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Show NED tac Ween ee e Menangle tm Tet cere SR heoea ee Beyer ee Family Weekly /Marck 29, 1970 New Morality for Our Youth pyschologist and church woman which could bring a constructive By Dr. CYNTHIA CLARK WEDEL President, National Council of Churches has been present. It’s alsc a world in which space exploration has been expected and not something out of science fiction. And it is a world in which youth grew up with electronic media, particularly television. All of these things have made youth a quite different people, leading Margaret Mead to observe that only persons born since 1945 are natives of the mod-rn world. The rest Many women’s organizations, church bodies, and Parent-Teachers Associations have set up discussion groups at which panels of parents and children not related explain the things which trouble them. In discussions, both generations can de- scribe the problems they face in communicating with the other. When these same problems are aired in the emotionally charged atmosphere of the family, neither side really listens. But when thepanelparticipants are notrelated to one another, they hear each other out—andlearn. One aspect of today’s youth is their deep interest in religion, both of us are immigrants from an older world, burdened with all sorts of older ideas, which we probably will have to change. She points out that it alwaysis difficult for persons from another culture to learn from the natives but adds that this is what Western and Easter Mrs. Stephanie McCormick (left) is a theology teacher at St. John Fisher College, Rochester, N.Y. Women are helping outat the community level by being teachers’ aides (above). mysticism, something I am afraid many older we may need to do. This means that today’s parents may have to make a very real effort church members do not appreciate an experience that transcends the fully. For many persons,religion is a formalized affair. It is a matter of attending church andliving “a good Christian life.” But it appears to be something apparcat emptiness of the material- istie world. Similarly, much of the rebellion of youth today is rooted not in what seemsto be just anti-social behavior, worki that changes more radically than it did in our own youth. Many parents currently are struggling with the problems of seeing considerably deeper for many young but in high ideals, concern with help- young people, providing guidance and people. They are concerned about theology and aboutfollowing humanereligious precepts in a confused, often hostile world. Even the use of drugs suggests a misguided effort to find ing others, about universal justice and freedom and peace. These are ideals that do them and their parents also learning from them, to create a their children rebel against their dic- to understand their children as the children grow up—prebably a greater effort than their own parents ever made toward understanding them. tates, sometimes to the point of the children leaving hometo live in communes, dropping out of school, and bewildering turns. It is the result of youth’s search for values in a I believe that women have greater freedom than men to work with these credit, although admittedly their ap- more meaningful role for the church and for morality in this new world. it is our opportunity, challenge, proach sometimes takes bizarre and and our responsibility. @ taking up drugs. Althoughit is easy for parenis to despair, even in these extremecircumstances it is vital that they never take any step to sever relationships with their children. In the sometimes difficult job of trying to keep a communications channel open, to resume Other women are serving az nurses’ aides. Here two enlist the help of Girl Scouts in a hospital benefit. ——— or establish a dialogue, it usuaily is the mother whois in the best position to act as intermediary, since she hasbeen closest to her children’s development. Unfortunately, this very fact may make her the first one to feel the injured party, and wounded pride maycauseherto toss everything into her husband’s lap. While the father’s role is important, the mother can never opt out just because the going gets rough. Having been closest to their children in the youngsters’ formative years, women often may be in the best position to extend the sympathy and understanding needed to bridge the generation gap. But to do this, they must listen intently to their children’s ideas and views without instantly judging them on the standards by which things were judged a generation ago. Family Weekly, March 29, 1970 5 |