Youth in the Challenge
of the 80's
SERFAC
Those who are concerned with youth today,
both in a·
professional capacity and in everyday
working conditions, are often bewildered by the ways in which young people react to society and to the "older
generation". They are also faced with a mass of differing opinions as to the causes and possible
remedies of such attitudes. The so-called "youth
problem" deals with questions of alienation, drugs, juvenile crime, protest and the social cultural position
of young people in society
today. There should be a new way of thinking which
should promote greater understanding of the relationships between the generations. Social and educational agencies
must put this understanding to practical use by creating a constructive relationship between
the generations and between youth and society.
The activities
of the
young today are international news and often dominate
our
newspapers and television
screens. One of the most successful conversational gambits
is:
And what do you think about the young people of
today?
The
reasons for this unfailing interest are obvious and complex. Alive both for individual
older people and societies as a whole, the young constitute a direct threat and the most
important promise. In them we may be fulfilled
or
by them we may be destroyed.
Hence the fact that ''youth.'' is
a highly emotional subject and to the young we develop
ambivalent attitudes.
For us as individuals, the young are a threat because they will replace us in positions of power: they have one incomparable asset which we have lost - years to live and time to change their circumstances. Their presence, very often,
gives rise to feelings of nostalgia and regret and guilt. They disturb our settled views and invade our private
value systems. Their lack
of experience often gives them an optimism which has not
yet been tested, and yet we recognize in them a hope for a better future.
Societies too see youngsters as
a threat mainly
because they unite in themselves the two great
psychological and biological forces namely sexuality and aggression. Youngsters are less disposed to accept the status quo, they threaten the established structures of
meaning, value, authority and
power. Societies approach the young
functionally: there are strong
systems of socialization for the young. Societies have three distinct
but realted purposes with their
young:
1. To communicate culture, as the established way
of
life which has to be learned by newcomers if
they are to be socially-acceptable.
2. To perpetuate through the young a recognizable identity for the community. This is part of what is happening when children in schools begin the day by saluting
the national flag.
3. To gain their support for existing structures of
power and thus to mobilize
them to resist change.
But it would
be altogether too cynical to consider that the whole
interest of all societies is
functional: part of
it is humane and compassionate. A common reacting among older people
is that they would like their youngsters to enjoy life more than they did. And this motivation is reflected in educational programmes. In most civilized
communities adult people
feel that the
youngsters should have a chance to make the most of themselves.
