A Community Understanding

One of the things that makes the hour question difficult is that some young people are allowed out until all hours and others are carefully supervised.

A girl may complain to her parents that “all the other kids stay out much later,” when actually only a few have this much latitude. Neither she nor her parents really know how late other young people are allowed to stay out. The only way to answer such a question is through some collective action in which the various interested persons in a given neighborhood get together and determine a reasonable homecoming time.

Many communities are developing just such agreements. Groups of parents, teachers, and young people get together at an arranged time and decide at what hour a ninth-grade party should be over. They arrive at reasonable standards for all the other grades. Not everyone will abide by such decisions, that’s true. But if everyone concerned knows, in general, what to expect, then school, church, and private affairs can be planned to terminate in conformity with the community code. Responsible young people generally try to do what is expected of them, and so this kind of code is usually honored.

THE SENIOR PROM

Some high schools have established the pattern of a great big wonderful senior prom that students “will remember for the rest of their lives.”