1970-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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117 Secondary Education Mashpee students attending grades seven and eight are housed in the Lyle Junior High School on Otis Air Force Base under the direction of the Bourne School Committee. Here they are receiving an excellent education. Our young people in grades nine through twelve are at= tending High School in Falmouth. We are very proud of their accomplishments and the first rate education they are receiv- ing. My Concern For Young People Everywhere, Are The "Skids Being Greased?" A wise and grizzled old farmer once remarked as he read the newspaper account of a delinquent's most recent esca- pade, "Joey always rode a fast sled — but his Ma and Pa sure greased the skids." I was an adolescent then, and the words teen-agers and delinquent were not in the everyday vocabu- lary. During the ensuing years, for many of which I have been an educator, I have remembered the old man's words; and they have assumed provoking and deep dimensions as I observe and relate to the young men and women of our tur- bulent society. Are the Ma and Pa of today greasing the skids with per- missiveness, overindulgence, and the equally disastrous pat- terns of overprotection or rejection? As an educator, I must answer that they well might be doing just that — if they have substituted apathy for interest, lenience for control, or the role of pal for that of parent. The economics of the household seem to have little im- pact on the parents permissiveness, for the chaotic violence of teens in the slum streets is matched by the frenzied orgies of moreriviled ed p g young people at fashionable beach and ski resorts. In both instances, parents know that their chil- dren are not at home. They have, in fact, abandoned them to the whim and caprice of a youthful band bent on anti- social behavior. Some of the well-groomed, well-dressed youngsters who appear before the educator have empty eyes and sometimes equally empty lives. They often have an automobile but no companionship, a stereo but no standards of behavior, and an expensive house that will never approximate a home. These Young people are skilled in verbalizing and rationalizing;