CHRISTIAN WORKERS’ CLINIC The secret of success with youth
by Paul L. Dirks PART I L e t ’ s tu rn t h e spotlight on youth. Let’s visit the teen scene and get with the NOW generation. Let’s discuss where it’s at! Young people are all about us today and their number is increasing. Recent studies reveal that the population in terms of age groups is going to change greatly in the next few years. Thirty years from now there will be three times the number of young people that there were in 1960. This means three times as many schools, fads, heart aches and headaches for future planners who, in cidentally, are teenagers today. Youth is on the move, their number is increas ing, and they are asserting themselves. The theme of a recent movie, “Wild in the Streets,” is a take over of the United States by teenage intellectuals, hippies, and their followers. A 22-year-old is elect ed President. Their rallying cry is “We’ll stuff those old tigers (anyone over 30) back into their tanks!” Why are young people reacting as they are today? Many have attempted to answer that ques tion. Why all the protests, demonstrations, and riots? Certainly everyone would agree that this is a problem age! Young people are surrounded by difficult situations. They face problems in the home — established family relationships are dis integrating. They feel tensions in their communi ties. They find their world full of war and strife. All of these problems combine to make a real im pact on young lives. My son began at age 10 to question me about my war-time experiences. “What was it like being in the army?” he would ask. Then after hearing my recital of the events of those years, he would
comment, “I hope I don’t have to go to war.” The spectre of war and war-time service hang as a sword of Damocles over their heads. Today’s prob lems are leaving deep impressions on today’s youth. Young people are looking for answers without much success. Many hope for peace but still grab for more of the bubble of prosperity, while all the while the accelerating moral degeneration sweeps nations toward disaster. In the midst of this chaos, politicians and other self-seeking lead ers are offering themselves as the hope for the future. But youth sees no hope for the future. So they have turned to the present. Their attitude is that they might as well live it up now. They do not know what tomorrow holds or whether they even will be alive. “You might as well do your thing,” they agree. At this point, I would like to make three ob servations. They are made only after a great deal of thought, study, and reflection on the current situation. The first observation is th is : Many young peo ple today give evidence of an extremely self-cen tered attitude. They have been encouraged to “do your thing” that is, to do whatever they desire. Many are taking drugs to “expand the mind.” But as they look deep within themselves, with or with out the aid of LSD or some other “mind-expand ing” drug — they are seeing that which is not too pleasant. For “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” Jeremiah said. It may be that this explains why so many are ex periencing such bad trips on LSD. How much bet ter it would be if they only would turn their atten tion away from themselves and center their affec tion in Jesus Christ! Cont. on Page 36
MARCH, 1970
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