Broken free of any semblance of family control or community restraints, thousands of American youth roamed entirely at will throughout the cities of 19th-century America and supported themselves alternately from the legitimate street trades and from outright thievery. The invention of modern adolescence was partially a response to this neglected…

Describes the history of the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Dance Company, known as PHILADANCO, founded in the early 1970s by Joan Myers Brown at her Philadelphia School of Dance. PHILADANCO has sought to discover and train a corps of local Black dancers to build a strong dance company and important cultural institution. (AF)

The 1960s saw concerns about availability of land for camps and the beginnings of change in populations served and related programming. An illustrative article from 1965, "What Should Camps Stress in Our Affluent Society?" (Theodore Cavins), discusses the negative effects of growing affluence and leisure time and the need for camps to…

Traces how the "Great Migration" of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the early part of the century has resulted in a "Lost Generation" of urban youth. Emphasizes the need for a reconstruction of the traditional African American family and a renewed commitment to social action. (FMW)

Describes dancer Katherine Dunham's philosophical system and her application of the "Dunham technique" in the Children's Workshop of the Katherine Dunham Museum in East St. Louis (Illinois). Contends that Dunham incorporates rites of passage to transform the lives of participants through intense involvement in art as a way of life. (AF)

This essay discusses the roots, current shapes, and social and operational implications of mentoring young people in poverty. After an introductory first section on mentoring and the new voluntarism, Section II, "Recurring Fervor," notes recent increased interest in mentoring and traces the early manifestations of mentoring to 19th…

The history of Thomas Jefferson High School, Richmond (Virginia), is traced from its opening in 1930 through the city's social changes. The school developed a culture of academic excellence that it struggled to defend against decades of challenges such as desegregation, white flight, leadership changes, and budget cuts. The history of the school…

This autobiographical narrative describes the early life of Luis J. Rodriguez, a journalist and poet who was immersed in the youth gang culture of Los Angeles (California). Framed by the story of the pull of the gang life for the poet's son, it recounts his experiences from his childhood on the United States-Mexico border through his family's…

The historical origins of student activism in Greece and an analysis of present activism in nine institutions of postsecondary education are described. The empirical analysis was based on a sample of nearly 1,500 students and revealed that activism relates mainly to the regional origin of the student. (Author/MLW)

The Commissioner's introduction to Volume 1 includes state school system statistics. Chapter I addresses vacation schools, playgrounds, and settlements, with discussion of poor children in major cities, playground conditions, playground social conditions, play psychology, and settlement-movement history. Subsequent chapters cover laws concerning…