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that these teen-agers did not turn
out worse than they did!
It is a rule that children absorb
the values and imitate the behavior
of their providers.
lt
is a rare thing,
for example, to find a child who has
been lied to over a period of time
who does not líe himself.
Child psychiatrist Dr. Joseph D.
Noshpitz, the former director of the
National Jnstitute of Mental Health
in Washington, D.C., has com–
mented: "Children leam their mo–
rality and ethics by taking in the
model that the parents set for them.
The very little ones leam by imita–
tion ... they suck up behavior like
vacuum cleaners, taking in the dross
with the gold, the parental problems
side by side with their virtues. We
know that the conscience tends to
get established as a going concern in
the personality sometime around
age
5
or 6 ... it's not just what we
tell them to believe that gets built
in; it's the total experience of mom
and dad."
Unhealthy School Environment
Unfortunately, our neighbor–
hoods and communities, instead of
ameliorating the problems triggered
in the home, al! too often compound
the errors begun in the borne.
Many public schools are allowed
to become overcrowded, and the in–
dividual student is sadly neglected.
Children receive the same dehu–
manized treatment and rejection at
school that they get at home! Jn–
stead of teaching children how to
succeed in life, which should be
their primary objective, these
schools only accelerate children to
the next grade because of age rather
than achievement.
lf a child does not conform to the
usual standards, he or she is made
to feel unwanted. When a youngster
gets into serious trouble, school offi–
cials understandably tend to look
for a legal way to expel him. But
very often this only helps lead the
child down the path ofdestruction.
From the time a child is 6 until he
PLAIN TRUTH September 1973
is 16, he will have spent approxi–
mately 15,000 hours at school being
"taught." But as a result of trying to
pour every child into a single aca–
demic mold, we have short-changed
a large segment of our developing
juvenile population.
Underprivileged students, scarred
by early experiences at home, often
develop learning problems. They
need understanding, patience and
extra help at school
if they are to
progress and become strong citizens.
But most slum schools have little to
offer their students except poorly
trained teachers, outdated text–
books, lack of compassion, and
poorly administered discipline be–
cause of little or no parental cooper–
a tion. The school experience only
further alienates the children, hard–
ening them in defiance and rebel–
lion.
l
have come in contact with many
public school officials in the lower
socio-economic areas. Sorne of them
admitted to me privately that they
simply did not have the trained
staff, the programs nor the money to
properly educate most delinquent
youths.
Most slum schools have become
jumping-off points into delinquency
and crime. Alcohol, drugs, gam–
bling, and illicit sex are readily
available on or near the school
grounds. Many youngsters are
mugged, robbed or intimidated on
their way to or from school. Many
feel the only way to survive is to
drop out ofschool or jo
in
a gang.
Unhealthy City Environments
A third aspect of the problem lies
in the frustration and hopelessness
of big city, ghetto-like communities.
Studies by Henry D. McKay,
chief of the Division of Community
Studies, Institute for Juvenile Re–
search, Chicago, dramatically show
that it is in the inner city that delin–
quency rates have traditionally been
highest, regardless of what popu–
lation group dwells there.
Most Polish, ltalian, Spanish or
YOUTH
counsels with his social case
worker obout future releose and reha–
bilitation in society.
Irish ghettos have had quite a bit in
common with black ghettos - high
unemployment, poverty, crime,
filth, poor diets. But the black
ghettos have lacked one thing that
all the others had: a stable home
with pride in and recognition of an
ancestral cultural heritage.
I have talked to many poor, black
teen-agers and adults about em–
ployment opportunities, housing
conditions, and crime. And 1 can tell
you that the majority of them have
lost faith
in
the established system
of justice. Sorne can cite docu–
mented cases
to
substantiate their
claim that the poor, and especially
the blacks, have not been given
equal opportunity and justice - not–
withstanding a few isolated cases.
The poor realize they can't afford
to pay high-powered attomeys, who
have powers of persuasion with the
courts, to defend them or to get
them off on legal technicalities.
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