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Martti Muukkonen:

TAKE A BOY AND RAISE HIM A MAN - The YMCA as a Pioneer of Youth Work

Paper to be presented to the ISTR 8th International Conference. July 9-12, 2008. Barcelona, Spain.

Abstract

The Young Men’s Christian Association is, with its 45 million members, one of the largest international nongovernmental organisations. Being 150 years old, it has also been one of the model organisations thatat the end of 19th century and in the beginning of 20th century created many methods of youth work that are used today.
This paper studies the growth and mission view of the YMCA in the field of youth work or boys work as the work among under 18 year young men was called in that time. It first gives an overview to the general development of concepts of childhood, adolescence and boyhood. Second, it describes the ideology and development of the YMCA in the middle of the 19th century. Third, the paper focuses on how the general mission of the YMCA was modified to meet the needs of the youth work. Special interest is paid in the development of the four-fold principle in the North American YMCA and its consequences on the work. Fourth, the paper deals with the international youth work and, finally, concludes with some theoretical findings on the significance of the YMCA as a model association in youth work.

INTRODUCTION

Many forms of youth work in our societies (like youth clubs, camps, excursions, etc.) are today self evident for us. However, there has been a time when they were new – even radical – ideas. Many of these ideas have been developed in the third sector. James Douglas (1987, 48) calls third sector organisations as innovation laboratories. They invent and test new ideas and, then, spread these tested ideas to the rest of the society.

The youth work of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) at the break of the19th and 20th centuries has had this kind of role. Like in the case of most organisations and social movements, the models that various YMCAs created reflect the problems and contexts of the time when they emerged. Applying Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann (1972, 48): these models routinise, they are stored in our symbolic universe and we take them for granted. This routinisation enables us to concentrate our focus on something else. From time to time, however, it is good to take these models from their boxes, dust them and look which kinds of values we find behind them.

In this paper, I intend to describe the emergence of the YMCA boy’s work and those choices that the pioneers of the field made. Like many social movement scholars, my perspective is that of an insider. I have worked for the YMCA as a local secretary and a board member circa 20 years. This means that when I study an organisation that I have an emotional attachment, I cannot avoid certain respectful treatment of my research subject. On the other hand, in human sciences, objectivity is something that is seldom, if ever, achieved. Therefore it is only fair to tell with whom I stand and whose songs I sing.

In this presentation I aim to give hermeneutical view why and how the youth work methods of the YMCA emerged and were developed. Mainly I base this study on the documents of the World Alliance of YMCAs and previous studies of the YMCA boys’ work. Even from them, I can give only glimpses in this short presentation. That is why I focus on how the YMCA as a pioneer of boys’ and youth work developed many methods and practices that are familiar to many youth workers today. Along with methods for non-institutional education the YMCA gave its contribution in creation of the concept of boyhood between childhood and youth. Therefore it would be good to start from the situation where the concept of youth emerged.

Emergence of the Concept of Youth

One of the few studies on the YMCA youth work is David I. Macleod’s study on the emergence and development of American boys’ work. Macleod (1983, 19-28) emphasises that adolescence is a middle class concept which emerged and spread along with modern middle class. Reducing mortality in this class led to the reducing birth rate and this, in turn, led to the emphasis of the better education of these fewer children as an investment for the future. In the same time, organisations like the YMCA and the Boy Scouts were useful tools for the parents to control goings and comings of their children during their free time. In this Macleod follows Philippe Ariés’ and John R. Gillis’ theories on the emergence of the concept of youth.

The classical thesis of Ariés (1962, 26) has been that the concept of childhood during the pre-industrial era was not primarily a generational concept as we understand it today. Instead it meant some degree of dependency. Words like ‘son’, ‘varlet’ and ‘boy’ were part of the feudal idea of subservience. There are still remnants of this sort of thinking related to some professions.

Gillis (1974, 2-9), in turn, notes that there were stages in this subservience that distinguished youth, on one side, from childhood and, on the other side, from adulthood. During the young age one was a servant, apprentices or students away from his family. This period begum from the age of seven or eight and lasted to the marriage in the age of 25-30. There was not, however, further distinctions during this period of life. Thus, moving to partial autonomy took place earlier than today. Children going to be servants, apprentices or students were dressed like adults and they were allowed the behaviour and parlance of adults.

According to Gillis (1974, 1-35) pre-industrial Europe had organised both education and social care according to the system of patronage. In this system there were three main variants of the care. First, rich families employed children of poor families as their servants with the upkeep wage. The wealthier the family was the more servants it had. Thus, the number of servants was a question of status. Second, in the old guild system apprentices were subordinate to their masters until they got their own master’s degree. Third, the higher classes preferred the boarding school system. In all these cases young people were subordinate to the leader of the institute (lord, master, rector).

Gillis (1974, 37-93) describes how this patronage system eroded along the industrialism, urbanisation and paid jobs. This meant the change in the status of young people as well. For some of them it meant longer stay at home, for some others (especially for those seeking jobs in cities) full autonomy. In both cases old educational models changed and the traditional guilds of apprentices got new meanings as reference groups of young people. Different kinds of clubs and gangs socialised themand controlled their behaviour. The YMCA emerged as one of this kind of peer-group in London in 1844. It was, at first, a club of young shop assistants but widened soon to a general youth organisation (YWConf 1855, 56-60; Shedd 1955a, 18-24).

Although the emphasis in the YMCA work was heavily revivalist, there was also a strong social aspect. In his report to the first YMCA World Conference in 1855, the secretary of the London YMCA, W. Edwyn Shipton (YWConf 1855, 56f.) mentions that in 1844 there were 150,000 young shop assistants and clerks in London[1]. They worked from eight or nine in the morning to nine or eleven in the evening. They lived in crowded hostels where there was no room for self-education. The only places to meet others were streets and pubs. Therefore the London YMCA established a library, reading room, a point of labour exchange organised various educational courses. These became more and more important when the labour time was reduced and, thus, free time increased (Shedd 1955a, 15-30; Binfield 1973, 110-133).

These demographical and social factors form what Karl-Werner Brand (1990a,b) call cultural opportunity structures for the emerging YMCA. However, like Ralph H. Turner and Lewis Killian (1959, 40) note in their old collective behaviour textbook: “culture does not ‘change itself’... Individuals change culture.” Therefore demographical and other structural factors create only different potentials that individuals or groups can utilise. There must be a spark that puts individuals into action. This spark emerges often in social or religious movements which put into words the shared grievance and give a plan for the betterment of the situation (Hopper 1959; Blumer 1971). In the case of the YMCA, this spark was the Evangelical Awakening of the late 18th and early 19th century.

The YMCA as a Protestant Revival Movement

Along Industrialism the Evangelical Awakening was one of the most significant phenomenons in the Protestant world in the beginning of the 19th century. It emphasised the sola scriptura principle of the Reformation, redemption through Christ’s death on the cross, personal conversion and missionary work (Bebbington 1993, 183). This spiritual wave inspired educators, preachers and laymen. The YMCA was a child of this revival as much as it was the child of Industrialism.

The emphases of Evangelicalism had two kinds of consequences. On one hand, they underlined everyone’s responsibility in spreading the Gospel and, on the other hand, they led to different social projects. From the perspective of Boys’ work the significant aspect was that many association members were active Sunday School teachers. Thus, education was implicitly along the YMCA from the beginning. Later, the need for YMCA boys’ work emerged from the need of continuity from Sunday School to YMCA activities to older age cohorts (Shedd 1955b; Macleod 1983, 42).

Although YMCA histories treat London YMCA as the father association, similar youth associations had emerged in other countries as well – although with different names. Actually, the oldest YMCA today is the Basle YMCA which was founded in 1824 with the name Evangelischer Jünglingsvereine (although Swiss themselves trace its roots to the Ledige Verein of 1787 – Shedd 1955a, 11; YWConf 1855, 42). Even in Britain Glasgow (1839), Greenock (1842) and Paisley (1833) YMCAs are older than the London YMCA (Senaud 1955, 10f.). Later many of them changed their names to YMCAs. Basically they were Bible clubs but their social service activities sometimes differed greatly from those of the London Y. Thus, for example, German Jünglingsvereine had founded Christian hostels (herberge) to the wandering appreciates (YWConf1855, 52). When Evangelical Alliance was founded in London in 1846, it enabled the members of these associations to hear of each other since many association leaders were local Evangelical Alliance secretaries as well.There emerged a vivid correspondence between associations and due to this communication the leaders of YMCAs decided to meet during the Evangelical Alliance conference in Paris in 1855.

Paris Basis as a Statement of YMCA Ideology

When the YMCA leaders met in Paris, they the World’s Alliance of YMCAs and accepted a statement that was a manifestation of their faith. This statement, the Paris Basis, became the expression of the YMCA ideology. It defined both the identity and the mission of the movement. This Basis was later a model for Basses of other ecumenical organisations like YWCA, WSCF and WCC. The text of the Paris Basis is as follows:

The delegates of various Young Men's Christian Associations of Europe and America, assembled in Conference at Paris, the 22nd August, 1855, feeling that they are one in principle and in operation, recommend to their respective Societies to recognize with them the unity existing among their Associations, and whilst preserving a complete independence as to their particular organization and modes of action, to form a Confederation on the following fundamental principle, such principle to be regarded as the basis of admission of other Societies in future:

The Young Men’s Christian Associations seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and saviour according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be His disciples in their faith and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of His Kingdom amongst young men.

This fundamental principle being admitted, the Conference further proposes:

  1. That any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, but not embraced by the specific designs of the Associations, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the confederated Societies.
  2. That a travelling certificate of membership be designed, by which members of the confederated Societies shall be entitled to the privileges of any other Society belonging to this Confederation, and to the personal attentions of all its members.
  3. That the system of correspondence adopted by this Conference shall apply to the Societies of this Confederation.

In this basis there are several important aspects that have had influence on the YMCA and other organisations as well. First, the ‘independence clause’ in the Preamble stated that associations maintain their complete independence concerning their organisation and mode of activities. This was probably due to American, German and Swiss hesitancy to British and French mother association model where other associations were just branches of the one in the capital without decision making power (Shedd 1955a, 56, 77, 94-97); YWConf 1855, 52, 77). This ‘independence clause’ was going to have significant impact on the plurality of the activities in the movement. Differing from its “foster-child” Boy Scouts the YMCA has never had any centrally stated action plan but national and local organisations have been able to develop their activities according to local needs. The only bond has been the ‘Fundamental Principle’ of the Paris Basis:

Second, the wording of the Fundamental Principle is so broad that it included all Christians in ecumenical spirit. Later the World Council of Churches adopted a modified version of this Basis. Third, from the Fundamental Principle the YMCA developed its ‘open membership - Christian leadership’- principle, which enabled the YMCA to serve people of other faiths and thus promoting interfaith dialogue. Fourth, the first proposal, which later was adopted as the Second Fundamental Principle, promoted neutrality on issues not mentioned in the Fundamental Principle. This has given the YMCA a possibility to serve, for example, prisoners of war and refugees across frontiers as a neutral agency.

After the first World’s Conference, it was evident that there were three different interpretations of the place of the Basis. Some organisations used it as a personal statement which an individual had to sign in order to become a member. Some others saw it as a basis for the local and national organisations. Finally, some national movements kept their own bases and saw that the Paris Basis was a bond between national movements. It was this tradition that gave rise to the Red Triangle ideology which was to be the major ideology of the YMCA youth work.

During the Paris conference, there emerged also an interesting discussion after the report of Dutch E.W. Heyblom (YWConf 1855, 47-50). He told that there were two associations in Amsterdam, one for merchants and one for workmen. In addition to this, in Utrecht, there was a student only association. This information aroused heated discussion on class division and its acceptability in the YMCA. As a resolution it was agreed that the YMCA should avoid class and church divisions as far as possible. However, if specialisation could help to reach some special group, it should not be regarded as class division. This statement has a far reaching consequences since, along with the Independence clause it enable later the development of the special work methods, like the boys’ work. Other such special branches were war work, railroad work, student work and refugee work.

The Red Triangle as a Model of a Human Being

Americans, in particular, have always emphasised the freedom of national movements to develop their own definitions of purposes. For them, the Paris Basis has always been an international bond - not the basis for all associations. Accordingly, there have been different bases in America. These bases were modified according to national and local needs. One principle that became a major YMCA symbol was the unity of body, mind and spirit. This principle was heavily bound to the emergence and expansion of physical education.

Elmer L. Johnson (1979, 17ff. - also Macleod 1983, 3-28) notes that the roots of physical education were in German and Swedish systems of gymnastics in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Behind the emergence of the physical education in the YMCA there were religious, cultural and economic opportunity structures. First, related to the religious opportunity structures, there were signs of more positive attitudes towards recreation, sport and amusements than before. One major movement to pave the way was the Muscular Christianity It was, according to Clifford W. Putney (1995), “a movement geared toward reinjecting health and manliness back into Victorian religion.” It was founded in Britain in the mid-1800 and spread soon to America as well. The movement declined after the First World War.