YOUNG PEOPLE'S PROBLEMS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 393, 3 January 1947, Page 7

YOUNG PEOPLE'S PROBLEMS

Secondary Pupils in New 2ZB Session

organising a question andanswer radio session (we imagine ) is for the question-master to spend an hour with Whitaker's Almanac, the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, ot any others of the many handy | devices of erudition so often concealed behind the phrase, "If memory serves." Out of these labours arise such questions as "Is an ampersand an electrical, a typographical, or a gold-dredging fle~vice?" But this time-tested recipe would not work in a new experimental session to be heard shortly from the ZB stations. This, known as The Voice of Youth, is, in a sense, a sort of junior brains trust, but instead of dealing with questions on a series of widely-differing subjects, it is confined solely to matters concerning young people. The idea was thought up by Elsie Lloyd, a member of the staff of the NZBS Production Studios. She arranged for five pupils (three girls and two boys), whose ages range from 14 to 17 years, to be selected from three Wellington secondary schools. A qualification was ability to present a cross-section view of some problems encountered by youth when considering the future. A master at one of the colleges was asked to be chairman and then came the making of recordings at the studios. The other day a staff reporter of The Listener was invited to a pre-audition. Lap routine technique for

The chairman opened the session by asking: Do you think your father and mother should decide your careers for you? Everybody spoke at once-the question interested them keenly. One girl said No, quite emphatically. Parents, she maintained, could guide their children to a certain extent, but a young person’s ideas changed with the years. She herself wanted to be a_ schoolteacher, and even ii her parents didn’t approve, well, she would still be a teacher. A boy’s turn came. If he wanted to go to sea and his parents objected, what would he do? He, too, was definite-he would go to sea, if the sea really called him. Another of the girls thought all boys and girls should be perfectly free to go their several ways. But she qualified that-parents helped with their money and, after all, it was their money. Here the chairman took a hand. "Yes," he said, "but remember, too, it’s your life." Just Ordinary People Then the panel were asked if they would look for exciting jobs. One answer was that they were all just ordinary people who liked an ordinary life, with its comforts; but they should listen to what their parents had to say. And most agreed that the best time of all to decide on a career was when taking the intermediate school course. Tersely one

_- of the girls reminded the others: When you are parents yourselves, just remember what you are saying now. For radio purposes the experiment is interesting in its unusual style of presen‘tation and its freshness. It becomes even

more so as such topics as co-education in secondary schools, how much pocketmoney should be allowed (and the purposes to which it should be applied), and the qualities necessary in a good schoolteacher, are discussed. The first episode of The Voice of Youth will be heard from Stations 2ZB and 3ZB on Sunday, January 19, at 7.0 p.m. and 1.0 p.m. respectively; and from 1ZB, 4ZB and 2ZA on later Sundays.