Rebel Spirit Needed For Development
Of Student-Conformity Stifles Growth
By YULE CHAFFIN
Let There Be Rebels
The other day, while I was visit
ing with a close friend, her sixteen
year-old daughter, a sophomore in
high school, came in with a sheep
ish look and handed her mother a
report card. Shock, disbelief, and
disappointment were all mirrored
in my friend’s face.
“How can it be possible for a
student who shows above average
ability in all manner of intelligence
tests to get one failing grade and
three grades barely above pass
ing?” demanded the mother.
“Mom, only squares study. I
don’t want to be a square,” was the
girl’s answer.
Alarmed and distressed, my
friend questioned her daughter fur
ther, thinking that surely there
must be some other explanation
for the girl’s actions. Finding none,
she then appealed to me as a for
mer teacher, to shed some light on
the subject. Resolving to find an
answer to the problem, we turned
to books, magazines, even inter
views with other students and par
ents. What we found out came as
a rude shock.
It is common knowledge that
youth always is and always has
been a time of rebellion. One has
only to think back on one’s own
youth to remember that state of
adolescence in which there was, as
Lindner says, “active insurrection,
flaunting of convention, disputing
of authority, and opposing of tra
ditions.” Youth is a rebel, but he is
not alone. In a sense we all are
rebels. Some psychologists claim
that rebellion is an instinct just
as hunger, fear, and sex are in
stincts.
At first glance it might seem
alarming to think of man as a rebel.
Yet when we come to give the mat
ter further thought we cannot help
seeing that rebellion is a desirable
—nay, a necessary attribute to the
progress of man. Rebellion is an
instinct that is necessary for man’s
very survival. Rebellion, says Lind
ner, “makes a man restless, seek
ing, curious, forever unsatisfied,
forever struggling, never content
with the limits of his body, his
mind or his life. Rebellion causes
man to reach out and probe space,
study the atom, inquire into the
secrets of the universe.”
Rebellion produces great men,
men such as Churchill, Roosevelt,
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De Gaulle, Socrates, Shakespeare,
Washington, Lincoln, Einstein;
even Hitler and Mussolini, for great
men have been known to introduce
extremes whether for good or for
evil. Schlesinger says, “If we are
to survive, we must have ideas,
vision, courage. These things are
rarely produced by committees . . .
they are produced by individuals.”
Let us add—by rebellious individ
uals who refuse the follow the
herd—who refuse to conform.
Schlesinger states again, “A
bland society will never be crea
tive.” But our society is a bland
society and is becoming more so
each day. American society has
little use for the individualist. The
two-fisted, non-conforming rugged
individualist went out of style with
hoop skirts.
Our homes have become exact
duplicates, one of the other, inside
and out. “We now have,” says
Foley, “row on row of identical
small boxes, marching across a de
nuded landscape, sprouting tele
vision aerials like insect feelers
. . . ” Everything is done “en
masse” destroying all individuality.
“Merchants angle for mass mark
ets,” says Keats, “Products are
mass-produced, schools offer mass
education ... we are constantly
being badgered to look around us
and make sure we’re doing and say
ing and thinking what the mass of
our neighbors will accept. The
closer we huddle together, the
greater this pressure for conform
ity becomes—breeding swarms of
neuter drones.”
The suburbs of American cities
are breeding swarms of conformists
who haven’t a thought of their own.
Several years ago they went all out
for big cars, wall-to-wall carpeting,
square dances, sack dresses, and
outdoor barbecues. Then the vogue
changed to small rugs, small cars,
shirtwaist dresses, and candlelight.
What the vogue will be next year is
anybody’s guess, but it will take
no guessing to know what the ma
jority of Americans will do about
it. They will conform.
Nowhere is this conformity or
“togetherness,” this running with
the pack, shown more clearly than
among our youth and in our
schools. Students feel compelled to
obey the latest fads in everything
from hair cuts, tight dungarees,
slang, song preferences, and love
making to study attitudes and man
ners. The student is afraid to rebel,
afraid to go against convention or
—' ... I ■ .. ■
to think for himself. He is afraid
of being left out; of being lonely.
He would much rather drift along
with the herd and become a well
adjusted sheep.
(To be continued)
How times change—the man who
considered himself a progressive
yesterday finds he’s impeding pro
gress today.
Kodiak Assembly
of God Church
Mission Road
Pastor Wm. L. Cummins
Phone 486—2491
“Not By Might, Nor By Power,
But By My Spirit, Saith the
Lord of Hosts."
SERVICE SCHEDULE
SUNDAY
Sunday School.10:00 a.m.
Morning Worship ... H;00 a.m.
Christ’s Ambassadors 6:30 ?.m.
Evangelistic Service .. 7:30 p.m.
TUESDAY
Women’s Prayer
Meeting.2.00 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Prayer & Bible Study 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY
Youth Meeting.7:00 p.m.
Prayer Meeting.8:30 p. m.
SATURDAY
Missionettes.2:00 p. m.
Today when money talks a token
payment is only a whisper.
CHURCH OF CHRIST
Sunday School 10:00 A. M.
Worship Service 10:45 A. M.
Meeting each Sunday morning
in the Old City Hall Bldg.
For Information call 487-5846
Christian Science
Society
Sunday School.9:30 a. m.
Sunday Service_11:00 a. m.
Testimony Meeting .. 4th Wed.
8:00 p.m.
Reading Room.Wed.
7-8 p. m.
Located on Shelikoff
near Cope St.
Church of God
6th & I Streets
Fred Mamaloff, Pastor
Sunday School.10
Morning Worship.11 ajn.
Evening Service_7:30 pjn.
Mid Week Service ... 7:30 p m
Wednesday
Listen To Christian Brotherhood
Hour, Station KHAR, 590 kilo
cycles, 8 a. m. Sunday
Berean Baptist Church
REV. CLETIS LEVER ETT, PASTOR
L. B. LINDSEY, S. S. SUPERINTENDENT
A Bible Believing Baptist Church with
a Real Concern for Souls of Men.
SUNDAY SCHOOL 10:00
MORNING WORSHIP 11:00
EVENING SERVICE 7:00
PRAYER MEETING (Wed.) 7:30
“For the Word of God and the
Testimony of Jesus Christ.”
The Community Baptist Church
Rev. Lewis White
“The Big White Church on Che HilJ”
Sunday School—8:45 a.m.
Morning Worship—11:00 a.m.
Youth Fellowship Groups—6:30 p.m.
Evening Worship—7:30 p.m.
Mid Week Service—7:30 p.m. Wednesday
“HOLDING FORTH THE WORD OF LIFE"
KODIAK DIRECTORY
FOR
SEATTLE
TACOMA
PORTLAND
SERVICE
CALL
486-2231
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KODIAK
KMBLEM
CLUB
No. Iff}
Meets 1st & 3rd
Thursday at
8 p.m. at the
Elks Club.
KODIAK LODGE NO. 1772 BPOE
Meets every Friday
evening
at 8:30 p.m.
Vlsking Meiulieis Welcome
ALASKA COMMUNICATIONS
SYSTEM
Hoars of Easiness
Monday thru Friday, 9 am to 6 pm
Saturday, 9 am to 12 noon
Sundays and Holidays, Closed
Wires may be filed during the
closed office hours by dialing 110.
KODIAK ISLAND JAYCEES
Meet the 1st. and 3rd.
Wednesday of each
month.
7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
In the Montmartre
Basement.
BARTENDERS LOCAL 875 A.FJL.
Meets on 2nd Sunday of every
month, 12 noon at Fishermen's
Hall.
KODIAK
LODGE
F. & A. M.
No. 295
Meetings — Stated 3rd Monday,
8 p.m. at Kodiak Masonic Twapia
BUSINESS ft PROFESSIONAL
WOMEN’S CLUB
Business Meeting—1st Monday at
7:30 p.m.
Dinner Meeting—3rd
7:00 p.m. at Maud Fountain.
VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS
Regular meetings 1st and Ird
Tuesdays, 8 p.m.,
at tho VFW Hall.
JACK ALLMAN POST NO. 17
AMERICAN LEGION
Carl Rodli, Commander
Phone 486—5375
Larry Loomis, Adjutant
Phone 486—5173