Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-26
KRAMER DEFENDS
FLAMING YOUTH
School Official, Addressing
Virginia Association, Sees
Romance in Actions.
Special Dispatch to The star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
RICHMOND, Va, November 20
Flaming youth" last night found de-
fender in Dr. Stephen E. Kramer
first assistant superintendent of pubic
schools, washington, D, c., who ad-
dressed the opening session OF the
twenty-sixth annual meeting of the
cooperative Education Association Of
Virginia in Broad Street Methodist
Church on cooperative Endeavor Of
Home and School in the Guidance Of
Young People
Flaming youth is phrase which
we often hear" said the speaker. why
must this picturesque phrase mean the
excuses, the recklessness, the eXtrava-
ganceS, the lawlesSness and the SEN
sual? Might it not better come to
mean in press and public mind the
courage and the dauntlessness of the
lad vino slipped alone into the darkness
of sky and sea to achieve the conquest
of air and ocean or the spirit of the
boy who dared venture out between
Heaven and sea upon the guiding plane
of the Graf Zeppelin to repair damage
which threatened the success of his
fathers craft? Was it not, indeed,
flaming youth that went forth from
the Virginia Military Academy with the
step and courage of veterans to lay
down their young lives upon the field
Of battle?"
Public Opinion Real Force.
Public opinion is real force in shap-
ing the thinking of youth, said DR..
Kramer, who declared that a grave re-
sponsibllity rests upon public opinion
to place the seal of social premium and
public attention upon work we'll done,
upon honest labor and upon noble. If
not spectacular, achievement. Romance
and thrill, he added, are not lacking in
the desirable walks of life. What is
needed, he said, is the determination
of the public mind to find it and to
exploit it before youth as an antidote
for the too frequent exploitation of the
undesirable and destructive activities OF
misguided youth.
Mrs. Katherine Cook, rural depart
ment director of the United States
Bureau of Education, Washington, was
another speaker at last nights OPEN
ing session of the Cooperative Educa-
ton Association. She took as her
subject Should We Know Our Neigh
borS?"
What are the responsibilities of pub
lie opinion in the guidance of youth?"
said DR.. Kramer. There are few forces
so potent in the shaping of the minds
and inspirations of our children as that
of social approval expressed by public
opinion. When the public attention and
interest is conferred upon the undesira-
BILE outbreaks of lawless youth and
when the public press exploits the BIZ
zarre and reckless, what can be ex-
pected from public opinion as a con-
structive guiding force for the youth
of our land?"
Must Restore Parental Guidance.
Parental authority and guidance must
be restored in the dominance of the
lives of children on a basis of mutual
respect between the parent and the
child, declared the speaker.
The fundamental characteristics of
Q real home are as applicable to q
home today as at any time through
all the change in social conditions of
the generations of the past, he de-
clared.
What responsibility shall we allocate
TO the SCHOOL," said the speaker. First,
the responsibility to set about making
the school system place of happy hv-
ing for the boys and girls who come
within its sphere of influence" The
school must recognize that a pupil goiAg