An Alarming Spectacle?

How do American children look to outsiders? Last week, after an eight-week tour of the U.S., Sir Basil Henriques, one of Britain's top authorities on juvenile delinquency and longtime chairman of the East London Juvenile Court, gave some friendly but blunt answers. Among his observations on U.S. juvenile delinquency:

P: "I sat in courts all over the country. On almost every occasion there was at least one case more serious than I ever had to deal with in England during 33 years on the bench."

P: "It should not be left to the discretion of a policeman whether to make an arrest or let the child go. Such power in the hands of a policeman may lead to serious abuses. Suppose a boy steals. His parents manage to make restitution. Or the frantic mother goes to any length to persuade the officer to overlook the offense. Or the case is dealt with by voluntary agencies. That couldn't happen in England. There, if a boy is caught, he must come before the court. That is bet ter, both for society and for the boy. Juvenile delinquency is a moral disease. In England the delinquent goes direct to the 'doctor.' Here you go to a quack . . . By the time the boy reaches the doctor, he's got double pneumonia."

P: "I have so frequently heard, of someone in a youth group, or someone helping youngsters to use their leisure time, 'Oh, he isn't trained,' or 'She isn't a trained social worker,' said in a tone of contempt. I'm sick to death of trained social workers! I don't mind how many degrees, nor how many hours and years someone has worked for those degrees! What good is he if he hasn't an understanding heart?"

P: "Television is the pernicious poison of America. I find nothing but shooting, prison scenes, divorces, teen-age girls going wrong. You can just twiddle on it any time of day or night. It doesn't give children time to read, or think, or dream."

P: "Oh yes, I did want to speak of that new kind of discipline we both have, that is to be found in some of the so-called-heaven only knows why--progressive schools. What a most dangerous thing we are doing for our children, to let them go into a class that that morning calls for arithmetic--and that morning, the child doesn't feel like arithmetic. Who does for heaven's sake? So instead of doing the job anyway, he goes and makes puppets or something. We are not teaching, must because I ought,'but the most dangerous doctrine of 'I see, I want, I take.' "

P: "Here you have the alarming spectacle of parents being terrified of their children Instead of using their paternal and maternal instincts, parents rely on cheap books about psychiatry--which they don't understand--and are afraid to repress the child. The result is that the child runs the home."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.