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University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, April 1, 1964
Aid Program Designed to Help Youths
JIMMY GILMER and the FIREBALLS
DOT Record Hits ----- • SUGAR SHACK
• DAISY PETAL PICKIN
• AIN'T GONNA TELL NOBODY
Meadow Acres Ballroom, Topeka --- April 5, 8-11 p.m.
"All students admitted for $1 with I.D. card"
"We have a widening pool of youngsters for whom the ordinary vocational school is not suitable." Merrick told UPI in an interview. "They're too far behind. Our job is to try to rehabilitate them into the mainstream of American economic life."
The job problem would be severe enough, considering the high level of joblessness, but it's often impossible of solution for youths from slum homes who have not done well in school.
IN AN EFFORT to trace the problem, the selective service system has agreed to call boys for physical and mental testing at 18 instead of waiting four or five years until they are summoned for induction.
WASHINGTON — (UPI)— A Phi Beta Kappa is heading the Labor Department's efforts to help a new brand of "dead end kids" who have trouble passing an eighth grade school test.
UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG teen-agers, now about 15 per cent, has been triple the national rate. The baby boom following World War II means that 27 million youngsters will reach their 18th birthdays this year.
He said many Negroes, Puerto Ricans and Mexican-Americans fall into this category, partly because of past discrimination against them.
Steak Dinner
Sunday Nites
$1.25
4:30 - 10:30
DINE-A-MITE
23rd & La.
This will identify the youths who flunk mental or physical tests and focus attention on their needs. Merrick said. Results will be sent to regional Labor Department offices.
Merrick was assigned to administer the part of the manpower act aimed at the "least employable" youths from 17 to 21. New amendments to the law give the government more tools and up to $100 million in the fiscal year starting next July 1 to deal with the problem.
A series of centers for further testing, counseling, basic schooling and job-placement are envisioned by Merrick as part of the attack on the "unemployables" problem.
English Philosopher to Speak
Professor Stephan Korner of the University of Bristol, England will speak here twice tomorrow. He currently is visiting professor of philosophy at the University of Texas.
Today his job is to find ways to aid the growing number of teenagers who have failed in school and have few if any qualifications for the world of work.
Samuel V. Merrick, new assistant manpower administrator for youth programs, won admission to the fraternity for the scholastic elite at the University of Pennsylvania in the late '30s.
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He will give a University lecture at 4:30 p.m. in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union on "The Changing Concept of Truth." At 8 p.m. he will speak to the Philosophy Club, meeting in the Faculty Club, on "Empirical Laws of Nature." Both are open to the public.
"This crowd of kids is not likely to learn a trade." Merrick said, "because they're not motivated or prepared to do that. But we think they can be prepared for starting jobs as helpers, factory workers or clerks.
One aim will be to encourage employers to drop their requirements for "high school graduates only" if a job does not require that degree of training. This would help those who dropped out of school before graduation get past the first hurdle, Merrick said.
The total helped by this new program will not be great—perhaps 60,000 to 70,000 in all. But Merrick believes it may demonstrate that ways can be found to salvage youngsters for a useful life even though they suffer severe educational handicaps.
Read and Use Kansan Classifieds
TONIGHT SEN. WAYNE MORSE
SUA and ASC present this Oregon Democrat who will discuss "Foreign Policy Under President Johnson"
APRIL1 8 PM HOCH
Reception in South Lounge / Union following the speech