Unfinished business; Time Out for Re-Creation - Program 6

I'm off for the game. Good bye John don't mean a okay Mom. Right back up don't forget mom. Tomorrow night's my night for the teenage girl. Yes and tonight Dad is bowling. And tomorrow night Michael. Me. Well aren't you glad we all have something to do. Surely Mary. But we're not doing much as a family. I'd like some family life. Alice has her dance class and Harry is why I am. Why can't we have our recreation together. Our Unfinished Business A series of programs tape recorded designed to acquaint you with your welfare problems produced by the State University television and radio center in cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcasters. Today's

unfinished business time for recreation. Many families today know that home life is breaking down because of the various pulls on different members of the family from the outside. We deplore this break up in family living and yet such a steamed agencies as the school the church and so called Character building agencies seem to be most guilty of trying to attract individuals from the home to recreational activity with regard to family living. Some of these agencies are however becoming conscious of this error and are at least trying to arrange for programs that the whole family can enjoy at the same time. Listen to the head of one of these agencies as he shows us around his building on a typical Sunday. How we're located now in the gymnasium of the center. During the time that the Pawnee league basketball is in operation. The thing that we're interested in here is the family approach to

recreation and the kind of thing that we're talking about is whether or not you find activities at the center here are such that you have a chance to come with your children to activities here and on what kind of basis that you have. It seems like the centers chock full of activities there's always something going on it's like a three ring circus. I might say that our family enjoys every minute that's open for the family itself. Different age groups. Incidentally this agency executive pointed out to us that his agency's basketball program aims to offer the opportunity to participate in every game to every boy interested in playing basketball regardless of his ability or of what the score is at the time of the substitution. Every boy enrolled must be given the opportunity to play at least three minutes in every game. They aim to develop not champions but well-rounded boys. Let us go with him now to the swimming pool in his agency.

We are now located at the center of a swimming pool where each Sunday afternoon is family afternoon I'd like. Now to. Ask one of the fathers standing change to say a few words about some of the things which he does at the center and that brings his family here. Thanks Mary. Well I come over every Sunday. Plus the time stored away now on Sunday. It's always a ritual around 2:00 to get over here with. The. Kids. Around here. She's 12 years old. Jeffrey here he's eight years old. And. We always have fun time for Jeffrey and Alan has a dancing class with Mr Blue. I saw him. First in the afternoon at around 3:30 4:00 I joined my son he was swimming and I joined him to go swimming also always found that people swimming about. It's a week in the winter for us for the four of. Us. Paul I'd like to ask you a question or two about. Your family recreation I noticed here you're here with your young.

Son. Yeah how is one year and. A HALF. Naturally here. You have three in here the warming over there. I have one six and. Eight. And then I'm going on here 15 year in a hand here. You frequently come over here. For family swimming yet again. Yeah. Yeah. We wonder. What. Your reaction to. A programmer of the whole family can participate at one time I think. That we appreciate a mile of the beach. You know some of the family. May still not be. Identical. The children go yes we can all hold together as. The. Relationship between you and your children. Will have everything the. Wholesome programs of recreation draw the members of the family together as nothing else

can. Now we don't mean to imply that all of this burden rests upon social agencies. The family itself can plan families centered recreation such as family picnics auto trips as a group family vacationing and so forth. But in addition there should be careful planning together by community agencies aimed at building up the solidarity of the home and we will still need specialized services from our community centers for individual members of the family such as boys and girls camps scouting dramatics and the like. Speaking of camp some family camps are operated for those of low income taking mothers and their children away from the hot streets of the city for a really refreshing experience. Listen. Well it's hard to really show him up. The reason why I really like to go to camp. It's a very reasonable in fact a free vacation. I have three small runs and I don't have to prepare their meals and I

don't have to wash the dishes afterwards or clean up the dirty kitchen and are now it's just wonderful. Right it gets us a rope from the best of the city and there are so many things that camper our for us for the children to do out there. You've written down your impressions of it can't marry your everyone are equals. Each camera chooses the activities he likes best to do and there are many to choose from. Some I might mention are hiking swimming clay modeling other crafts and in lore and others. One thing I believe every camper enjoys no matter what their age is council ring. I know you would have to agree this is in an inspiring experience. It seems even now I can see the campfire and smell that wonderful phrase odor that only the great outdoors can give. Yes there should be more family camps but there are year round

needs for each member of every family. Very often when the home fails to meet those needs recreational agencies must step in to direct the excess energy of boys and girls into wholesome channels. This cannot always be done by mass recreation. It often requires personalised an individualized service to small groups. Trained leaders have to be aware of the needs of each member of the group they lead to a guy and his leader for example. Mr. Arnold I'm going to quit the team a guy you don't want to do that there are only three games left so why not finish the season. No I can't take it. I've got a cold I've lost my appetite. It's been that way for two weeks. Well Guy we don't want to make you play if you're sick but I wonder how the other fellows on the team will take it. That's why I didn't quit before I was afraid they'd Razmi more Never razzing body a guy. Yeah it does. I can't help it that I'm so short. Not as big as they are.

Take that last time we played right away or that they really think Sonny Boy are only real right now to play no more. I played as good a game as you guys I can find. Boy what about the status channel. Let's forget about the team for that guy. What would. Those deal Mike to do. Well. Hey that's Benny Goodman is live. Now think it is Guy do you like music like it. You bet I can play the drums Didn't you ever hear me. No kidding guy you play drums. Maybe someday maybe I can have a jazz band of my own. Say I just had a bright idea guy. Do you know any of the other fellows that play. Sure there's jam he plays a trumpet. Perry place a sax.

Well if we could round up a piano player and maybe a bass you could have a real jazz band couldn't you think we could. The guy got his back six of the boys pounded the rafters with organized chaos for weeks as they practiced playing together but soon they were able to perform for a teenager's dance and now play is a regular feature guy needed recognition. Now he gets plenty of it from boys and girls alike. He might have withdrawn from all group activities and buried himself under his own self-consciousness if he hadn't had a leader who gave him personal attention. But there are those who have no contacts with a leader like Mr. Arnold. Here's a group of teenagers in a crowded section of a large city that's right next to it you guys remember in 1990. Please. So please this kind of thing I like to forget you. Blankets. I mean thank you stuff you left this week so we can divvy it up. Oh see

here it's much more US. Some cities have tried to meet this problem by carrying the program of their social agencies out to where the need is. We interviewed one of the leaders who went out to the area where a gang was operating. They want to know who you are or why you are going around. They wanted to know nothing. At the time I just got going and began to play ball with them and even have some little pepper games with the softball. One fellow began to call me coach and this name has stuck with me ever since. And gradually as I began working with the boys one of them happened to see me working at my regular job and there fore the group began to ask at various times what I was doing. And since I was involved as a provision officer at juvenile court.

They became inquisitive at times but this did not seem to cause much of a rupture in the relationship with the kids in the neighborhood and they appreciated adults coming around and taking an interest in them. About what age are these boys. Well these boys run in age from about 14 years old to between 17 and 18. I meet with the group twice a week. Once is for regular meeting and then the other time is this informal meeting at the dance or canteen which is held Friday evening. Could you give us a little picture of the boys in your group. Any particular problems that you know since you're working with them and individuals. Well the boys in this group live in a neighborhood which is quite high and delinquency. And since I have been working with the group I have not known any of the boys to become involved in any difficulties

with the court and at the present time the greatest problem has been the drinking. They are able somehow to buy alcoholic beverages at various delicatessens which are strewn throughout the area and in the beginning when I knew the group in the summer there was a great amount of drinking. And as I got to know the boys better in our fiction group I talked to them a lot about it and tried to explain to them the. Bad effects that it would have on me and that. They would certainly be wise to attempt to stop drinking now before they got into the habit and gradually a number of boys have stopped altogether or just once in a while they will take a little nip from the bottle. But it's amazing to see the improvement that has come

over them. Some of the boys in the beginning when they were drinking quite heavily would almost appear to be in a daze at times. And this now has been minimized to a very good degree and it is heartening to see that some effort has been made in this field and also in the fact that they have not been known to court so far since I've been working with them. The supervisor of the agency concerned gives us insight into what is happening. I think that this account of the experience of this leader whether with this particular group points up some of the practical application of the theories which we have about group leadership and group work in general for example. We said that some of the groups this is representative of are

apt to be pretty hostile toward adults and adults in authority and yet here was a leader who they came to know was a probation officer in his regular job who we would think might have been a very authoritative person then with the law behind him. And yet he was able to. Developed in them through the period of suspicion. Who are you anyway and what are you here for that kind of thing. To a point where they really call him coach where his suggestion that drinking and some of the other things they did was bad and that they they were able to accept his his example and his ideas of how to live a better life and they respected him. Not it not as someone who was just preaching at them but someone who had some pretty sound ideas that they were willing to accept.

Here was a new attitude that they had developed. Then they were able after time to come to an agency the agency that this leader represented and they knew he represented this agency from the beginning. They were able to come into the house and to pretty well conform to what are the necessary rules and regulations of any building centered program. I think these things point out that it is valuable and it is effective to have leadership which emphasizes not just program just recreation activities not just being a ball player with them but who is sensitive to their own to their needs and to their interests and who care and be patient and love to take what he didn't describe much. But I know we he went through a great deal of what some people would call abuse but saw it not as

abuse aimed at him but simply an attitude expressing their feelings at the time. And he was able to go through that and to bring the group to a point where they could call him their leader. You know I think. This is the essence of of this kind of project and this kind of group work. We talk to some of the boys and I related fringe group. How do you feel about this club that you have here. Do you think it's worthwhile having a club like this what does it mean to you to have a dinner. Well it keeps the street and we have a lot of fun. Oh and it's given us something else to do besides around and. And we have basketball teams can look forward to. But what did you do Didn't you have recreation of some kind before you had the club what you do with

yourselves most the time we do not that we didn't have anything worthwhile to know. Nothing at all. Watch television. Watch television is all you had to do nothing else. Or during the summer it was about 1:00 o'clock in the school and there we could play baseball basketball whatever the aether. But what about the rest of the year outside of the summer. There was nothing to do. Sometimes most of the time didn't like I would play football in the street or in a field and. There was a does it really mean to really get a big kick. Having the club do you think it's a good idea for all communities to have clubs for boys to get into and yes you do. Yeah what do you get out of it. Tell me what do you do in the club. What does it mean to you last. Well let me play basketball and play in the

gym. Well it gives us a chance to get together and. Do things right for the same time do things right. Well the group and saw this list. Down the street in the waiting room I was only two and just together you got to look after one another or get kicked to kick out some of your members. Yes we do. We suspended you suspend someone. What do you suspend them for all for making noise in the church and for playing on the bars started lovelies from the gym or diving off a bench in a swoon pool who decides about the suspending we have a meeting of the whole club. See we have a meeting in the each one vote and if the majority wins you suspended. For the jury does and will use.

Don't you said something very far about the church what do you mean by church. Well we have a church downtown branch and I have a pool table in the basement and we have all kinds of games and where you meet there too and also at the center here. How often do you meet the church. Every Monday is like closer to your homes. Yes that is where we have jammed down and we practice basketball down there to give us an opportunity to play. The leader of this group told us of his experience. Well primarily I affiliate an affiliated youth in a city the size of ours there are considerable amounts of young people boys and girls who have no homes some associations. I might put wholesome in quotes but they have no. What we would consider to be positive sources of. Social relationships. My

job is to get to know these children. Teenagers see to it that they buy whatever methods at my disposal. I realize that social relationships are far better for them and for everyone concerned than the little isolated type of lives they are living. How do you contact these youngsters who have not. Gradually over a period of time I try to work my way into the group or work my way into a fringe of the group or work my way into a particular situation where I know they shall be at some particular time in the future. In other words I try to. Wiggle in. I try to make them think that they want me in their particular world. How do you do that. Do you find they're suspicious of you. How do you get them to accept you. By doing things that they like to do. One boy I became very friendly with because he was extremely competitive and I found out he was extremely competitive and

I played the type of games that gave him an opportunity to be almost aggressively competitive and he just enjoyed. Playing these particular types of games with me. It was one man volleyball he was very fond of that and he is currently the president of the group I am now leading. I have been working more or less with the same group. They were the oh I guess you'd call them a bump on another group. They weren't really the group. That was our primary interest. These were more or less tagger honorees these were. Younger boys who. For all intents and purposes would end up just as these older fellows. What you have done then as I understand it. You get some of those on the fringe of such a group and this is really a sort of preventative work is that keeping them from being drawn in a group that might be more destructive and its tendency. I'd say that's exactly what it is it's so and it's very much it is very

much worth to our question of these boys aren't. All milk and honey and I don't get that impression but I think they've. Acquired just from being in a settlement a broader type ways of looking at things. They even carry themselves better now than they did say four months ago. They don't rush to a corner and sit down they don't. Shy away they don't shiver when they when someone greets her and they feel like they are human and not just scum I guess you can cry because that's that's the way they made me they were really had that worthless feeling but now they're beginning to. Hold their heads up and it's a wonderful thing to see how they felt before that the community didn't respect them and therefore they wouldn't respect themselves to a point that they not only. They were they were pretty sure that the community didn't think you guys have up to what was expected.

The leader went on to explain that the boys in this type of club like to feel that their leader belongs to them and to them alone when they find an adult they can trust they do not like to share it with others. This results in a much more intensified programme of activity for the leader with his particular group. This in turn means that the agency needs more money for his support and this money must come from the community but the community cannot afford not to provide it since it would cost much more to try to rehabilitate a criminal and to redirect his energies into constructive channels. As a boy let us turn now to our authority for this program Professor Wilbur S. bachelor Professor bachelor How do you feel about the questions we've raised. I am not one of those who contends that the family is a decayed institution in spite of the external pressures and competition from innumerable impacts to which the family is being subjected these days. Sociologists psychologists and

psychiatrists are agreed that the family group is still the most potent force shaping our personalities the influence of home and family. The first fifteen years is so great that none of us ever outlives the stamp it places upon us. In fact evidence appears to indicate that the American family today functions on the highest level of any form of family life at any time in history. The American mother holds a position of greatest dignity and influence that motherhood has attained. And the children in the American home are given greater consideration and participate more in major decisions concerning the family than ever before. In other words the American family is presently more of a Democratic group. Any other time or in any other culture. Properly conceived the church the school and other community institutions can fortify the influence of the family rather than undermine it. The

church in a wide range of interests. Provides for the whole family. And a community center. Whether under the auspices of the school the city recreation department or a voluntary agency can likewise serve the entire family group. Our unfinished business lies in the provision of more adequate leadership and more adequate operating funds for these enterprises. The greatest limiting factor in all of our youth and family serving agencies is leadership. Not only the professionally employed person. But the volunteer group leader. And the sponsoring committee member. The lay person who helps plan and carry out the activity. For the person employed in these agencies the low salary scale makes it extremely difficult to secure and hold qualified personnel. This brings us to the second great need more adequate operating funds. Whether it be voluntary agencies finance through community chess. Or

other voluntary contributions or recreation departments and schools supported by taxation. The problem is the same restricted funds. But our high level of personal skills and competency the increasing amounts of time which each of us may use according to our own choosing and the unprecedented wealth with which we are blessed. But does each one give serious consideration to this unfinished business. Let us give of ourselves and of our resources. When its time off for recreation for your family and for your community. Will there be a well planned families centered program for your home. Will there be personalized group work for those in your community who need guidance and social adjustments. Or will there be unfinished business. But no one does anything about it. Time for recreation.

Unfinished business. Participating in the programs of Ted Wells as Wilson production consultant was David Ayers a technician Harold Gorsuch and the entire program was under the direction of unfinished business as produced by station and cooperation with the school of social administration of Ohio State University. From the Educational Television and Radio Center this program is distributed by the National Association of educational broadcasters Les Spencer speaking. This is the tape network.