Youth Council Research Articles

Children's rights: developments and prospects

SummaryThe decade since International Year of the Child has witnessed a variety of suggestions and initiatives to promote the rights of children. Proposals for ombudswork with children, a Minister for Children, a Children's Congress, a Children's Rights Officer, a Youth Charter and Youth Councils are each critically assessed. It is argued that the forthcoming Convention on the Rights of the Child may prove less effective in winning rights for children than its advocates imagine. The author concludes that rights for children are less likely to be achieved by adopting any specific group of reforms, than by acknowledging and supporting the principle that, wherever possible, children should be encouraged to make decisions for themselves and act on their own behalf

Last of the Breed by Louis L’Amour

84 Western American Literature One interviewee, Gerald Wilkinson, Director of the National Indian Youth Council, sets forth Steiner’s thesis aptly when he observes that, from the Indian perspective, the dominant thrust of American culture appears as “a perversion of life . . . a cancer.” He predicts that the white man will soon render the earth unfit for habitation in the manner to which Western people aspire. Only those, like the Hopi and others who are willing to work with nature by scrupulously replenishing whatever is taken, will be capable of sur­ viving the coming ecological Armageddon. So once again we turn to the American natives for a disinterested, non­ western perspective upon what really lies in the pot at the end of the rainbow of the American philosophy of unlimited material growth. One hopes (faintly) that the formulators of American political and economic policy might be more responsive to the signals of coming self-destruction than are cancer cells in a dying patient. Otherwise Steiner will remain a voice crying unheard in the wasteland we seem so determined to create as our monument to the future. JACK L. DAVIS University of Idaho Last of the Breed. By Louis L’Amour. (New York: Bantam Books, 1987. 366 pages, $3.95.) In this novel of a great escape across Siberia, Louis L’Amour writes a fascinating page-turner that shows both his strengths and his weaknesses. His hero is Joe Makatozi, major in the U. S. Air Force, test pilot of some of our most advanced aircraft, and a Sioux Indian. Besides flying military aircraft, Joe is skilled in bow-hunting, arrow-head-making and trapping, and he is devoted to wilderness life. From the above description you can re-create the plot. Joe Mack, as his friends call him, is kidnapped to Siberia by the Soviet military to be grilled for information, but he promptly escapes. In the year that follows, all through the terrible sixty-below winter and many adventures, Joe is escaping, killing his pursuers, falling in love with beautiful Natalya, head of an outlaw band, and attempting to re-enact the Indian migrations across the Bering Strait. L’Amour’s great skill is his ability to create interesting plot, fast-moving action, many surprising twists and turns, short chapters with dramatic crises at the end of each, and a somewhat believable picture of Siberia today. The main problem with the novel in literary terms is that the hero, though he grows admirably in ability to physically survive, seems to learn nothing from all his suffering. If anything, he regresses to a lower, more savage level of understanding, which is perhaps L’Amour’s basic point about tribal-warrior life. Or any kind of warrior life. Reviews 85 Yet the book does what many more literary works (like House Made of Dawn) fail to do: interest you immediately and hold you to the last page. And of course L’Amour arranged it so that a sequel is clearly possible, if Joe decides to return to the Soviet Union to get revenge on Colonel Zamatev—his already-ruined military intelligence kidnapper—which Joe has sworn to do. STARR JENKINS Cal Poly State University The Treble V: The Legacy of a Cattle Baron of the Old West. By R. Guild Gray. (New York: Vantage Press, 1986. 669 pages, $18.95.) The Treble V is the ambitious chronicle of a ranching family in north­ eastern Nevada, near the present town of Elko. Beginning in the mountain man era and ending in 1937, the novel spans six generations. Most of the action takes place from 1848 to 1898, and the book includes a great deal of interesting historical detail about Nevada’s evolution as a territory and state. Furthermore, the book shows a good sense of the Great Basin country—the natural environment and man’srelation to it. In order to enjoy these pleasant features, the reader must push through vast drifts of flawed writing. The proofreading is shameful, with scores and scores of typographical errors. This may account for some of the negligent punctuation, but there are also numerous distracting errors in the basic use of apostrophes, semicolons, and commas. Beyond that, there...

A MELUS Interview: Luci Tapahonso

The middle one of eleven children, Tapahonso was born in Shiprock, New Mexico where her family still lives on a farm three miles from the town up on the north mesa. In speaking of her early years (in the biographical statement in her first book of poems, One More Shiprock Night, published in 1981 by Tejas Art Press) she says: know that I cannot divide myself or separate myself from that place my home, my land, and my people. And that realization is my security and my mainstay in my life away from there. After attending school at the Navajo Methodist Mission in Farmington, thirty miles from Shiprock, she graduated from Shiprock High School in 1971, served in 1974 on the Board of Directors of the Phoenix Indian Center, and took part in a training program for investigative reporting at the National Indian Youth Council. In 1976 she began studying journalism at the University of New Mexico but switched her major to English after studying with Leslie Silko, graduating in 1980. Currently a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, she is pursuing a Doctorate in Modern Literature. Married to Earl Ortiz, an artist whose drawings illustrate her first volume, she is the mother of two daughters, Lori and Misty Dawn. Her second volume of poems, Seasonal Woman, was published in 1982 by Tooth of Time Press with illustrations by the internationally known Native American Artist R. C. Gorman. In his review of that book, (published in Volume 11, Numbers 3 & 4 of The Greenfield Review), Floyce Alexander writes: Luci Tapahonso's Seasonal Woman establishes the presence of a new and potentially important voice among younger American poets. For Tapahonso, he goes on to say, as for her people, the human spirit survives through remembering a 'common history' that rooted in the heart long before the white man's invasion and desecration of the continent. Like so much of the powerful poetry now being written by young Native American writers, Tapahonso's work tells the truth.

Holtzman Inkblot Technique scores of delinquent adolescents: a replication and extension.

The Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) was administered to 83 male juvenile delinquents, ranging in age from 13 to 16 years (mean age: 15.2 years), who were being detained at the Texas Youth Council Reception Center. Scores from 22 HIT variables scored were factor-analyzed and then compared with Megargee's pioneering normative HIT study of juvenile delinquents published in 1965. Results of the two investigations were strikingly similar, reinforcing Megargee's finding that norms for nondelinquent adolescents are not appropriate for use with a confined delinquent group. Important differences were discovered, however, and these are discussed.

Jackson, Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle and Schism.

This is the gripping story of the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, told by one of its foremost activists, John R. Salter Jr. In 1961 Salter, then a teacher at Tougaloo Southern Christian College, the private and almost entirely African American school just north of the state capital, became the adult advisor of the North Jackson NAACP Youth Council, a post that for lifelong activist Salter blossomed into impassioned involvement in the Jackson movement. The struggle for civil rights featured some of the bloodiest resistance by a panoply of repressive resources-lawmen, hoodlums, politicians, and vigilantes-but also introduced Salter to the movement's most compelling and important figures, including NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers. Jackson, Mississippi tells the riveting story of their campaigns to abolish Jim Crow, including a committed and courageous economic boycott of Jackson that was instrumental in the desegregation of the capital's business district. A fierce and passionate retelling of frontline stories from a cultural revolution, Jackson, Mississippi is a vivid snapshot of the Deep South in the 1960s and a testament to the brilliant, dangerous, and historic actions of the civil rights activists there.

YOUTH EVANGELIZATION IN THE GDR

International Review of MissionVolume 69, Issue 274 p. 189-193 YOUTH EVANGELIZATION IN THE GDR Jörg Swoboda, Jörg Swoboda Pastor Jörg Swoboda, Youth Secretary of the Baptist Union (GDR), is an evangelist, singer and songwriter as well as vice-president of the European Baptist Federation Youth committee and member of the Ecumenical Youth Council of the GDR. Translation by CWME from the German.Search for more papers by this author Jörg Swoboda, Jörg Swoboda Pastor Jörg Swoboda, Youth Secretary of the Baptist Union (GDR), is an evangelist, singer and songwriter as well as vice-president of the European Baptist Federation Youth committee and member of the Ecumenical Youth Council of the GDR. Translation by CWME from the German.Search for more papers by this author First published: April 1980 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1980.tb01347.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume69, Issue274April 1980Pages 189-193 RelatedInformation

Appalachia Is A State Of Mind

Appalachia Is A State Of Mind Voices in the night are speaking I hate to go home things are changing too fast. Appalachia? I've heard tell of that/ place Where is home, anyway? "It's a place that when you go there they have to take you in . . ." America's heart/land What is this about heart? July This unique region (now in transition) was perhaps walked over in pioneer days .... hut neglected as industrial development. No roads. The people there are "backward." Their English speech is quaint . . . they be undereducated, under employed, undernourished . . . December Hand gives way to machine I am remembering "home from my days in Harlan County, Kentucky .... and when it gets very, very cold my bones remember things of which I can not now speak. Maybe it is the fear of poverty. Perhaps the bone-cold acceptance of death of the dream .... 74 Hope becomes energy It is the heart of America .... And it is the hand .... the remembrance only of wilderness .... the image of the tree's stature overlooking a mountain pass .... river below .... a gap in space and TIME. CUMBERLAND LOOKOUT SEE ROCK CITY In Oak Ridge they told us "the secret" Would make the world safe for our way of life. Wallace Stevens wrote "I placed a jar in Tennessee . . . ." Youth Council for Atomic Crisis. 1940's gave way to 1950's. Don't be so stubborn. Remember the spirit . . . the good old time spirit of Alvin York .... What is good enough for papa is good enough for me October November Forget about the 1960's .... TVA was only an experiment we had to win those wars who remembers the Manhattan project? Government is for the people. 1970 means ethics. The spirit is still there .... Tenacity .... the unwillingness to change no matter how much the will is eroded with the land no matter how much energy is in an atom or coal in a Cumberland seam. A remnant of humanity is left. April And it is in Appalachia. Appahchia is only one thing that happened in the American experiment. Charles Counts Rising Fawn, Georgia 75 There Are Women And Men Plate by Charles Counts 76 ...

Using Teen-agers To Supplement Casework Service

In a variety of settings, current social work practice reflects the effective use of untrained personnel to help agencies implement their services. These untrained workers are frequently full-time employees who have undergraduate de grees.1 Thus, volunteers who are used usually are mature adults with experience and/or training. However, in Champaign, Illinois, a joint agency project, co-sponsored by a teen-age youth council and a school social work department, conducted an experimental program, using teen-agers to supplement casework service.2 Superficially the pro gram was similar to Big Brother programs known in many communities, but in Champaign it was the teen-ager who served as a Pal to a youngster. This program, however, was developed as part of a pro fessional social work service, and the goals and structure were carefully defined using fundamentals of social work practice. The protection of the client and the maintenance of standards are of great importance in all social work agen cies and, in defining the role of the non professional, the conscious differentiation between organizational and professional is crucial. Organ izational controls are those which are de

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Its Strategy

In the fifty-odd years of its existence, the NAACP has become a major American institution. It functions at the center of the civil rights revolution as a day-to-day pressure group in much the same manner as do the other civil rights forces. Based on a pervasive and generally vigorous national structure of branches, youth councils, and college chapters operating in every state and spearheaded by a headquarters staff and a number of field offices, the Association can bring to bear both a collective national weight and individual local forces upon every facet of the Negro's fight for equality of citizen ship. The NAACP covers the entire range of civil rights action. Its legal victories and its ceaseless programs of public enlightenment have made major contributions to the revolution in race which we are now witnessing. Through its ranks in one way or another have moved by far the overwhelming majority of today's leaders of the Negro community, including many of those now heading other civil rights groups. It also operates as a source of information and guidance and as a clearing house for government and private organizations and for tens of thousands of the general public who turn to it for assistance every year. It expects to expand its program to include active concern with problems of poverty, retraining, and community orientation.

Delinquents, Their Families, and the Community.

This book is a study of the first five years of the Maximum Benefit Project on delinquency undertaken in 1954 by the Commissioner's Youth Council in the District of Columbia. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, the authors discuss the background, methods, and findings of this project. In the second part, based on their experience in this project, they advocate a different method which they feel would be superior for the treatment of delinquents. The major research question that the authors sought to answer was "Could special services in the school (a) identify children likely to become delinquent and (b) reduce the number of such children who actually become delinquent at a later date?" The authors defined a delinquent as "a child known to the police or court for an act legally defined as 'delinquency' by the particular community." Their definition of treatment was "consisting

The Manhasset Youth Council

The Manhasset Youth Council

Adult Education Program of the NAACP

Adult education implies a furthering of the knowledge of and utilization of those instruments vital to social betterment. It must (a) give information; (b) instruct in the to do and how to live aspects. In the United States, such instruction programs are divided into as many varied phases as people in separate sections of the country demand. The problems of living arising daily gave rise to increased need for the promoting of such instruction. Adult education as a movement can be distinguished from programs outlined by specific national and local organizations in that it deals primarily with individual improvement. The banding together of persons whose goal is selfimprovement and consequently improved standards of group welfare makes any adult education program the outgrowth of people themselves. The special problems and interests of the Negro can readily be utilized as a basis for profitable educational experience. The goal of such instruction is two-fold and must impress not only that designed to promote American ideals, but also goals of special racial interests. Such a program must of necessity include as its counterpart a comparable educational project for majority groups. Instruction in the achievements and maladjustments of the Negro in American life is a preliminary to all interracial understanding. The elements of any adult education program are comprised of a leader, a knowledge of the subject, a methodology for goal achievement. It might seem at first glance that an organization like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People could not be classified as an adult education force. All too frequently associations of this type concern themselves more with sponsoring organizational activity than with spreading information designed to benefit the individual. But the NAACP, as its name implies, not only promotes activities to better the status of the Negro and other minority groups in the body politic, but also provides instruction through group activity which enables individuals to elevate themselves. This qualifies the association as an instrument functioning in the adult education field. The machinery through which the program is carried out consists primarily of the more than 800 local branches, youth councils and college chapters of the association located in 44 states and the District of Columbia. Directing the activity is the national headquarters in New York, the Washington Bureau in the national capital, and, recently, the West Coast regional office in San Francisco. Last winter leadership training conferences were held in New York, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Kansas City, and San Francisco. To these meetings came local leaders,