TEACHING THEIR PARENTS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1451, 28 May 1912, Page 9

TEACHING THEIR PARENTS.

YOU'Hi Of TO-DAY. A tradition lias boon growing up that llio vising generation is pretty hard « !1 the one that ljiprs suporK'.sous, says wriler in the New York "Evening Post." We Inn;; since, of course, got away from tlif coiiiinaiul to cliilih'on to obey their parent*. Xo lathers ami mothers, ex-tlio.-e moving nliont in a world half realised, any longer expect that. 'But there have Ijeen many rumours of darker things. H iV said th.it Die younjr of today are not kind to tlie old. The suggestion, lias even been made that there is need of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Parents. Such is the result of the changed attitude into which we moderns have fallen. The posture which most parents assume towards their children is now distinctly apologetic. "Be as patient as you can with us, for we are doing our best." The old patriarchal spirit is gone, and if anything is inconceivable to our youth it is a religion founded on the worship of ancestors. Their Dsep Compassion. While in all this there is a measure of truth, we are convinced that the charge of deliberate unkiinineS3 cannot fnirly be brought against the young in relation to their elders. Boys and girls pity their fathers • mid mothers, but are not cruel to them. They aro often frank and oven critical with them; that is their duty; but they are not unnecessarily severe. They make earnest efforts to understand them, to get their strange point of view, and never withhold sympathy when they find a parent hopelessly struggling with obsolete ideas. There is much evidence, wo believe, that the young are really sorry for the old. As they know that to comprehend is the first step towards pardoning, they give a great deal of thought to the task of "making out" their parents. The letter naturally suffer in the process. An English mother recently told about her daughter of sixteen bringing home a school friend. After a feu- days of Irving to get on well with the two girls, the lady was surprised to have her daughter say one morning: Dorothy has been telling me site can't make yon out. She doesn't somehow get any further with you. And she doesn't know whether it is that she can't get at rou or whether there's nothing to get at. I toil her there really isn't much to ge't at. What do-you think?"

Such experiences aro inevitably disconcerting to parents, but they do not argue unkindncss on the part of children. They show, rather, how sincerely the young folks endeavour to understand what their parents really think, and what is' their attitude towards a world which is rapidly slipping away from them. This kind of friendly inrerc.it and siirveill.inco is frequently displayed in. regard to <ie readin? and literary preference.-; of parents. Their children do not, of course, read the same books. That would be asking ten much. But they strive honestly to mit themselves in touch with the queer ]»rentiil taste. They cannot share it; (hey are secretly astonished at it; but they do not openly rail at it. "You used to like Browning? How strange and far away that scorns! You thought him obscure'? How funny! Cl-sar enoush, but hardly worth while, I should say." Getting into Touch. Tf • cfti'dess parents are tempted to resent this kind of eims-cxniniiintion by their children, they should stop to think what it really means. It is.not impudence or uiikiudne.-s, but merely the effort to put the ideals of two "generations into juxtaposition. It is a way of delicately conveying to those of I he older generation that the legions have thundered by and left them. That is really a favour. But for the. thougliti'ulness of our children in enlightening us, we should scarcely know what ideas in literature and stnnuanls in art and forces in society and in government are regnant to-day, When tho youii? respectfully differ with, us, it is their forbearing way of helping us to understand the new age. Did we use to bo emotional in our youth? Well, we ought to know that that has gone out. Tho thing to-day is to be passionate—to have great fervours and burning determinations. What about? Why, that is I the verv point. It doesn't much matter whnt about. Only, do not expect the roung to warm over old enthusiasms. They must strike out for themselves. And it is tho duty of the aging to understand -their children are all the time striving: ito make them—that writers once famous must not be prescribed to youth to-day: "Ah!" cried a French student the other day, "how that faux bonhommo Kenan bores us."

A French review recently published" tho results of an "enquete" concerning the ideas and tendencies of young men and women. A groat variety of them was reported, mostly notable for thoiv audacity in- straining'to. be different from wlmt had gone More in literature, in art, in life. But the permanent significance of such opinions nmy l;e doubted. For youth, too, has to face the oncoming years and fated change. Thirty-five docs not always think as it did at twenty; and thnt is one reason why you cannot tell exactly what is going to happen fifteen years from now by asking twenty what it would like to liavo happen, it has been justly said that if you want to know what the "joimcsse" of 11)12 is really going to signify in the world's history, you cannot form « soui'd judgment until about 1930. And then there will be another jouncsse coming along, seeking to be kind to the one that will by that time hare passed into sedate parenthood.