appear during the course of the individual’s development and progress and that this phenomena irrespective of the conscious views or wishes of the individual would manifest itself.

Very little is known about early developments of religious feelings in small children.  But the mature religious experience occurs through an intuition of a power greater than the individual, and usually this power is conceived of as a spiritual being, whom men call God.  Freud claimed that the idea of God was seen by the child’s picture of his father and the mother seen somehow as a goddess.  She offers comfort and security but this is an exchange for sacrifice, such as good behaviour, obedience, love and so on.  To the child the father is seen as the authority: the arbitor of right and wrong - he is the conqueror, the doer, the creator.  If these parents are inadequate then the development of the child is crippled.  It can be inadequate that Freud substituted ‘religion’ for ‘sex’ in early development of the individual.

It may well be sound thinking to state that in early life, the parents are the individual’s introduction of religious experience, but if development is to progress, the child’s ‘religious’ attachment to his parents must be gradually withdrawn, and when this process takes place, the parents become less and less divine to the child’s development.

In civilised societies various gods replace the father and mother gods of childhood.  Modern intellectuals commonly deny that they have any religious experience but this denial seldom holds water and in discovering the various guises in which religion manifests itself, one can learn much about the adolescent and later stages of religious development.

The belief that reason alone can solve problems, not only of the physical world, but also of the human condition, dies hard.  That forlorn cry, ‘If only people behaved rationally’ still echoes round our communities and society at large.  Those echoes seem to be rather fainter during recent years.

Starr cites the case of a highly intellectual individual, who because of compulsive thoughts which he could not dispel, found to his horror that he entertained the idea that he was possessed of a devil.  “This was a good description of his clinical condition”, says Starr, who adds: “for he lived in fear that he might let slip aggressive remarks on unsuitable occasions, and the idea that a devilish personality other than his own was responsible, was quite a natural one in the circumstances”.

This may be poetic justice that worshippers of the intellect should fall victim to compulsive thoughts and childish theories.  This compels them to acknowledge not only another side of themselves, but also that the irrational has its part in the scheme of things.  Almost anything can come to have significance of a religion, from stamp collection, to music, and from wine making to whatever.  It seems to me that if religious experience is found in anything less than God, the individual tends to be crippled in his development, for he is then tied to something earthly which is probably only for a season, and not always available.

But what has not been so often described is the finding that most people do in fact have a religion of some sort, even though they do not recognise it.  In the development of the individual we can begin to see how the various projections of the supreme value are withdrawn, first from the parents, later from many things in life which may seem to people to contain this value.  It is as if scattered parts come together to form a whole: as if the gods become God, and as if, in this process of coalescence, the individual finds himself, at the same time as he reaches religious maturity.

Up till 12 the child has been much concerned with achieving such independence from the parents as is psychically possible and right.  It is at puberty he changes to consciously distinguish himself from the parents, as he passes from a measure of independence towards actual individuality.  This is not an easy task for there is no clear-cut break for the individual between childhood and adult life.  Since children are economically dependent upon their parents, often for years after the advent of physical maturity, it is sometimes forgotten that adolescence has begun.  They must be helped to sacrifice the child in themselves and to become psychically adult.  A difficulty the adolescent faces is the limitations and customs imposed on him by the community around him.

Causes such as shock, upheaval, feelings of aggression and consequent mental suffering which are the characteristic of adolescence.  It may be the rebellious nature towards parents is in the increasing consciousness over against them are points of departure.  One that is particularly important to those concerned with the adolescent’s religious life is the fact that, quite suddenly, he seems able to apprehend the spiritual ideals and support offered him by religion.  Indeed, nothing is more characteristic of this period than those intuitions which arise in the psychic of the existence of a Strength and Wisdom which is infinitely above that of any human being.  The appearance of these intuitions would seem to show that the sacrifice of the inflated ego of middle childhood has begun.  Without this sacrifice there can be no capacity for humility and for reverence, no truly religious attitude.

A number of adolescents are aware of the existence of God, though somewhat dimly and their form of ‘worship’ is naïve - is not so much a need for God but an adoration.  The early phase of adolescence is particularly the time during which, if he has been kept constantly in touch with beliefs and practices of his faith, he begins to consider and review what he has been taught.  He is ready for further instruction, and we find that this is a period in which he can be helped to realise the glory of God and, a little, to understand the magnitude of His sacrifice for sinful man, and His compassion for the sinner.  They try to be religious and virtuous; for a time they succeed.  Then expelled nature returns with a pitchfork and smashes the foundationless religious superstructure to atoms.

“A young woman of twenty who had been leading a most dissolute and dishonest life, is quoted as saying, ‘It all began after I got converted when I was sixteen.  I was quite all right up till then, and I meant to be good afterwards, isn’t it funny?’  She was expressing the perplexity of many adolescents”, Eve Lewis tells us.

The conclusion may be that clergy and others must give support and strength to enable young people to direct their natural religious attitude - the only foundation upon which the spiritual man can build.  Side by side support helping to satisfy the impulses - it is a continuous effort to make them feel valued members of the church, the group, the community.  This is the means of them seeing the reality of Almighty God.

Each person subscribed to a way of life informed by more or less explicit beliefs and ideals.  Our individual favours asceticism, another aestheticism, yet another athleticism and so on.

For the liberal the transgenerational reproduction of outlook, culture, values and tradition is acceptable so long as it is not accomplished at the expense of the teenager’s self-determination or particular nature.  The teenager must still have an ‘open-future’ when he reaches adulthood.  He must be able to review and evaluate what he has inherited from his parents, choosing a different life for himself if he so decides.  It is important to add, that an adult can exercise his own autonomy only in relation to the character he already has.  An autonomous person must have some values, beliefs and dispositions and it is precisely this that someone requires in their upbringing.  Ironically parents would fail to produce an autonomous adult if they gave their children no outlook on life.  Archard says, “The more society is agreed on the value of certain lifestyles, outlooks, talents, sensibilities, and dispositions, the more it will encourage the kinds of parenting that introduce children to them”.

The upbringing of teenagers by parents may differ from one family to another.  There is no single nurtured blueprint for all society’s teenagers.  It stipulates only that all teenagers merit the best possible upbringing, presumes that some ways of bringing up teenagers are better than others and thinks that this necessitates a measure of collectivism.  It is undoubtingly true that, in the last analyses no answer can be given to the question how we should understand and behave towards teenagers without broaching the issues of what adulthood is, what makes it valuable and what would make for a better community of adults.  To that extent the oft-repeated claim that its treatment of teenagers says most about a society: expresses a deep truth.

“A developmental task is a task which arises at or about a certain period in life of the individual, successful achievement of which leads to his happiness and to success with later tasks, while failure leads to unhappiness in the individual, disapproval of society and difficulty with later tasks”, so says R.J. Havighurst.

We hear much these days about happiness - so many folk are searching for it by demanding more wages, by drowning their sorrows in drink, by dancing until they cannot keep on any longer, by singing weird songs or playing wild tunes, or dressing in wild and outlandish ways… always trying to find something that satisfies their longings, and robs life of its unkindness.

But years ago Abraham Lincoln said in astonishingly few words, just this, “Most folk are about as happy as they make their minds to be”.

Those of us old enough to remember or have heard it sung years afterwards may recall that 1^st World War song of courage, determination and grit.

‘What’s the use of worrying?

It never was worthwhile-

So pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,

And smile smile, smile.

What is the short cut to happiness.  In a few words, love God and your neighbour.  Neighbour, of course, has a much wider implication than simply the person next door.

The tasks then can be viewed as physical, social and intellectual, as coming to terms with the biological growth and change, meeting the needs and demands of society or one’s culture and developing a personality in terms of values and philosophy.  The notion of the development tasks is that the time factor determines the stage of the tasks.  This can be seen in the biological growth of the individual for the child learns to walk before he can run, and until he reaches physical maturity there may appear some disharmony in the growing body, some organs appearing to develop more rapidly than others, or in the case of the development of the secondary sex characteristics, to have been arrested awaiting their proper time for development.  A task, however should not be seen as either physical, social or intellectual: for the adjustment to each task is affected by attitudes to the physical social and intellectual state.  A.H. Maslow suggested that the wants or desires of man develop in a sequential order as follows:

1      Physiological need to do with the satisfaction of hunger and thirst.

2      Safety needs; such as security and order.

3      Love and belongingness needs - affection and identification.

4      Esteem needs, prestige, success, self-respect.

5      Self-fulfilment need.

The first two of these needs can be seen as survival needs without which the human organism will die.  These needs, then have to be met before the next can be met and satisfied and as a man develops so the first or ‘lower’ needs have a less important role in the totality of satisfactions.  The need for acceptance, achievement, success, status, and self-fulfilment become more important and as these are met and according to the degree of self-satisfaction and gratification the individual is ‘freed’ to reach higher potentials.  Deprivation in any part of these developments or psychological tasks will hinder his personal growth or restrict the possibility of his reaching his potential in a number of human spheres.  We can use this as a model in looking at the development in which these tasks are achieved.

Locke had advised the instructor of youth: “The sooner you treat him as a man, the sooner he will be one”.

Mark Abrams, claimed “Young people nowadays are increasingly spending their working hours in jobs that require adult, industrial and literary skills, and the capacity to work with adults more or less as equals….Thus in their jobs too, quite apart from their earnings, they have, economically, come much closer to being adults and much further from the subservient roles of child”.

These gains are by no means secure; they have given youth an importance and undoubtedly created an economic climate which favoured their greater reproduction.  These very circumstances threaten their position in the future.

Attitude plays a vital part in life - it can be a stumbling block or it can be a stepping stone.  It can turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones.

Its an old story but hopefully may serve a point.  The old minister was taking a Sunday service when the weather was unspeakable.  Always the minister thanked the Lord for the weather in one shape or form - the warm and pleasant wind or the bit of sunshine that brightened the afternoon or the glorious sunset.  But that day was just impossible - it was wild, bitter, cruel.  The wee minister was not to be undone.  With hands clasped and eyes closed, he stood there in the pulpit of the small kirk - the storm raging outside - and prayed fervently, “Lord, we thank Thee the weather isn’t a bad as this every day”.

Surely that is the right attitude as we progress through this life.

Hidden motions play a large part in our every day behaviour. The important question to ask is not merely what a person is doing but why he is doing it.  Modern psychology is concerned to probe into our basic motivation.  Industry and commerce study the subject of incentives in order first to attract good staff and then to encourage good work.

Certainly no man can know himself until he has honestly asked himself about his motives.  What is the driving force of his life? What ambition dominates and directs him?

In this same ambition lay what has perhaps the greatest single secret of the strength of the Protestant Reformation.  One of the essential differences between pre-reformation religion and Reformation religion is that the former was in many respects man-centred, while the Reformers were determined to be God-centred.

In public worship how subtly and swiftly does selfish vanity begin to intrude!  The minister becomes proud of the way he is leading the service, the preacher of his eloquence and learning, the choir and organist of their musical ability and the congregation of their piety in being in church at all!  Thus just when our attention should be absorbed exclusively with God in self-forgetful adoration, we become self-conscious, self-righteous, self-important and self-congratulatory again.

CHAPTER SEVEN

TALENTS

If we agree that the tendency of formal education is that it claims to have failures, is that an end of it.  Informal education on the other hand ought not to be a bird’s eye view (looking down), nor even a worm’s eye view (looking up), but a more realistic post-card view (eye level).  In other words, the positive view is that there is good in all individuals no matter the background or academic achievements.  There is no such person as a failure.  Whether you are a Ph.D. or a refuse collector; whether you are a doctor or a first-aider; whether you think you are God’s gift to society or a total failure.  Remember, ‘All of us are ‘above average’ in something, and all of us are ‘below average’ in something’.  History has shown that some of the labelled ‘failures’ have achieved brilliance in some field or other.  So those involved with young adults should be exploiting for the hidden talent.  I believe this can be accomplished in various settings, such as groups or clubs by giving autonomy, through the formation of committees for example, the organising  of special events and projects for indoor activities as well as outdoor activities.  The young adult should be given every opportunity to take part in decision making.  It is very easy to say of ourselves, that we are too backward to come forward.  Boredom disappears when confronted with challenge and that requires looking forward, looking outward, not looking inward.

If we see the older teenager’s stage in life as another dimension in the process, then those involved, educators and others, must consider what it is we are attempting to pass on to them.  Surely the fundamental issue is that we are trying to equip them for the next dimension.  This process is that of building confidence, helping the development of the individual, attempting to bring forth the hidden talents, the light from behind the bush.

E.P. Lovejoy said, “Their is scarcity of men with eyes clear enough to see, and hearts big enough to act”.  Reverend Lovejoy was a minister of the Christian religion during the time of slavery (at its peak) in America.  He died as a martyr by his own white fellowmen for standing for the rights of the black man.  His preaching was along these lines: “Without the religion of the Bible neither civil nor intellectual freedom can long exist”.

“Never have the young been so assertive or so articulate, as well educated or so worldly.  Predictably, they are a highly independent breed, and - to adult eyes - their independence has made them highly unpredictable.  This is not a new generation, but a new kind of generation”.  Thus did the Times Magazine sum up its Man of the Year 1966, for Times fortieth Man of the Year was not an individual but a generation - that day’s youth.

At that time this magazine ran almost 200 stories on one aspect or another of youth - an indication of the impact that youth and adolescents culture made on the world of that day.

Fifteen years before this, the same magazine had labelled them the ‘silent generation’.  Today the young are anything but silent.  Everywhere from Miami to Moscow, Merseyside to Malaya, they have begun to assert themselves.  The declaration of the pop group, the Monkees - “We’er the new generation, and we’ve got something to say” - could well be taken as their slogan.  They have been called the New Breed, Generation X, Angry Young Men, the Generation of the Uncommitted, Coca-Cola Culture Kids, and a host of other things too numerous to mention. They and the mini-society they have created for themselves have been studies by sociologists, and psychologists, by historians and journalists.  The decay of religion, the decline of the family, too much money, mass media and mass education have successively been blamed for their energies.  In the end one is left wondering just how now, this new generation is, and whether they do not exemplify Chesterton’s paradox that “the generation which invented the loudspeaker really had nothing to say”.

The American sociologist James Coleman described the development of the independent youth culture like this: “What our society has done is to set apart, in an institution of their own, adolescents for whom home is little more than a dormitory and whose world is made up of activities peculiar to their fellows.  They have been given as well many instruments which can make them a functionary community: cars, freedom in dating, continued contact with the other sex, money and entertainment, like popular music and movies, designed especially for them.  The international spread of rock and roll and of so called American patterns of adolescent behaviour is a consequence, I would suggest of their economic changes which have set adolescents off in a world of their own”.

Talcott Parsons says, “Youth is more likely to follow the demands of his peers than the commands of his parents”.  Parsons an American sociologist’s comments are based on the American youth scene.  He, along with others of like-mind, saw the youth culture separate from and in conflict with the adult culture.  Passing into the adult world “not only does the youth find himself in a new kind of social set-up but he also finds himself suddenly pitchforked into an age and a society which is undergoing a complete restruction”.

According to Schelsky, this leads to insecurity in attitudes and behaviour, and this constant search for security constitutes “the basic social and anthropological need of youth in modern society”.  The picture presented was one of a youth-set in cafes moodily half-listening to jazzy music.  Their world centres on coffee-bars and jukeboxes, on hair styles and miniskirts.  They appear cynical of traditional civic and religious standards, and give the impression that the two most important values in life are being ‘with it’ and with her/him.

Mary Morse in her book, ‘The Untouchables’, describes them (youth) as “teenagers who don’t belong to anyone or anything”.  Fyvel’s ‘The Insecure Offenders’, John B. May’s ‘Growing Up in the City’ and ‘On the threshold of delinquency’, Hamblett and Deverson’s ‘Generation X’ all suggest that youth sociology of problematic or near delinquent youth.  Perhaps this is the only kind of youth there is… At any rate parents, churchmen, and teachers appeared convinced that the young do indeed ‘live in a world of their own’ and that new means and methods must be devised to bridge the gap which separates the generations.

Other sociologists and psychologists were quick to point out that this somewhat gloomy picture…’every youth is psychopathically ridden by anti-adult compulsions’ is not absolute in other areas of the world society. They discovered evidence of an independent youth culture among drop-outs but not among graduates.  Independence, antagonism and rebellion are more characteristic of the working class youth who have dropped out of school and do not opt to go along with the ‘system’.  Since the system is primarily the product of the middle and upper class culture, and since the youth who are continuing their education are making their way into these classes, there tends to be an anticipating acceptance of the culture of these classes.  The picture of youth back in the 60’s, was described by Schelsky as a “radical element in the opposition and criticism of youth”, stemming from a “failure to come to grips with and muster new surroundings and experiences”.

Nine years later Blugher is able to arrive at a more optimistic verdict.  His suggestion was that the young generation were not so much characterised by attitude of protest against existing society as by an “impartiality towards everything now”, freedom from any ideological preconceptions, flexibility, open-mindedness, calculated involvement, an enquiring approach to the world, freedom from prejudices, a love of experimentation, a joyful acceptance of life and all the possibilities that offers.  Blugher lists among the ‘active virtues’ of modern youth is the ‘ability to stand up to the bewildering complexities of modern life… its self-assurance and composure’.  Among the youth today, the wish to be taken as adults is stronger than the tendency to isolate themselves in subcultures.  There is an eagerness on the part of the young people to adapt themselves to adult attitudes and forms of behaviour.

Despite the optimism of this second school of thought in adult-youth relationships, it is still necessary to view with a critical eye the levelling out of differences between the generations.  Side by side with a willingness to accept the social order and a desire to conform to it at least passively, there is also clearly evident a certain aloof attitude on the part of youth to the adult world.  This aloofness is given expression in a variety of rather loose and mainly unorganised youth subcultures which, show certain regional variations from one country to another, nevertheless retain certain uniform features everywhere.  The reason for this phenomena may be found in a heightening of the physical and psychological tension which has always existed between generations.  It may also be looked for in the insecurity of the process of passing into the adult world.

The main changes in the structure and function of the family have given youth a high degree of independence.  The small urban family has replaced the larger family of rural society which operated as an economic unit/community, a working community, a living community.  Now no longer a unit of production, the family ceases to be a unit in other aspects.  It abdicates more and more of its functions to specialised institutions such as schools or places where young people are trained for trades or professional jobs.

The atmosphere of the modern family is no longer dominated by the so-called problem of generations.  Nowadays the attitude of parents to adolescents is determined increasingly by a spirit of partnership.  Family decisions are reached after discussion with all the members.  The family structure today is more democratic than it has ever been before.  However there are many symptoms in modern life which point to a lack of personal values, and clearly this vacuum is not being filled by the family.

The fact that a large part of modern youth passively accepts what is fed to it by the entertainment industry may be seen as resulting from a lack of values, of real interest and of responsibility.  The growth in freedom within the family is not being matched by a growth in commitment and responsibility.  Almost unconsciously, the young have exchanged one master for another.  Where once they were at the beck and call of their parents, today they bow to and obey the voice of the mass media.  The teenager has become big business, but not quite as big as his parents, because the parent controls a much larger share of the purse and is consequently a much more obvious target for the commercials.

The churches seem also to have lost their function as norms and models of behaviour.  In general youth regards religion as part of the necessary furniture of society and sees it as keeping up certain traditional Christian practices - baptism, marriage, occasional worship and burial services.  On the other hand, youth feels a certain mistrust of the church as the ‘bastian of tradition’.  The claim of certain religious and confessional norms to absolute validity is something which leaves them cold even when they are imprisoned by the need of religion itself.

It is true that the young are open-minded with regard to faith and the church but they are realists and pragmatists as well as idealists.  They would like to believe in something which gives a realistic and deep meaning to life, and are willing to accept God and religion as fulfilling this function.  The worth of a religion is measured by its value and significance in the practical situations of life.

But if they are going to allow something to play a major part in their lives, then they want to be sure of its credentials.  Everything is subjected to scrutiny, and the average youth vacillates between wanting to be a missionary and wanting to be an atheist.  He has little time for the purely mechanical or organisational aspect of pastoral care; he is impressed most of all be example.

Young people will admire and imitate adults who are sincere, convinced Christians and have a mature understanding of their faith.  But the Church’s mission must in the long run forfeit its credibility if it fails to translate words like, love, freedom, joy, obedience, and thanksgiving into concrete reality.

Even in the sphere of religion there is a tendency for adolescent subculture to assert itself.  Finding a substitute for the rejected ‘adult’ religions has taken some strange turns.  The search for transcendence has resulted in the vogue for taking drugs, in psychological withdrawal and in the revival of every ancient philosophy from anarchy to Zen.

Parents, clergy, the hierarchy, and the hypocrisy of the nominally Christian society, have all been blamed.  In reply to this type of allegation, John Cogley said, “I believe we have to take responsibility for making Christianity so unattractive it simply does not satisfy the spiritual hunger the youngsters acknowledge”.   

What then, are the integration factors? The young generation of today are faced with the danger of an uncritical conformity while at the same time they show a basic willingness to be positively part of adult society.  Moreover, it is they who are characterised by a deep insecurity in the matter of social behaviour, and the often contradictory judgements of various surveys which show they are troubled by many inner complexes and contradictions.  Since this is so, what is needed are types of exemplary adult social behaviour within adult society which can be held up to the young people and which can be a channel of social education and integration into society. 

Fundamental to this entire matter is the question about the proper relationship and form of authority and obedience.  The influence of the family upon youth, especially during early childhood, plays a role of ever-increasing importance in establishing personal relationships and inculcating personal values.  But the school and professional training, work and spare-time work/activities are more and more taking over the function of helping the young person integrate into society.

Preparing a youth for life can only be done on the basis of partnership between school and family, youth groups and adult societies.  One of the focal points of such a social education would be fostering ability to exercise a realistic citizenship, training the young person to cope with the problems and pressures which tempt him to alienate himself from the society in which he lives.

Social education must enable the young to take up a critical attitude towards society, to be aware of the pressures of society without becoming enslaved by them.  It will be necessary to work patiently with the young person in order to train him to reach this degree of critical discernment.  The aim is to educate the new generation so that if they do wish to opt out of adult society they may be like that rebellious band of  twelve-century teenagers who opted out of the University of Paris only to establish a newer and freer University of Oxford.

To all generations concerned, let’s ‘throw away the ballast and the balloon will rise’.

Once upon a time - A young man asked a pretty girl to marry him.  Said she, ‘Not likely!’  And she said it for two reasons.  First, because the young man was poor, he was earning no more than two pence an hour hoeing potatoes; and secondly, because her mother had already warned her not to throw herself away on a-good-for-nothing who would never be able to support her.

That’s the tale.  That’s the tale from beginning to end - except that the poor young man’s name was John D. Rockefellar.  Who became one of the richest men in the world.

CHAPTER EIGHT

ENERGY

“ I am fearfully and wonderfully made”, said the psalmist (139:14).

Even the most timid and reticent member can be motivated to give an educated and enterprising contribution to running their own activities.  Those who work with young people must have this conviction.  By enterprising energy, I mean no limits or bounds, an unlimited source.  By personality is meant, the powers of self-consciousness and self-determination and self-consciousness is more than consciousness.

Man is not only conscious of his own acts and states, but by abstraction and reflection he recognises the self which is the subject of these acts and states.

Self-determination is more than determination - Man by virtue of his free-will, determines his actions from within.  He determines self in view of motives, but his determination is not caused by motive, he himself is the cause.

God, as personal, is in the highest degree self-conscious and self-determining.  The rise in our own minds of the idea of God, as personal, depends largely upon our recognition of personality in ourselves.  Those who deny the spirit in man, place a bar in the way of the recognition of the attribute of God.

We are not fully masters of ourselves.  Our self-determination is as limited as our self-consciousness.  The most perfect communion among men is the capacity for compassion and understanding, tolerance and perseverance, these we must manifest.

Tennyson said, “Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control - These three lead life to sovereign power”.  Robert Browning said, “What act proved all its thought had been?  What will but felt the fleshly screen”.

In or by ourself our personality is incomplete; we reason truly only with God helping.  God makes us to be truly ourselves.  Moberly said, “Perhaps the root of personality is capacity for affection..”

Energy in the nature of God is conceived of as intensive rather than extensive.  Man rises above nature by virtue of his reserves of power.  There is a force, an energy among the older teenager waiting to be tapped and there is a lot of unspent energy being ignored.

It is this writer’s conviction that involving the older teenager more in the community life will enrich and enhance the life of the community as the motto of Rochester University puts it: ‘MELORIA’ - ‘Better Things’, shall become more of a reality.

To fulfil this reality - changes have and must need to take place none more so than attitudes.  Common changes occur at various times causing increase or decrease, progress or deterioration, contraction or development.  Energy has to be used as a force.  “Life”, said Aristotle “is energy of mind”.  William Wordsworth (my favourite poet) says, “Life, I repeat, is energy of love divine or human”.  Coleridge said, “..pure soul being to us nothing but unresisted action”.

Professor C.L. Henrick says, “Life is a moving energy”.  He also said, “Force is energy under resistence, or self-limited energy”.  The universe is derived from energy.  Energy manifesting itself under self-conditioning or differential forms is force.  The change of pure energy into force is creation.  Let’s be then, creative!

Community life is shallow and turbid without enterprising energy.  So open up your doors - committee people, community councils, district councils, management committees and so on.

Committees can be of course, boring exercises.  Patience Strong referred to International committees as often cold, squabbling people.

Comedian Milton Berle pronounced, “A committee is a group that keeps the minutes and loses the hours”.  Someone described a committee as “A group of unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the necessary”.  A Parliamentary definition of a committee is, “A cul-de-sac into which ideas are lured, there to be quietly strangled to death”.

Is adolescence only a statistic, a number - what identity does society prescribe or describe for young adults?  A number to the detriment of name plays a crucial part in many walks of life including the military service, uniformed police (P.C. 49 i.e. of theatrical fame) and numbers are to the forefront in our prison service.  We become or can become semi-attached people.

“When you are a bit older”, a judge in India once told an eager young British civil servant, “you will not quote Indian statistics with that assurance.  The government are very keen on amassing statistics - they collect them, add them, raise them to the NTH power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams.  But what you must never forget is that every one of these figures comes in the first instance from the Chowty Dar (village watchmen), who just puts down what he damn pleases”.

If you can’t prove what you want to prove, demonstrate something else and pretend that they are the same thing, in the daze that follows the collision of statistics with the human mind, hardly anybody will know the difference.  The semi-attached figure is a device guaranteed to stand you in good stead.  It always has.

I remember running summer play schemes and it annoyed me just a bit to constantly hear of another playscheme in the area which had attendences of 400 members per day, whilst my attendence was around the 180.  I discovered later that the 400 figure was made up of - 200 at the morning session and the same 200 at the afternoon session - together you have the 400.  Working it that way meant I had 360 per day which was on a par.

‘There may be nothing in what you say’.  This is a key sentence for all would-be statisticians - those who like diagrams, graphs and figures.  Misinforming people by the use of statistical material might be called statistical manipulation, in a word (though not a very good one), statisculation.  This is set to imply that such operations are the products of intent or deceit.

False charts in magazines and newspapers frequently sensationalise by exaggerating, rarely minimise anything.  Those who present statistical arguments, on behalf of industry are seldom found giving labour or the customer a better break than the facts call for, and they often give him a worse one.  When has a union employed a statistical worker so incompetent that he made labour’s case out weaker than it was?  Its like the minister who achieved great popularity among mothers of his congregation by his flattering comments on babies brought for Christening.  But when the mothers compared notes, not one could remember what the man had said, only that it had been ‘something nice’.  Turned out his invariable remark was , ‘My’ (beaming) ‘This is a baby, isn’t it!’

Two businessmen were examining a report of revenue.  One was heard to say 34% improvement in turn-over.  His secretary promptly corrected him ‘No’ she said. ‘It’s .34%’.  To which her employer remarked, ‘What difference does that make?’

When it had been explained that one figure was a hundred times the other, he replied, ‘I have often seen these damn little dots before, but I never knew till now what they meant’.

Not dots but other little differences crop up to plague composers of test scores.  An IQ test for instance can reveal a boy with 98 and a girl with 101 - IQ tests based on 100 average or ‘normal’.  The girl in this case is the brighter child.  This conclusion is sheer nonsense; may be that’s why psychologists and educators tend to keep such statistics quiet, ‘safe in their hands’.  An intelligence test whatever it measures is not quite the same thing as what we usually mean by intelligence.  It neglects such important things as leadership and creative imagination.  It takes no account of social judgement or musical or artistic or other aptitudes, to say nothing of personality matters as diligence and emotional balance.

An IQ purports to be a sampling method, the I.Q is a figure with statistical error, which expresses the precision or relationship of that figure.

I am reminded of the time an army colonel told me I was a ‘model’ soldier.  Afterwards I thought ‘a model soldier’, why that’s only a replica of the real thing.

We should not be so concerned about statistics in our changing society.  The primary goal of youth work surely is the social education of young people.  Such a definition is not unimportant since the aim changes as society changes.  We are not so much concerned today as in the past with basic education, or with economic needs, or with communication of an agreed belief or value system; but we are concerned to help young people to create their place in a changing society and it is their critical involvement in their community which is the goal.

Youth work for example, should be seen to be present in many places, being concerned with relationship between generations and between young people and their community; it can take many forms and lead to different types of provision, of which organisations and centres are only examples.  In the broadest terms, ‘Youth Work’ is the response by informal methods to the personal, educational and social needs of young people.

The concept of community is “the area of social being marked by some degree of social coherence”, said R. Frankenberg.  This concept of role expectation, sets, conflicts, commitment and attachment, is a concept of interaction built up of three social fields: 1) Residence, (area in which we live), 2) Work (relationships outside the home), and 3) Leisure (friendships and other acquaintances).

Learning is an on-going process (cradle to grave).  This learning process is a combination of three aspects; 1) The cognitive aspect, 2) The affective aspect, and 3) The conative aspect.

The cognitive aspect (the faculty distinct from emotion or volition) can be achieved through intelligence tests, (flued and crystallised intelligence - commonsense), speed of learning, problem solving, environmental influences, creativity, mental sets, knowledge and experience, the latter not being the least.

The affective aspect is tackling emotional anxieties, facilitating and descriptive anxieties, as aforementioned we seem to be living in an ‘age of anxiety’.

The conative aspect - dealing with motivation, social and personal determinates, and maturational changes with age.  In a nutshell exploitation of the potential within each of us.   In other words tapping into the energy in all of us for the benefit not only of the individual but for the community as a whole.

I recall being present at a one-day seminar.  There were around 50-60 staff present. A guest speaker, spoke on a particular topic for that day, then we preceded into pre-arranged groups to discuss in detail the topic, then the final morning session was to come together and report back each group’s findings.  This required each group to appoint a reporter, within most groups there are introverts and extroverts.  The particular group I was attached to, delegated their reporter.  The final morning session took place and each reporter reported on the group’s findings - one report received an almost standing ovation for it had clarity - was to the point - and punctuated with humour.  This reporter’s potential was evident.  The response to his delivery continued through the lunch break.  The afternoon session took a similar pattern to the morning - straight into the same groups, then the final plenary session.  Before the afternoon discussion began - a reporter needed to be appointed as in the morning.  The leader of the group was so impressed by the morning reporting that she asked the same fellow to do the same again… commenting on his ‘hidden talent’, but the fellow in question refused.

Another energy aspect of community life is that of decision-making.  Indeed, we can go as far to say that decision-making is the most powerful of several dynamics.  When members of a community have a ‘voice’ in making decisions - they are involved in a significant way.  When they do not have a voice, their degree of involvement is likely to be slight, and the community has less meaning and little influence over their behaviour.  This point is made evident from exploration of the depths of community life and influence.

Several factors can enrich and enhance community life, the influence of interactional capacity of the community, the relationships within (the healthy community is the community which is interactive and not passive) the community, the conscious bind of need and interest which holds the community together, the goals for which they work, and the social situation in which they find themselves.

Decision-making may be divided into five distinct processes: 1) Defining the problem, 2) Finding alternative solutions, 3) Analysing and comparing alternatives, 4) Selecting the plan to be followed, and 5) Making the decision effective.

The reasons for involving ; a) Satisfaction, b) interests in communication, c) shared responsibility, d) two-heads better than one, e) increase efficiency… speed things up.

Decision-making cannot be divorced from communication and communication is more than a ‘tool’ of  management, it is the foundation on which organisation and administration must be built.

Involvement is pertinent to an active and vibrating community.  It activates and stimulates the energy too often hidden within the confines of a community.

Involvement is a strong force in much of life even in Christianity.

Can I be a Christian without being involved in a Church?  Yes, it is as possible as being:

A student who will not go to school.

A soldier who will not join the army.

A citizen who will not pay his taxes or vote.

A salesman with no customer.

An explorer with no base camp.

A seaman on a ship without a crew.

A businessman on a desert island.

A politician who is a hermit.

An author without readers.

Charge or irreligion - Depends on what idea we have of the moral character of the Deity - God believes in happiness of all creatures then O.K.

We need the doctrine of ethic to interpret the Will of God.

In a school essay, on parents… a small girl wrote: ‘We got our parents when they were so old that we found we just couldn’t change their ways’.

General Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army service had ten rules for Christian living.  They are:

1.    Consider your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit and treat it with reverence and care.

2.    Keep your mind active.  Stimulate it with thoughts of others that lead to doing something.

3.    Take time to be holy with daily Bible reading and prayer.

4.    Support the Church. Mingle with others.

5.    Cultivate the presence of God.  He wants to enter your life.  And will so far as you let him.

6.    Take God into the details of your life.  You naturally call upon him in trouble and for the bigger things.

7.    Pray for this troubled world and the leaders who hold the destinies of the various nations.

8.    Have a thankful spirit for the blessings of God - country, home, friends and numerous other blessings.

9.    Work as if everything depended on work, and pray as if everything depended on prayer.

10.Think of death not as something to be dreaded, but as a great and new experience where loved ones are met and ambitions realised.

General Booth’s guidelines are a means for applying our energy wisely.

CHAPTER NINE

CO-PRACTIONERS

For effective partnership, involvement must be a principle high on the agenda.  We must learn to think of and practice a partnership that embraces not merely statutory and voluntary organisation providers but also brings into use partnership of commercial and non-commercial enterprises, encourage inter-professionalism among those concerned with the welfare of the young, including constructive conversations between personnel officers in industry and professional people such as youth workers, and, in general, supports the comprehensive planning of education.

Effective youth work for the millennium presupposes that there will be no barrier between those who teach, work with, influence, or, in various ways, support young people in our society.  The statement uppermost for the millennium is surely more involvement for the older teenager in the community or society more involvement for the older teenager in the community or society management affairs.

This would be community development expressing itself in practice.  The question for the future is - what kind of society do we really want?

In the industrial setting mass-production efficiency is too often happiest - with controlled robots deciding nothing for themselves except the decision to be acquiescent - both on and off the production lines.  Our consumption-dominated society is happiest with those who respond to stimula, and sink their individual differences in similarity with the mass; where the only decisions are buy and in buying to be fashionable.

The call then for people to be democratically involved in decision-making is the outward and audible expression of the other strand of our underlying principles: that all individuals should grow towards maturity and that a society in which all can make more and more decisions about more and more things is a more mature society than one in which this exercise of responsibility is reserved for the chosen few (no matter how democratically chosen they may be).

Both of these underlying principles have particular relevance to the role of the young in our society, though they are obviously more pertinent for the upper age group of our concern, the young adult rather than ‘the young teenager’; yet at the earliest age some of the elements should be present in our approaches if only to prepare them for the later stage.  In the first instance the young are likely to remain by far the most significant part of changing membership of society to which we must respond if we are to adapt.  In the second instance, the young adult more obviously than not is developing towards maturity, and are naturally anxious to travel further on the road, and to accelerate the journey.

We will find ourselves compelled again and again to look at this question - What kind of society do we really want?  Not just in descriptive sense but as to commitment required.

The nature of this commitment is open to criticism.  The best short description is probably ‘The Active Society’ - we must have a bearing on which to travel rather than an easy reached destination.

In a society like the present, where change is not merely an occasional event but a characteristic condition, the exclusion of individuals from decision-making in public affairs, or lack of encouragement for them to be engaged in much more, is likely to create a sense of the individual’s powerlessness to influence social policy, so that at best he becomes apathetic and indifferent and at worst cynical, nihilistic or anarchic.  ‘The active society’ in which all are encouraged and enabled to find the public expression of their values, avoiding the extremes of indifference and alienation. 

One strand therefore of the principles underlying our commitment is that social change is inevitable, and that society stands more chance of being creatively responsive to all its situations and transforming itself in all necessary particulars, when all can be involved in public activity.

It is not however only the community which benefits from an active society; there is in it profit for all in their individual capacities.

The development of human maturity has many continua, but we should take one of them to be the increasing acceptance of the seeking for responsibility towards oneself and others.

In the public sector of our society, this growth of responsibility if often either frustrated or ‘bored out’ of human organism.  For many their only political decision is a quinquennial or triunal-parts of the transformation of society which their elders are not necessarily better qualified to achieve.  Their belief that man can will events and not merely be willed by them is a social capitol that we ought not to squander.

Familiar terms in today’s society are ‘community provision’ that is the term for the buildings, centres, and facilities provided by institutions.  ‘Community organisation’ which may be seen as the co-ordinator of the effort of existing groups rather than direct involvement in stimulating groups to action, which is seen as the function of ‘community development’.

Of ‘community development’ Dr. Henriks said, “To create the conditions whereby a community in a specific area can achieve the maximum balance between needs of the population and the available means of assistance, thereby helping to ensure that the groups and individuals in that community participate to the fullest extent in transforming it into a satisfactory environment for both the individual and the various population groups”.

In an active society, constantly in the process of change, it is no longer adequate to regard education as a process which is largely completed when people are young.  No institution can provide in advance for all the complex needs in terms of learning opportunities for young adults or indeed adults of any age; opportunities for learning, both formal and informal are needed through out life.

As we approach the millennium what is to be - segregation or integration, of the older teenager,  Adults in an enquiry were so much in favour of the young living their own separate life as they were against their earlier assumption of adult roles.  These attitudes, perhaps, may be regarded as in some sense ‘favourable’ to the young: the objection to earlier marriage and the right to vote might well be justified as an attempt to protect them against themselves.  But however laudable the motive might be, the intention is to define a separate population, insulated from the world of the mature.  It may be that this population is truly immature; what is astonishing is the extent to which, in spit of such attitudes, it is not.

Young adults are given the vote and at one time were called to do military service known as National Service.  If this is so (and this is not the ‘if’ of doubt, but the ‘if’ of argument), then we must consider they are mature in matters pertaining to an active society.

It was the apostle who said: “When I was a child I understood a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things”.

Einstein said, “I like to make things as simple as possible, but not simpler”.

It is this writer’s opinion, based on personal contact and experience that were we to involve young adults more in the community life, giving them responsibilities, there would be a marked decrease in crime and the drug scene.

An interesting thought to ponder is that today’s young people have more knowledge than the older generation had at this age.

No child or adult should be insulted with pity or patronage for his or her handicaps, but rather encouraged to derive a talent out of his own handicap.  Like a stamerer becoming an orator, a child from a painful family life becoming a welfare officer or psychotherapist.

A number of men and women, though they perform similar functions do not make a profession if they remain in isolation.  A profession can only be said to exist where there are bonds between the practitioners and the bonds can take but one shape, that of formal association.

Severed heads and limbs in a dissecting room do not make a man or scattered bricks and mortar do not constitute a house.

The partnership within co-practice is not mere association or ‘sleeping’ partner - it is not a ‘pic and mix’ arrangement.

Good communication is the basis for good human relations.  Skills in communication required are sensitivity and emotional content in  the message being conveyed.  There must be conviction in what you are conveying.  There must be purpose.  Awareness of conviction barriers and the techniques of overcoming them.  Ability to tap the idea and experience of others by sympathetic and attentive listening.

There are three positive steps of communication, these are as follows: A) Clarifying the idea in your mind, B) Transmitting it to the people who are going to carry it out, and C) Motivating those people to take action.

Instructions can mean different things to different people.  Communicators should, therefore, be aware of the comprehension of those he is communicating with.  What counts in the long run is not what people are told, but what they accept.

Communication must be a continuous thing - not merely occasional, so that everything is fully understood.  Communication does have basic principles - these appear as common sense, but their application is by no means universal in ordinary life, let alone business.  Clarify your ideas before communicating: ‘It’s no good opening the tap if there’s nothing in the tank”.

Examine the true purpose of each communication.  A) Is it to obtain information?  B) Is it to give information?  C) Is it to initiate action? and D) Is it to change another person’s attitude?

Communication is to convey help or value, for the future as well as the present.  Not only to be understood but also to understand.  For instance, be a good listener and watcher - ‘We must listen with our inner ear if we are to know the inner man’.

A watch is a precision made instrument, made up of many parts, each part has its own identity and its own function but its only when these parts become as whole that the watch functions as a whole, a watch fulfilling its original purpose of telling the time.  Working together the parts become identified as a whole.

We as human bodies have many members, hands, feet, eyes, ears, each member has its own identity and its own function, but it is only when these members become a whole that we have the distinct identity of a body.  ‘How wonderfully is man made’.

At a Chinese university - students were sitting in a group on the grounds with their note-books and being extremely busy, yet other students were rushing home for the mid-term break.  When asked why they were still there, a spokesperson replied: “Our colleague here has fallen behind in her work because of domestic problems.  So the group (her class) are together helping her with her work to bring her up to date”.  Is there a lesson here?  All involved!

The making of a community is not the mere drudgery of statistics but the essential monitoring of the part being played in the activity of the community, by the souls of the community.  That is the social and spiritual life of the community, as well as the secular.  This would be a community, not passive, but active, a community with purpose, meaningful in its deliberations, concerns, and functions for the benefit not of a few, but for all.  A community exercising unity though not necessarily uniformity.  A community where every potential is explored, where every talent is given opportunity for expression.  Grasping the opportunity of a lifetime in the lifetime of the opportunity.  This is a community not void of values, ethics and acceptable practices.

To meet the needs of the community there has to be, and to be seen real partnership, not only of the various institutions and existing social groups, but a real and positive exercise of bridging the gap between the older teenager and the older generation.  Adolescence is no interlude!

Religion ought not to be a stepping stone or a rung in the ladder for social respectability or social status.  We may never reach the height of God, and we certainly cannot go beyond, but for sure we can never sink beneath his love.  Such is his partnership as the Creator with his creatures.

An American on holiday in the Sandringham area knew that the Royal family were holidaying there too.  So he telephoned the local church and asked: “Will their Royal Highnesses be in the church this Sunday?” “That we cannot promise”, replied the vicar.  “But we confidently expect God to be there, and are hopeful that will be incentive enough for a reasonably large attendance”.

Is this modern society?

Moral, but not made new.

Religious, but not regenerate.

Good, but not Godly.

Trying, but not trusting.

Professing, but not possessing.

Perhaps we have been inoculated with a mild form of Christianity; which is making us immune to the real thing.  There are several types of religious variations - these can be tabulated as follows.

Psychological Christianity; -  an obsession that makes God a good ‘pepper-upper’ and religion a comforting thought.  Its devotees see theology as a waste of time; shudder at the mention of sin; go to church to seek psycho-religious adjustment for tension and frustration.  Their heaven is health and wealth.

Political Christianity; -  a reform movement with a social gospel, which is as busy with surveys, committee meetings, projects, campaigns and so on; to clean up society that individuals are starving to death for spiritual food.

Social Christianity; -  a ‘good time’ religion with special appeal to those who cannot get into lodges, clubs, or the society column.  It expresses itself in a round of socials, banquets, or - in its liberal manifestation -  theatre parties, dances and bridge.

Sacramental Christianity; -  a blind loyalty to certain rites or ceremonies the faithful performance of which is supposed to give one a ‘pass’ to glory.  Its devotees have a ‘form of godliness’ but ‘deny the power thereof’.

Theological Christianity; -  an intellectual and coldly scientific acceptance of the abstract truth in the New Testament Scriptures.  Those who have been immunised by this serum can split hairs with the same finesse that Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned.

On every hand we have ghosts of what might have been great Christians.  A very large proportion of people are professedly religious, but their religion is not deep, vital ,real!  It does not grip the whole man and change and transform him into the pure Christianity of the first century.

It appears that many are plugged in but are we switched on?

An active society or community rather than a passive society or community is one which involves all the players on the stage.   To have a narrow mind and a wide mouth won’t solve anything.

We are all on the journey of life and vital to this journey is to keep at abeyance the fighting without, and the fear within.

The identification and manifestation of a healthy and harmonious community must come through integration and not segregation.

As a wayside pulpit put it: “A man wrapped up I himself makes a little parcel”.

We should be asking ourselves this vital question - If I were arrested for being a Christian would there be enough evidence?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(SHORTENED LIST)

David Archard                          Children: Rights and Childhood

Michael Argyle             The Psychology of Interpersonal Behaviour

William Barclay                        Ethics in a Permissive Society

Olive Banks                              The Sociology of Education

Peter L. Berger             Invitation to Sociology

J.    McBrew                              Youth and Youth Groups

David Brion Davis                    The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture

Windy Dryden                          Overcoming Anger

Ronald Fletcher                        The Family and Marriage

Sean Haldane                           Emotional First Aid

Kathleen Heasman                    Home, Family and Community

Darrell Huff                              How to lie with Statistics

Greville Janner              Janner on Communication

Mavis Klein                              Okay Parenting

J.    P. Leighton                          The Principals and Practice of Youth and Community   

 Work

Philip Martin                             The Amisted Affair

Joan Matthews             Working with Young Groups

Margaret Mead                        Coming of Age in Samoa

David G. Meyers                      The Pursuit of Happiness

Leon Morris                             The Lord From Heaven

Frank Musgrove                       Youth and the Social Order

Donald MacKay                       The Clockwork Image

Allan MacLaren                        Social Class in Scotland

Vance Packard             The Hidden Persuaders

J.    I. Packer                             Fundamentalism and the Word of God

Michael Phillipson                     Sociological Aspects of Crime and Delinquence

John Raynor                             The Middle Class

C. L. Sandstrom                       The Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence           

Paul Simon                               Martyr to Freedom

David Smail                              The Origins of Unhappiness

W. J. H. Sprott             Humans Groups

Charles Spurgeon                     God’s Gift To You

L.  Steinberg & A. Levine         You and your Adolescent

John Stott                                 Christ the Controversialist

Barry Sugarman                        Sociology

Alan Train                                Helping the Aggressive Child

C. W. Valentine                        The Normal Child

D. W. Winnicott                       The Child, the Family and the Outside World

Peter Worsley                          Introducing Sociology