|

Other Activities in 1963–64

1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 A new national organization was formed in May 1964: the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States, a volunteer health agency that seeks to expand and upgrade sex education for all age groups. It was incorporated by Mary Caldarone, Wallace Fulton, William H. Genne, Lester A. Kirkendall, David Mace, and Clark Vincent—all members of NCFR.Jessie BernardJessie Bernard

2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 In the February 1964 issue of the Journal of Marriage and the FamilyJessie Bernard published an article titled “Developmental Tasks of the NCFR—1963–1988.”  In it, she discussed what NCFR is and is not, as determinants of what it can and/or should be. Her conclusions follow:

  1. 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0
  2. NCFR in not an action group. Not that it could not be, but so far it has not been. It is not equipped to serve as a pressure group attempting to exert political pressure.
  3. NCFR is not a professional association. It is an association of professionals but not a professional association.
  4. NCFR is, in contrast to an action group or a professional association, a council. The essential thing about a council is that it is educational, advisory in nature. Its members come together to think about problems, to teach one another, to learn from one another.
  5. 4. NCFR is national. This means that no matter how absorbed its members may become in problems of local councils, they cannot turn their backs on one another’s problems.
  6. NCFR is concerned with family relations. What the family does to other institutions and to society as a whole, as well as to the family itself, seems to be an unavoidable question.
  7. NCFR has both assets and liabilities insofar as making a contribution to the American family in the next 25 years. The four-pronged approach—counseling, education, research and special emphases—is definitely an asset.
  8. NCFR’s developmental tasks were summarized thus: Teachers must scout for trouble and deficiencies in school programs in family education, fight for new ideas, extend the educational process throughout the life cycle, and relay back to the consuming public the products of research. Counselors must advertise the defects which produce the casualties in family life which must be dealt with. Researchers must be innovative and inventive. Special emphases people must explore and pilot new ventures.
  9. To meet the needs of the family today and tomorrow, NCFR members must never permit themselves to canonize or stereotype knowledge, to espouse a creed, to take a formal stand or to discourage outrageous ideas: They must always welcome creativity, no matter how brash it may seem. If or when NCFR thinks it has all the answers, if or when it ceases to examine values in a searching way, if or when it shrinks from controversy, it will have ceased to serve a useful function.

Gallery

Categories: Journals and Publications, Leadership, Other Activities
People: , , , , ,