The Mutual and the Adolescent

The Mutual and the Adolescent By E. Cecil McGavin ONE of the most serious questions confronting the present generation is the alarming increase of juvenile crime. In recent weeks the American press has been kept busy recording the ignoble deeds of our young citizens. Never before have the youth of this country attracted such widespread attention and proscription. From every direction comes the cry that our home life is decadent and that the moral ruin of the race is imminent. Reformers are agreed that the only panacea for this evil is a; reconstruction of our home life. Parental supervision has relaxed and the children, during the most important period of their life, are neglected and drift into sin. Surveys made by Elwood and other leading sociologists show that about 75 % of the inmates in reformatory and penal institutions come from abnormal homes, where divorce or death have augmented the forces of disintegration. In these abnormal homes the religious development of the children has been neglected in almost every case. This is a neglect of the most vital factor in the development of character. This condition, however, is prevalent even among the so-called normal homes and partly accounts for the increasing crime wave among the American youth. It is estimated that of 32,000,000 children in the public schools of the United States in 1925, 27,000,000, or 65 % of them, under twenty-five years of age, are not enrolled in any Sunday School and do not receive any systematic religious instruction. Thirteen million of these neglected children are under fifteen years of age. This deplorable condition is productive of juvenile delinquency more than any other single factor. One is almost safe in saying that at this period of life, from 14 to 20 years of age, children must be given religious training else they perish. To the human being no period in life is so full, of import as the years between 14 and 20. When this period begins the person is but a child, with childish thoughts and ambitions. When the era ends he has become a man with the greatest decisions of life already made, with the destiny of his life practically settled. New sensations are at hand. The boy seeks the admiration of his fellows and is likely to form habits to gain their applause. This is the period of life when the demon tobacco will, if possible, fasten his fetters upon the boy and blind him to all things noble. Character develops as fast as cells multiply, hence the moral

Aug.. 1929 THE MUTUAL AND THE ADOLESCENT 831 surroundings must be carefully guarded. This is the storm and stress period when life's moral fiber is being formed. The transformation of chrysalis into butterfly is no more wonderful than the change in the properly directed youth. As the spring sunshine bursts the uncomely bud, adorning it with fragrance and beauty, so nature unfolds within the growing youth those latent qualities which develop into manhood and womanhood. At this same age the desire to form "gangs" and evade the home influence is very strong, but parallel with it is the religious awaken- ing or instinct which must be adequately supplied to insure normal development. Statistics carefully compiled by Geo. A. Coe, com- prising 1,784 cases from all groups of people, denote that the average age of conversion was 16.4 years. G. Stanley Hall studied over 4,000 cases and concluded that the average age of conversion was about 16 years of age. It has been ascertained by numerous investigators, including our modern psychologists, that the average age for highest religious interest is from 12 to 15 years of age. Joseph Smith was a perfectly normal child and as these sen- sations arose within him he sought to satisfy them. He was not yet 15 years old when his religious interest drove him to the grove to pray. At 16 years of age the physical and psychical ferment of adolescence is at its height. More people in the Christian churches of the United States join the church at 1 6 years than at any other age. This religious enthusiasm is merely one of the phenomenal changes common to adolescence. It is no exaggeration to say that the adolescent period is the most important era in the life of an individual. He must be sacredly guided over this perilous part of the journey of life or the teeming energy within will drive the youth into the broad way of sin. At this age the youth stands at the threshold of futurity. The two paths lie before him, the terminals of which he cannot see. It is at this point he makes the supreme decision of life. Where guidance is lacking he is lured by the well-beaten path which leads to regret and despair. At this same age he is very sensitive to impressions which will enable him to build a character that the storms of time cannot undermine. The Y. M. C. A. recently made an extensive survey over the United States and Canada. In almost every case the one special choice which turned the life of the person upward instead of down- ward was made between the ages 14 and 20. Investigation has proved that more people take to criminal

B32 IMPROVEMENT ERA Ac*.. 1929 acts at the age of 20 or under than at any or all periods of theitl life combined. In 1897, the average age for entering prison in the United States was 23 years. In 1924, the average was 21 years. According to the October report of the Prison Commissioner of New York state, in one jail in New York City during the last five years there have been 12,342 males and 1,346 female prisoners between 16 and 24 years of age confined within its walls. The mid-western state Indiana is considered a fair average for the entire United States. In that state over a period of ten years' the average age of conviction, in the six chief classes of serious crimes, was dropped from 31 years in 1915 to 24 years in 1925. Of 6,000 persons arrested in Boston during 1924, 80% of them were minors. A similar study in Omaha reveals the fact that of over 8,000 criminal cases investigated, less than 3% of them had the benefit of religious education. Not long ago a prominent attorney in St. Louis declared that "80% of the criminals coming before the bar are under 30 years of age and most of them are between 16 and 25 years of age." These young people are not in the feeble-minded class, driven by a demented brain, as some people have argued. The inmates of the prisons of the United States are on a par with the mental equip- ment of the American Expeditionary Force. In other words, about average. They are intelligent, ambitious youths whose energies have been misdirected and whose life has been ruined because no guide posts were accessible as they approached the point where the road divides — that point where there is "a highway and a low- way," one of which must be taken. The above cases are taken as typical of the condition existing throughout the United States. Similar cases might be multiplied indefinitely. The following should convince all of the seriousness of this problem in our own vicinity: During one week, a few years ago, ten men were brought before the bar of the Federal Judge in Salt Lake City. They were found guilty of the most heinous crimes, second only to murder. But more appalling than the gravity of the offense was the fact that eight of the guilty were minors. The public attention has been called to this issue as never before. Reformers everywhere are suggesting a solution for the evil. Pres- ident Hoover sees beyond the shameful facts and proposes reform which strikes at the very causes of this terrible condition. Before a convention of the Y. W. C. A. held recently, the president said. "The present day need of the American youth is more home control through parental action. There are too many indications that the functions of parenthood are breaking down. Too many people are neglecting the well-being of their children, shifting the responsibility

Aug., 1929 THE MUTUAL AND THE ADOLESCENT 833 for their actions and turning over supervision of their control and discipline to the juvenile courts. A very large proportion of the outcasts and criminals come from the ranks of those who lost the advantage of normal parental control in their youth." A prominent social worker gives the following solution: "Home earlier in the evenings, more of the fireside frank discussions, and close companionship with the family, is the only salvation for posterity." While the world stands aghast, searching for remedies, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues its efforts to find successful methods of insuring a proper development of youth through religious training. All of the organizations of the Church contribute to this superb character-building, but foremost of all is the Mutual, because of the direct appeal it makes to our youth. The Mutual extends the hand of fellowship to him just as he enters the most perilous period of life. Before he is lured into the "low- way" of life, this organi- zation is placing before him true standards which he can hardly resist. Most adolescents attend sacrament meetings and other religious gatherings reluctantly, but the Mutual has so much to offer that even the careless will usually attend. During this period they desire to associate with the opposite sex. This social aspect, then, is one of the attractions of the Mutual. It not only affords an opportunity of association, but above all1 else, it emphatically teaches the moral code. The M. I. A. has a stimulating appeal to the adolescent. It speaks in terms that he understands and to which he can freely respond with all his faculties. There the youth is fired with a zeal to achieve noble aims, to guard his thoughts and habits and be submissive to parental discipline. The Mutual recognizes the physical and mental changes char- acteristic of puberty and has developed a comprehensive system ade- quately to supply his new desires and direct the teeming energy of his fast-developing body. The individuality of each person is recognized and developed. The dormant talents of the shy, awk- ward youth are improved by the many wholesome activities in which he is encouraged to participate. No matter what his talents are the broad range of expression is sure to find and make use of; them. For this purpose the following activities are featured: Read- ing, dramatics, public speaking, singing and instrumental work. The M Men's organization adds to this list all wholesome forms of physical development. Thus his leisure time is occupied with the best of activity and his energy is spent in healthful recreation. His time is so well occupied with Mutual work that evil desires find no lodgment in his active mind. He realizes that "the idle brain/

834 IMPROVEMENT ERA Aug., 1929 is the devil's workshop," and that through purity of life he is guided by heavenly inspiration. Among the best remedial prescriptions for the improvement of the young generation is the one quoted above, "Home earlier in the evenings, more of the fireside frank discussions and closer com- panionship with the family is the only salvation for posterity.' This same point of view was in the minds of the leaders of the Church when the Weekly Home Evening was instituted to allow all members of the family to partake of the "fireside frank discus- sions." This occasion affords the parents a good opportunity to discuss confidentially the problems of the rapidly changing youth and impress upon them the advantages of good friends and books. The parent is not left to his own resources in the selection of ap- propriate books for that particular age. The Mutual, in its wisdom, has instituted reading courses which supply the public with the most wholesome and invigorating books on the market. During the adolescent years a good book is a powerful character builder. Moreover, the bond of sacred companionship between parent and child has been strengthened by the Fathers and Sons' Outing, and the Mothers and Daughters' Outing. On such excursions into the beauties of Nature, the parent becomes better acquainted with his child, and in the sylvan depths of "God's first Temple," can impress upon his responsive soul his responsibility to God and to his fellow-men. As the philosopher Kant was "filled with awe by the starry heavens," so, too, under the same scintillating canopy the vibrating strings of the human heart are in tune with the voice Divine. Of equal value in character training is the practical instruc- tions of the Bee-Hive and Camp Fire Girls organizations. The M. I. A. occupies a most enviable and strategic position for adolescent guidance. The creditable achievements of its eventful years of existence bespeak its divinity in terms which even our unbelieving world must recognize. If all the youth of America were members of the Mutual the problem before the states would be the enlargement of institutions of learning, not the present problem of establishing more institutions of reform. The Mutual does not take the responsibility from the home, but supplements it, and constantly reminds the parents of their obligation as made known by the voice of revelation: "Inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or any of her stakes which are organized, and that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ, the Son of the living God> and of baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents.

THE MUTUAL AND THE ADOLESCENT 835 "And they shall also teach their children to pray and walk uprightly before the Lord." This is the secret of the unequaled success of the Church ofi Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the training of their youth. One of the greatest agencies engaged in character building is the* Mutual. Scout Director Oscar A. Kirkham expressed the thoughts of thousands of conscientious Mutual workers when he recently de- clared, "It found me. It blessed me. It gave me opportunity for my best work and has graciously rewarded me with my greatest joys." Wanted — A Self-Starter He came at 8 p. m., and said He couldn't stay a minute. At first he wouldn't take a chair, At last he settled in it. He talked until the clock proclaimed It was eleven-twenty, He rose, with hat in hand, remarked, "Well, I have stayed a-plenty." I thought by that he soon would go, But there he kept me standing, Expatiating on his views, His theories expanding. I gave the most polite replies Which made him more loquacious, And finally said not a word, But inwardly, good gracious! I napped at intervals, but woke To murmur, "please excuse me," But till the clock struck one, this man Continued to abuse me. Self-starters grace the motor cars, Let us begin a movement To have long callers fitted out With this unique improvement. Elsie Paul