Living in my father's house

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12 THE THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL REYNOLDS LECTURE little place for the white sympathizer The efforts to change the draft system failed The attempt to dramatize by public action the moral and political questions in the Vietnamese War have not moved the nation closer to peace The new mood is to carry the dissent the debates the influence to small groups in which the individual has intimate relationships and can organize the group for persuasive action and steps directed to change On the college campus there is much concern about rules and regulations affecting the private lives of the student There are demands that students share in policy-making There are on-going public evaluations of teaching and teachers There are pressures within the colleges and universities that no discriminatory practices based on race creed or color be permitted and that special actions to bring the underprivileged into positions of equality be undertaken There are student-faculty-initiated projects directed toward increased faculty time for tutoring aggressive action to provide adequate housing lower admission standards for the poorly educated proportionate sharing in scholarships and financial aids based upon race creed and poverty and allotment of student leadership positions for the Negro or other underprivileged groups This grass roots level of action issignificant change We sce it happening in our cities and smaller communities It is one of the most hopeful signs we have that Everyman is turning his love and care toward his neighbor to make him equally strong and able to share in the rewards of this highly advanced technological society jig My fatherhouse has no beginning and no end -yet is ever new How is it possible that there could be such differences among us Are not our children brought up by us Did we not set their personalities and characters by the time they were six or seven years old Most Ameri cans would answer these questions in the affirmative Yetbelieve most of us are bewildered by the product of our efforts not only by the occasional imperfections but also by the brilliance and excellence It would be reassuring if we could claim credit for the good but not the bad in our children The truth however is that we as older adults are only partly responsible for the sons and daughters of today Responsibility for upbring ing is less and less in the home and under the control of parents not because parents care less about their children but because conditions of contemporary daily life do not permit it It may be helpful to our understanding of the youth of today and their feclings if we review some of the social changes in our society that have taken place in the past forty or fifty years and speculate as to their consequences Digital image 2008 University of Utah All rights reserved