|

1941 Conference: Family Preparedness

1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, NCFR held its conference in New York City, at the Park Central Hotel, from December 29 to 31, in conjunction with that of the New York State Conference on Marriage and the Family. More than 500 attended.  The conference theme was “Family Preparedness.” Topics included legal aspects of the defense program as they affect marriage and the home; problems of American youth and national defense; economic aspects of national defense; economic aspects of national preparedness; and education for marriage and family life as a means of strengthening national security in the community, the high school, and college. The keynote speaker was Pearl S. Buck, whose speech was titled “At Home in the World.” The following is an excerpt:

2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 Now that war has been declared and the call comes to everyone to plunge into the struggle….it will not do to raise our children in a small tight compartmentalized world anymore. We do them an injustice and we may endanger their lives someday by not fitting them for their “home in the world.”

3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 I believe the problems of the world must first be met in the home before we will have men and women sufficiently educated for the world, and that we do our children the most grave injustice when we do not fit them in the home for the world they will find waiting at their doors when they step outside. The child prepared in the home through all the life of the home for the life of the world beyond, steps forward a self-confident and integrated creature. He will be afraid of nothing because he will say, ‘I know about this, I know what to do.” If his home has shielded him and denied him the knowledge and practice of life he will be terrified. He will want to step back into his childhood, even back and back into the dark security of his mother’s womb. But to such haven there is no return for one already born, no such thing as childhood for those who are grown. And yet, how many men and women spend their lives frustrated, discontented, afraid, because they have never been made ready to be anything but children?

4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Let the life of the world stream through our homes and through us all, men and women who have children, and teach children.

5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Read conference papers with an international focus from the 1941 NCFR conference

Categories: Annual Conference
People: