Thoughts to Build On

the social system of its group. Each frustration creates
aggression-overt or suppressed.
Physical measurements, muscular coordination.
and intelligence tests show that the average boy or girl at
the age of fifteen has, by any accepted criterion, the
capacities of an adult, lacking only the experience and
training which are acquired by most of us through later
years. Otherwise, boys and girls of fifteen are adultly
equipped to cope with their environment and to take part
fully in the society of adults.
But boys and girls of fifteen are not considered
to be adults by their elders. They are not respected as
adults. They are not treated as adults and usually deter-
mined efforts are made to impress upon them their inferior
status. Their activities are limited, their independence is
not tolerated and many of the restrictions of childhood
remain in force.
There is no doubt that many of the usual re-
strictions and limitations placed upon these young adults
are necessary-socially, economically and morally. The
manner and form in which these limitations are imposed
are worthy of most serious consideration because when
you treat an adult as a child-no matter how necessary and
well-intentioned your motives-you cause the most intense
frustrations. And «aggression is always the consequence
of frustration."
N ow let's move our spotlight of thought to
the subject of unhappy marriages. The rapidly increasing
divorce rate is an inadequately low indicator (quantita-
tively and qualitatively) of unhappy marriages for too