Youth Must Be Taught To Think, Live
Creatively And Rebel Constructively
(Continued from Last Week)
(Ed. note: This, the second in a
series of two articles, written by
Mrs. Yule Chaffin, Woody Island
resident, on the subject of students
bowing to conformity as against
the rebel spirit. The first article
appeared in last weeks Mirror.)
By MRS. YULE CHAFFIN
Ellison says there seems to be
a "growing national inclination to
push education aside whenever it
interferes with love or comfort,
money or fun.” Many of our schools
seem to go along with this "life ad
justment” concept. Many colleges
seem to make it almost impossible
for the serious student to 6tudy.
Many of our schools fail to ask chil
dren to think; emphasis on thought
is missing from all subject matter.
Original thought and initiative are
actually discouraged. The schools
offer a host of “how to” courses
such as "how to" answer the tele
phone. buy a house, dress properly,
drive a car, behave on a date, and
hundreds of similar courses which
really teach students how to be
like everyone else. The practice
has seemed to be keeping the herd
all together, to pass students
whether they have mastered the
work or not, and as Keats puts it,
"to pamper the jackasses, stuff the
geniuses under the rug, and mean
while envelop everyone in that
fatuous diaper ism they call life
adjustment.”
The immediate results in our
schools of the conformity concept
and ‘‘life adjustment” program are
the failure of students to master
fundamentals, distorted ideas of
the meaning of life and man's place
in the world, sloppy work habits,
discouragement, inability to de
velop creativeness and originality.
Our youth, the hope of the future,
who must bring peace to a discon
tented world, are going out into
that world ill-equipped for the
struggle.
To illustrate further, let us take
the case of some of the high school
students in my own home town.
We parents and adults had worked
long and hard to start a Civil Air
Patrol Squadron. At first we had
quite a few potential members but
one by one they began to drop out.
“Why do these boys and girls
start something so eagerly only to
drop it after the newness has worn
off?” I asked one of my hard-work
ing co-workers. The answer he gave
me was revealing.
“Kids nowadays expect too
much,” he said. “Instead of going
ahead individually on their own in
itiative they sit back and expect
the other fellow to do it. They ex
HUNTERS
Save year Dew and Elk Jaws. These jaws are needed to deter*
mine the age composition of our big game herds and this in tern
indicates their condition.
HOW TO REMOVE JAWS
L Cut beck cheek of animal well beyond mouth opening.
2. Pull jaws apart until they separate.
3. Grasp back of lower jaw and pull free.
INFORMATION NEEDED
1. Name of hunter. 3. Sex of kill
2. Location of kill 4. Date of kilL
COLLECTION POINTS
Deliver to Alaska Dept of Fish & Game office in Kodiak
(Old Federal Jail) or any field men of the department.
For information call Game Division office, Ph. 486—-2168.
Thank You— RON BATCHELOR, Biologist I
Alaska Dept, of Fish Sc Game, j
Commisar Says:
Every Saturday Evening
Is
Family Time
Ai The Elks Club
Oilier from 6.-00 to 9d0 P. M.
AUGUST 26th
Cocktails
(Far The Grown-ups)
DAY Y CROCKETTS AND SHIRLEY TEMPLES
(For The Young Folk)
SPAGHETTI CARUSO
With Mushrooms, Meat Balls, Milan Sauce and
Grated Romana Cheese, Italian Sauce,
Garlic Bread, Coffee or Tea
ELKS. EMBLEM CLUB MEMBERS AND THEIR ESCORTS
ARE INVITED TO ENJOY THIS TASTY' MEAL
For Your Reservations Call
48G-2666 OR 486—5222
pect things to be ready-made and
handed to them. They have never
really had to fight for anything in
their lives. They expect constant
change, excitement, and thrills.
When this doesn’t happen through
no effort on their part, they soon
lose interest.”
There will be no heroes or giants
among our youth in an age when
giants and heroes are sorely
needed. A few parents, a few
schools, a few teachers try to fan
the spark of individualism within
each child but the tiny flame soon
dies, smothered by the homoge
neity of American society. Tele
vision, movies, billboards, maga
zine advertisements, and other me
dia all virtually shout that to be
different is to be ostracized. Who
wants to be a black sheep?
The fault is not with our youth.
They only follow blindly where
they are so tragically and ignobly
being led. The fault is not entirely
with our parents and teachers. The
fault lies with our whole social or
der. We are victims of circum
stance. This era has created a class
less society and we are suffering
the consequences. Our society has
ceased to assert any originality,
courage, brains, or initiative—and
to rebel. Fadiman says that our
society has lost sight of the princi
ples laid down by our founding
fathers. “Our right to pursue hap
piness' has come to mean a right
to “have a good time;” the right
to forsake liberal education with
resultant intellectual impoverish
ment. Our social order “has been
betrayed by the myth of adjust
ment to the extent that non-confor
mity and mental illness or disease
have become synonymous." This
theory of common man—Mass Man
Legal Notice
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Pursuant to the authority grant
ed to the Commissioner, Depart
ment of Public Works, by Section
1, Chapter 90, SLA 1961, public
hearings relative to adoption of fee
schedules for oversize and over
weight vehicles upon public high
ways will be conducted at the times
and places hereinafter stated.
The proposed schedule of fees
to go into effect are:
PERMIT FEE
A $5.00 permit fee shall be
charged to cover handling cost of
any oversize or overweight permit
issued. This is in addition to the
fees charged for the amounts of the
excessive sizes or loads.
OVERSIZE FEES
Five cents per mile or fraction
thereof shall be charged for each
foot or fraction thereof that the
load exceeds the legal limit in
width, height or length. Allowance
will be made for clearance lights or
other safety devices. Full charge
will be made for each dimensional
excess.
OVERWEIGHT FEES
Weight over Fee per mile
that allowed on
by State
legal limits Highways
1— 5.999 $ .10
6,000—11.996 .20
12.000— 17,999 JO
18.000— 23,999 JO
24.000— 29,909 * .70
30.000— 35,999 .90
36.000— and over 1.10
In no case shall an oversize-over
weight fee be less than $10.00, in
cluding the permit fee.
Hearings will be held at Anch
orage in the Council Chambers,
Loussac Library, at 7:30 P. M on
September 6. 1961; at Fairbanks in
the Main School Auditorium at 8th
& Cushman at 7:30 P. M. on Sep
tember 8. 1961; at Juneau in Room
218. Municipal Building, at 7:30
P. M. on September 11, 1961.
T. D SHERARD.
Director,
Division of Highways
Publish: August 11,18 and 25, 1961.
—of running with the herd, is
brought about, says Robert Lind
ner in his book. Must You Con
form? “in a society where the in
dividual ego is weakened to the
point at which it loses separate
idenity and is forced, for security,
to merge with the mass.” Lindner
claims that we are all born with an
instinct to rebel, and that this in
stinct to master, to overcome, to
protest is an extremely necessary
and desirable function in the pro
cess of evolution that has enabled
man to rise from a primitive animal
to a mature and civilized individ
ual. Conformity and “adjustment”
stifle our urge to rebel or press us
to rebel negatively instead of posi
tively. As a result we either become
part of “Mass Man” and cease do
ing and thinking individually and
creatively, or else we rebel in a
non-constructive way and become
psychopaths, neurotics, beatniks,
hoodlums, murderers, and other
destructive types; a detriment to
ourselves and to our society.
Since conformity and “life ad
justment” are not bringing about
desirable results, and since man is
by nature a rebel and must rebel
in order to progress, wherein lies
the answer to our dilemma? Since
youth itself is not at fault; since in
dividual educators and parents are
in themselves at fault, wherein lies
the blame?
It really matters not who or what
exactly is to blame. What does mat
ter, and matters greatly, is that
each of us should become aware of
the dangers of the wrong sort of
conformity to our society. We need
to become aware that our way of
(Continued on Pas* 7)
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