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The Brussels Post, 1975-10-22, Page 7114E BRUSSELS 0Ott, Oettititit Children's Aid banquet Resist end of 'childhood, speaker tells CAS iy at °nil riends area will 'lrs. G1 tin Univem 3rdon m k at Sault of Mr, r has rettm g for a home Phi Toronto Mrs. Bete Sheffield, i of Br n Toronto with her dfoot spel t the home .Parquhar pringall has be ome of anor Lep udie. -orge Suth eauly, In and Mr. a ngersoll I Mrs. Wal clothes; their own music, their own mythologies,' the speaker continued, 'In turn, the older youngsters began to capture the }ninds and the hearts of children, who shared the same existential territory.' John Plumb put it this way: 'We can now look back with' , longing to the late medieval world, when, crude and simple as it was, men and women and children lived their lives together, shared the same morals as well as the same games, the same excesses, 'as well as the same austerities. In essence, youth today is rebelling agaihst 400 years of. repression and exploi- tation.' Essentially split-level familes, not only split-level homes,' the speaker said. Dr. Morgenson deplored the 'regimented playtime, the lack of opportunities for what he called wasteland experiences and the repression of imagination in today's formula for childhood. `Perhaps technology, that opiate of the people, has come close to killing beauty, .holiness, mystery and innocence,' Dr. Morgenson said. 'These are things which I find most beautiful in children. In sum, perhaps science has killed the innocence of children, and come close to killing childhood. Kids, if this it true, may be trying to avoid their own childhood's end by their flight into unreason, Where they can preserve magic innocence.' Dr. Morgenson went on to say If you get an envelope of Christmas, seals in the mail this week and wonder if someone has set the clock ahead a month and you haven't noticed, relax. Because of the threat of a mail strike, the Huron Perth Lung Association mailed out their seals a couple of weeks early, Mrs. Beryl Davidson, director of the organization said. Christmas seals are the society's annual fund raising method. 'For nothing is;fixed forever pd forever; it is not, fixed. The arth is always shifting, the light always changing, the sea does t cease to grind down the rock, enerations do not cease to be rn, and we are responsible to em because they are the only tnesses we have. The sea rises, elight fails, lovers cling to each her .and the children cling to The moment we cease to hold h other, the moment we break 'th with each other, the sea gulfs us and the light goes out' James Baldwin With this remark, Dr. Donald orgenson, Professor of Psycho- gy at Wilfred Laurier University Waterloo, summed up his dress to the guests at the iron County Children's , Aid nquet held inClinton Thursday ening, Dr. Morgenson's topic was hildhood'sEnd' and dealt with rights and privileges of ldren in any society. In a morons but explicit way, Dr. orgenson defined childhood as marvellously carefree period of e to which all are entitled-and en went on to explain how the uth of today is rebelling against ociety which often denies them t kind of upbringing. 'It is a fact that many years ago 'Idren were an integral part of alt family life, but ,Ave have , n over the past 400 years a dual but sure isolaton process erring, where we have pushed in gently into a world almost fly devoid of adults,' Dr. rgenson said. 'Slowly but rely we have forced them to ate a world of their owrt. No rider then, as John Plumb has in the winter Horizon, (1971) y have made that world a del of rebellion. speaker pointed out that cient paintings and writings stto the fact that in times long it, children lived their lives ether with adults. They were r really apart from them. y ate with them, . drank with m, partied with them, played h them. e pointed out that famous clings such as the Battle tween Carnival and Lust 59), the Peasant Wedding 68); and The Peasant Dance 68) by Bruegl showed 'men women drunk out of their Is, groping for each other unbridled lust' having child- eating, drinking and playing t along with the adults. hildren were not thought . as airing a special or sometimes lie environment,' Dr. Mor- on said. 'They were not light to require special enter- meat, special clothes ) (except site would dictate), nor was it tight necessary to isolate them the very sophisticated ribal- sof adult life, in the tavern or home,' fter1500, the speaker told his ItlIce, society and the whole tern world needed highly red and highly trained men for melte) law, medicine, mess, Science and technology 'n to invade more and Mae of le life; church life, commer- )fe and finally farnily life. Horn about 1800 onward,' Dr. genson stated,'these needs easingly dominated man's 'ties in Western society, the 4614 growth of technology 'Wed more prolonged lilted- and extenive 0:ideation. this °Iiged education Slowly but ly separated children, and rict ts from the adult 18' Olingtets rather naturally, I'd a world of their oWti 'rag, one that inthrporated *it Morals, their bWtt that in his opinion, adults may also be resisting their childhood's end, but in a slightly different way. Look at styles today, clearly reminiscent of past years, irre- coverably lost decades,' the speaker said. 'Books, such as catalogues orininally published years and years ago, representing a lost world, lost relationships etc. Home designs, decorations, the entire world possibly sickened by a hopelessness in today's world, would like to take that fatal step into the past where things were clearly more human, more innocent, more childlike.' `Youngsters of today appear to be more controlled and inhibited, fearing expressiveness,' Dr. Morgenson observed. 'They tend to intellectilalize many things, apiCarently somewhat afraid of being human. They are con. sidered by many to be pseudo- mature, cool, detached, emotion- ally bankrupt and completely bored. They are also developing a self-centered intellectua lism.' Factors which may have contri- buted to this state of affairs may be the bomb and the over- whelming technology of the age; mass media which the professor says has made hypocrites of many world leaders; affluence; depres- sion-bred parents; and the fact that kids have been exiled to a world where there are 'few adults to rap with, few adultsto identify with'. `They simply are not as color ful, lively, flamboyant, easy- "We're not rushing our sup- porters, we're just rushing on account of a possible strike," she said. Ordinarily the seals are sent out in early November, she said. If the threatened strike hap- pens, and if it continues for a long time, Mrs. Davidson said, the national office of the lung associ- ation was asking chartered banks and trust companies to accept donations to the Christmas seal compaign. going as former youngsters may have been,' Dr. Morgenson feels. `Marty of our kids have not ldarned to play with easy aband- on, so that even their pursuit of pleasure seems frenetic and forced. `In short, they are prematurely mature, sober, appearing as adolescents who have skipped childhood and as you/1g adult who have somehow . skipped adole- scence. Some play at love but without really experiencing the intimacy' and devotion which most often sustains love in mature relationships.' _Tracing his own childhood from endless kite flying through sand- lot sports to marbles from dawn to dusk and hiking with friends for days and days, Dr. Morgenson added, 'My potential in those days concerned no one, but me occasionally. We were free to do what we wanted. If the world worries about me at all today, it is because of the possibility that -I might live too long:' He urged his audience to resist childhood's end. `Our salvation appears to lie in our dreams,' the. profeSsor said. `The child who is the dreamer, the dawdler, the mystic, will be able to rekindle the human imaginations and rekindling of imagination is vital today.' He said• that in this age of change and challenge, people are sorely tempted by two forces-love r - I ZIP ELECTRIC CONTRACTING Residential, Commercial Industrial liteurafels, Ont.. Pb. 8$7.N Prop. WAYNE GRUBS' MEMO IMIMI WOW for the new and a flight from responsibility. `I certainly hope that the Children's Aid Societies of Ontario can successfully resist enshrining the new, repudiate the old and -tested tradition and I hope that 'also professional child care workers of the CAS will remain models for other adults in our society who have lost their parental concern a Dr ' Morgenson concluded. Save money! Cut taxes!. with a Registered Retirement Savings Plan aceummtilating at Member Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation. .WCIORIA and VG TRUST COMPANY SINCE 1889 W.W.Cousins, Manager Listowel, Ontario Christmas seals mailed early I Parker Plumbing & Heating, 887-6079