A Generation Seeks Deep Roots
(Continued from page two)
don’t believe that the maturing
of a personality depends equally
upon it. In one important realm
of the personality-—that of the
sexual impulses and behavior—
we leave the development of the
adolescent almost completely to
chance and blunder, and the
grapevine of smutty stories ex
changed between boys are the
giggling whisperings of girls.
* * *
The job of sex education in the
school and - home is being done
with a dismal inadequacy. I have
seen one questionnaire in which
a group of students were asked
whether the American parents
do a good job of preparing youth
for meeting adult problems. A
few answered Yes, some said they
do the best they can according
to their ability and their lights,
but a distressing number said No.
1 found bitterness in the answers,
little disillusionment and little
rebellion, but simply the recogni
tion that the job has been some
how muffed—that there is not
enough guidance, nor enough ef
fort to speak candidly about what
the young people will face.
Time after time I found the
SUdents answering that their fa
iers had been too absorbed at
the office and on the job, had
been too distant and distracted,
too busy supporting the family to
do much about helping the child
to grow up. As for the American
mother, most of the burden is put
on her shoulders, and while she
struggles valiantly she is herself
too tied down by fears, tabus, and
sometimes sheer ignorance to do
the job herself.
• In the case of the school, there
is a lack of adequately trained
teachers to do the job of sex edu
cation. There is also the fact that
in many cases the American com
munity has left the teaching job
to those who have themselves led
sexually frustrated lives, in most
cases spinsters.
The Kinsey volume points out
the-fact that the adolescent boy
of 15, 16 or 17, at the height of
his sexual activity, finds himself
in a classroom where the teacher
has a wholly different sexual ex
perience and a different structure
of impulse. Under these circum
stances, the job of sex education
is bound to be done badly.
The college situation is not
much better. In the big state uni
versities, which are monster ral
lies of students and teachers run
ning sometimes into the ten
thousands, the student feels lost.
The classes in most colleges are
impersonal, the subjects studied
seem only distantly related—if at
all—to the real concerns of a boy
or girl developing into a young
adult.
Sometimes the student will
stumble upon a teacher willing to
talk about the problems the stu
dent has to tussle with, and the
divisions he has to make. But this
is rare. State universities are
watched over by the legislatures
and Boards of Regents. Other col
leges are watched over by Boards
of Trustees. In either case the
need for funds is great, and few
colleges have thus far been will
ing to take the "public relations”
risk of focusing their educational
program on human growth and
development, including the sexu
al as well as the social and moral
realisties.
We are living in what may be
called a moral interregnum. An
interregnum is the period be
tween the death of an old king
and the coming of a new one to
the throne. Similarly the old mor
al codes are no longer the opera
tive ones, but the new ones have
1 not yet been formulated. The col
lege generation is doing its best,
with whatever help and guidance
it can get, to shape new ones. But
it is a slow process, and a diffi
cult one, and there are casualties
in the form of twisted and wreck
ed lives along the way.
The first thing to remember
about this search is that there is
no hope or prospect of getting
back to the old moral condemna
tion of sexuality. The students
know too much about the life to
believe that it can be instinctual
wholly suppressed, or wholly
postponed until it can be given
some kind of expression within
the bounds of convention.
Everything we know about the
actual behavior of young people,
! not only in this generation but in
the one before it and no doubt the
one before that, shows that when
you try to dam up the strong hu
man drives, they break out at un
expected points. We do live, at
least in part, in a natural uni
verse. And no moral codes still
to be shaped can afford to ignore
that fact.
* * *
But it is also true that moral
relativism, which says that you
can go shopping for moral values
at will and buy those that suit
your fancy, is equally impossible
as a guide to conduct. A whole
generation has tried it and found
it- wanting, and the young people
of today have a sure sense of its
bleakness.
They know there is a moral
universe which applies not just
at one time or <one culture or one
person, but to the human per
sonality in itself. This does not
mean that the same moral rules
will fit all cultures equally well.
But it does mean that there are
things which all men and socie
ties have in common.
We are just beginning to learn
about the relation between sexu
al expression and the needs of the
total personality. I have found a
growing awareness among stu
dents that what they want is a
depth of relationship, a chance to
respect the other person as well
as themselves. They want a mor
ality in which they don’t use
others and are not themselves
• used. Ultimately they want a
meaningful love, and the chance
to raise a family and to bring up
children (they are talking more
and more in terms of large fami
lies, not small ones), and some
rootedness in a community.
They want a life which is pro
ductive in its terms and not sim
ply in terms of what other people
think, and a relation between
husband and wife in which both
of them keep growing.
These are vague when students
talk about them and sometimes
they can’t put it into words, but
nonetheless there is a deadly ear
nestness about them when they
do. For they are talking about
the relation of morals to the
deepest life-purposes of the per
son and the culture.
Which is what morals should
be about.
Delinquency Talk
Set by Christian House
Juvenile delinquency will be dis
cussed by Dr. John G. Kilpack at
7 p.m. Tuesday at Christian House.
Kilpack is director of Juvenile
Protection and Rehabilitation for
the Oregon Council of Churches.
Before working for the Council of
Churches, Kilpack was with the
Portland city schools for 20 years.
I
Medical School
Gets Contract
The University of Oregon medi
cal school is one of the six col
leges in the Northwest granted a
research contract by the Atomic
Energy Commission.
The AEC announced that 16 new
research contracts were signed
during 1950 with the following
schools: Washington State Col
lege, University of Washington,
Oregon State College, Reed Col
lege, University of Wyoming, and
the U. of O. medical school.
The new projects involve com
mitments of $115,706 by the AEC
and raise the total under 31 old
and new contracts with universi
ties and colleges to $792,661.
Play Cast Meeting
Scheduled Tonight
An organizational meeting of
the cast of "Goodbye My Fancy,”
University Theater production
scheduled to open Mar. 2, will be
held at 7:30 tonight in 104 Villard.
Director Ottilie Seybolt requests
that all people who tried out for
the show check the tentative cast
list posted on the bulletin board
outside 216 Villard.
Mrs. Seybolt reports that try
outs are still open for two part9,
that of the principal men’s role, a
college professor, and the remain
ing female part. The latter role is
a plump, middle-aged, slightly
fluttery woman, says Mrs. Seybolt.
SU Committee
Petitions Due Now
Petitions for 69 openings on
seven Student Union standing
committees are being accepted
until 1 p.m. Tuesday in either the
program director’s office in the
3U or by Bill Carey, chairman of
ihe interview and referral com
nittee.
Committees needing new mem
cers are concert, dance, movie,
vorkshop, publicity, house, and
cultural.
Petitions may be obtained in
:he program director’s third floor
office. Grade eligibility certifi
cates are available In the Office
>f Student Affairs.
CAMPUS CALENDAR
9 a.m.-5 p.m.—Ore. Assn, of
City Police, 315 SU
12 noon—Architecture School,
112 SU
12:30 p.m.—Police luncheon, 113
SU
4 p.m.—Panhellenic, 213 SU
Foreign students, 110-111
SU
Pi Delta Phi, 112 SU
7 p.m.—Phi Mu Alpha, 334 SU
City Panhellenic, 113 SU
7:30 p.m.—ASUO Executive
Council, 337 SU
Release And Indemnity Agreement For Minor
Permission is given herewith voluntarily to my son (daughter) .
. to make a donation of blood to the AMERICAN NATIONAL
RED CROSS, to be used in any manner it deems advisable, and for that purpose may,
at his or her own risk, submit to the tests, examination* and procedures necessary and
customary in connection w :th donations of blood. The undersigned parent and minor
agree that neither the AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS, nor any surgeons, phy
sicians, technicians, nurses, agents officers or employees connected with any of them or
who may be participating otherwise in connection with the operation of the AMERICAN
NATIONAL RED CROSS BLOOD CENTER, shall be in any way responsible for any
consequences to the minor named herein from the giving of such blood, or from any of
the tests, examinations or procedures incident thereto, and the undersigned do jointly
and severally hereby release and discharge each and all of the above named individuals and
the AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS from any and all claims and demands
whatsoever which we. or either of us, have or may have against them, or any of them,
bj' reason of any matter relative or incidental to such donation of blood.
The undersigned paren':, in consideration of the premises, does hereby covenant
with any of the individuals named hereinabove who are in any way connected w'ith the
operation and supervision of the Blood Center operated by the American National Red
Cross, and the AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS, that the undersigned parent
will at all times hereafter indemnify e: ch and all of said individuals and the AMERICAN
NATIONAL RED CROSS against r. ! claims, demands, damages, suits or actions which
may be brought or made against said .ndividuals or any of them on account of the dona
tion of blood authorized herein.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I hereunto set my hand and seal this. day of
., 19. In the presence of:
(SEAL)
Minor
.(SEAL)
aiiiii/iiiAiu ur uijr t:vi5fc ueorge iMarsnaii amt assistant Secre
tary Anna Rosenberg appear before the Senate Armed Services Com
mittee in Washington as Marshall urged the draft of 18-year-olds,
for 27 months’ service to build up the nation’s fighting forces. (AP
WIREPHOXO)
Shirts
iw^i9 cum foundry [
%rt'
—White button*
down oxford, soft
roll to the collar.
Popular as a holiday
with the fellows and
the gals.
broadcloth, extreme
widespread collar.
Sharpest shirt on
the quadrangles
this year.
The Manhattan Shirt Company, makers of Manhattan shirts, neck*
near, it rider near, pajamas, sportshirts, beachuiear and handkerchiefs.