Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-10-30
Youth and Age
Must Walk Together

oder generation must meet the
younger halfway, and together they
VIII usher in the new American
Renaissance" was the declaration
mere today of Mrs. Lucy Jenkins
FRANKLIN, Boston University dean of
women, speaking on 1.-THE Rising
Older Generation" before the after
noon session of the Maine State
teachers Association.
Although the last 10 years have
produced a great intellectual and
social gulf between maturity and
youth, said Mrs. Franklin, 1.-The ris-
ing older generation" is beginning
TO make heroic efforts to catch up
with the young people of today, and
VIII il time do so. Solution of many
present-da social problems depends
upon the obliteration of this INTEL
.ectual and social gulf. Mrs. Frank
lin added.
we are told that the growth of the
past 10 years has been equal to a
normal growth of 100 years." the
speaker declared. During these 10
years science has made advances al
most unbelievable. This tremend-
GUS growth and change has frustrat-
ed and startled those who belonged
TO pre- war times, and when they try
10 solve their postwar problems
WITH pre-war equipment they fail.
During this 10 or II years, large
army OF young people have come up
VINO are products OF this new and
enalSeo period. They appear
strange ind unreal to the older peo-
Ple; hut, nevertheless, they must all
walk down the path of civilization
q
Youth and Age are having such a
hard time to live together?
age III the past has been sure of
itself. Therefore it has been patient
with Youth, knowing that Youth
some day would come around to it's
way OF thinking. But Age today, is
not sure of itself and therefore, it
Is impatient with Youth. 4a
rms army of young people, in the
meantime, have been educated &C
cordlng to our present system of
scientific and philosophic approach
combined with self expression. 1t
mas been splendid system, but
when these children who have been
taught self expression in their
cradles and the primaries, come to
adolescence, when they really have
Two selves to express, We hold up our
hands and say oh, please do not ex-
press yourselves any more. 1t is
unpleasant. If our children are
expressing their whole selves today
1t is because we have taught them
self expression without self control,
and unless that combination takes
place we are apt to find a self that
is not worth expressing.
THE student mind of today Is far
more developed, in spite of it's lack
OF control, than the pre- war mind
and perhaps self-eXpresson is in a
large measure responsible for it.
Our social lines were once distinctly
marked. The moral inches were just
as clearly defined. Religious lines
were SO evident that it was hard to
tell whether We worshipped God or
our denominations. Now that these
lines are falling away. the adult is
left standing and looking around in
all directions, wondering where he
can find suitable niche into which
he can retire and be as comfortable
as he was in the days before the
war. He is not sure of himself; he
Is insecure and wdvering, and the
young mind, in it's keenness, sees the
insecurity of Age. 19@e7'7rs - %
mo wonder. the n. when this young
student mind. self expressive, keen
and sure of itself. comes up against
a wavering, insecure adult mind
that we are having hard time to
adjust ourselves. l am amazed at
the kecnness and penetrating power
Of the student mind. II attempts to
go straight to the root of questions
by the scientific approach. and it
cares nothing for the conventions of
approach. 1t seeks to rid itself of
all obstacles that stand between it
and the object o. it's attention. The
young mind of today demands a clear
atmosphere. -t
"A young man who Is studying
theology said to me, When we were
in the war, we became very i'm
patient in the camps because we
could not get on to France. The
red-tape, the network of organiza-
ton meant delay. kept US impatient.
We wanted to get on to France.
Well. what We young people want to-
day is to get "On to France" in re-
ligion;s out in the open where we
can seeSGod and study Him as He
is. without a network of conflicting
rules and creeds laid down by past
ages.
This summer / visited the Cata-
combs. with large number of stu
dents. After we had come out of
those sacred halls and shrines q
silence fell upon the students. In
few moments one young sophomore
said, AMI just to think, over. in
America they are running everything
by narrow religious intolerance. I
wish they could all come over here
and see these places. Perhaps they
would come back face to face with
real Christianity.
These are instances to illustrate
the chief characteristics, l believe,
of the student mind today. How are