YOUTH IN CRISIS: The Responsibility of the Schools

The title of this little volume should not mislead the reader into expecting a discussion of its subject in terms of general public education. Rather, the book consists of addresses, and summaries of papers and discussions, given at the eight annual conference of the Council for Religion in Independent Schools, held in Washington in October, 1965. Four principal addresses were given, by Charles Malik, William S. Coffin, William Stringfellow, and Frank Gaebelein. The liveliest part of the Conference appears to have been a sharp disagreement between the first two speakers named, Coffin accusing Dr. Malik of presenting an obsolete and irrelevant view of the Christian faith, which cannot be communicated to students today. Implied at a number of points in the reporting is the sense that private secondary schools today are facing the same problems with youth as those encountered by public high schools, but with less freedom to maneuver because of their traditionalist concepts of what education is and how it is carried on. For those concerned with private secondary education.