Purdue University
Agriculture Extension Service
Mimeo HE-126 January 1953 (25-C)
TEACHING CHILDREN RESPONSIBILITY
by
Dorothy V. Mummery Family Life Specialist
Lesson I: Teaching Children Self-Reliance
Responsibility and Today's Children
"When I was your age,” says Grandpa, ”I was taking a lot of responsibility. Knew how to go from sun-up to sun-down. There wasn’t any time for all the tomfoolery that sprouts fritter away your time with..." This is a familiar story to the ears of young people today. And the generalization holds, doesn’t it. Generally speaking,
older generations did take more responsibility when they were young than young people today. They worked a longer day. They took care of what they had, because it was not easy to replace it,  and thrift was recognized as a virtue. But with industrialization, shorter working hours, more money for everybody, more goods than Grandpa could have and more years of schooling for youth. These things have brought changes in the responsibilities that young people are expected to take.
Apparently, there are those who don’t take as much as their parents feel they should. They complain that their children fuss about the responsibilities they give them. We hear things like this about us: ”He just can’t be depended on. Never had to help when he was young and whenever he got into trouble, his Mother or Dad always came along and got him out."
Teenagers, on the other hand, often are heard to say: ”My parents still treat me like
child. Don’t they know I’m grown up - well, almost anyway?” In Birmingham, 
Alabama, 1700 senior high school boys and girls were asked to write a paper on what parents they would like to have if they could choose, and what kind of parents they would like to be. Surprisingly enough, these young people had many "old-fashioned”
ideas about what they wanted from their parents. For one thing, 22 percent of them believed a child should be given responsibility in the home. Parents, they said, should not Relieve their children of helpful work around the home. Last year small groups of young people met all over the country to discuss what makes for a healthy personality.
The report of these young people to the Nation, given at the Midcentury White House conference on Children and Youth held in Washington in December, 1950 is representative of the feelings of young people all over the country. With pleasant candor and sincerity they put forth some ideas which all of us should ponder. The report says, for one thing:
A problem discussed by the Advisory Council is that many adults over-protect youth. "We understand that this is motivated by their wanting to make the way easier for us.
While youth often accepts this protection, it may tend to weaken instead of strengthen the budding self-reliance which is such an important part of healthy personality.”
In various ways they told us that they can and want to assume more responsibility. ”Youth, when adult, will be expected to assume leadership and to carry on the world’s work, Training these responsibilities is a long process of learning and of experience. When young people have a chance to help make important family decisions, they are usually better able to understand the problems and work out the solutions. The family group is the ideal setting for young people to learn how to become responsible citizens.” (4)
Pins, the young chairman of the youth members of the Advisory Council on Youth participation for the Midcentury Conference said:
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Study Reported in County Herald (The Journal of the Jefferson county Teachers Association, March 20, 1946.)