1974 School Magazine

EDITORIAL Youth has been called Life's greatest gift. It is something each of us is born with; the one universal quality. Yet young people, masteis ol this gift, seem determined to rid themselves of all it stands for, in the moit ,xprldirrt ,ay possible. In the eye-s ol Modern Youth, it is no longer a virtue to bi simple and innocent, protected and guarded against Life's harsher blows and unlearned in the wiles and guiles ol the world. N,o, the ideal now is to acquire as much premqtur.e sophistication and experience as Time permits, to rush heae)long into new qnd unusual situetions, to pick up some of the tinsel scrapings of ,those older, more successful, more advanced. while it is to their credit that young people today are more aware of them- selves as individuals, and strive to lind answers lor the questions lacing them, when this awareness grows into a passion to possess characteristics ancl ex- perience hitherto only possessed by those lar more mature or extreorflinarily p.recocious, they have veered from the path ol natural development. This'veei- ing' is being fostered on every side - youth is encouraged to rebel against authority, to compete madly for distinction in a world it has not yet beeifully prepared for, and exchange what was a gradual learning and growing process lor a hectic scramble afler sensations and experience. Because they -have not been adequately prepared, mentally and spiritually, lor the onslaught ol new sentience, many young people not only lose the innocence and simplicity ol Youth, but emerge lrom their premature experience in worldly mattei^s sadder and not necessarily wiser, bewildered, and unable to cope with the new life. There is much to be enjoyed in Yourh; during no other time tn one's life is there so -little responsibility, need lor deep thinking anrl planning, or obligation to ceaselessly strive and hurry. The child moy not have the world at his fTnger- tips, but he has HIS world, and in it there is enough to sustain him until he grows beyond its boundaries. Youth is a holiday - not one that lollows the l.qbour, but one that precedes it, and it is not oniy dangerous, it is aiso wasteful lor a young person to try to lorce his maturing. The prematurely adult child is all too olten unsympathelic to the interests of more puerile contemporaries - jaded and disdainful of simple pleasures, he has no choice but to loltow the path he has taken, moving in lits and starts through situations he may not lulty iom- . prehend. Children who lorce themselves into (t wider, more complicated world are in fact by-passing great portions ol their youth - they are trying to become eighteen year olds at fifteen, and have no chance of succeeding, because of the three necessary, developing years separating them. what they lail to see is that taking time in living those lhree years can be lun in itself , not simply a means to an end. Given a gift like Youth, who woulcl maurear it, impatiently abuse it and afi it stqnds for, as dull, restricting, unrealistically elemental? In the words of the song, "There is a time lor every purpose under Heaven." _Youth is a purpose, and should have its time. Youth assumes inlinitely more value alter it has passed. So see it for what it is, and cherish it; you oniy have it once. C,M,B.