Social Change

The decade of the 1960's will go down in history for its restlessness and turbulence, but also for the changes and expansion it caused in our society's way of life. And no less than society in general was St. Adalbert's affected by these conditions, or they brought about a significant number of sociological as well as institutional changes in our parish.  ^Jung

For instance, young people who were graduating form high school became attracted to the many new horizons opening up to them and many of them began to leave the parish for colleges and careers in distant cities, or in some cases they simply desired to adopt different lifestyles. They were aided by the increase availability of transportation, namely the automobile, that could whisk them away whenever and to wherever they hose. For those who remained at home, the increased programming offered by television tended to keep many of them in their living room rather than encourage their involvement in parish affairs.^Jung

Some of these factors applied to the parents of families, too; the appeal of television, the greater affluence and the faster automobiles that allowed them to buy a cottage or boat or camper or skis and to travel up north for a day, a weekend or a week or more were accompanied by a decline in participation in club and parish activities. ^Jung

Changes in the liturgy brought about by Vatican II also had an effect on the parish --. Not only were man of the clubs suffering from people's loss of interest in attending meetings and volunteering for work at various functions, but some of them were not meeting the requirements delineated in Vatican II that organizations wok on behalf of the parish as a whole instead of merely the members. The result of all these circumstances was a decline in membership of almost all the clubs and societies and the eventual disappearance of some of them.^Jung

There was a change in administration styles as parishes were instructed to comply with a change in management style by forming a Parish Council. It was the responsibility of these men to form committees that would take over much of the burden of operating the parish, leaving the pastor and his assistants the more priestly tasks of handling the increasingly complex problems an spiritual needs of his congregations. ^Jung

Now until the winter of 1972 was the first election to the Parish Council held. ^Jung

Although many of the changes in structure and perception wrought by the decade of the 1960's were profound and at times controversial, some of them had very positive results. In terms of the parish, they allowed for a more significant kind of participation by a number of the congregation in administrative affairs. (Sorry Dutch Reform insert here. That's the way our churches have been run by a select number of the congregation (clique) who tell the pastor what to preach and everyone else where they can go. So that's why I left). This participation, indeed, made the parish more literally their own, with many of the important decisions and ideas that have been made since then coming from them directly or from their elected representatives. (Sarcastic response here - and we all know how well Congress works). It is, therefore, in the hands of the parishioners as well as the pastor - now more than ever before -- that the destiny of the parish lies. ^Jung

Non-Catholic response: We the people have become Me, Myself and I. MMI cares more about celebrities she will never meet than her neighbors she will never know. MMI cares only about what she can achieve for her own family without any regard for yours. MMI saves money by putting you out of work. MMI drives, drives, drives everywhere  but is amazed there is a gasoline shortage. She drives to the gym where she pays money to walk. It amuses me when she tries so hard to find a parking space close to the entrance of the Y where she pays to walk on a treadmill. Why she could save money by walking around the parking lot.

She doesn't want to raise her own children choosing to spend "quality" time instead of quantity time so she has no idea of what her kids are doing and doesn't even know she doesn't know. She doesn't know how to cook so feeds them and herself processed foods, al dente (undigestible) out-of-season fruit and vegetables. She has a home too big and a yard too big that she keeps private. She wouldn't set foot in a public park or on a bus. She has plenty of self-esteem just no humility, empathy or compassion.

With the creation of the never-annexed suburbs in the 1960's, younger people who grew up in these new type of suburbs  watching national television far away from their grandparents are totally out-of-touch with their local and ethnic history. As a child in Grand Rapids, I never heard anyone describe themselves as White. Men described themselves by ethnicity, religion and occupation. Most women were housewives and women didn't matter anyway. The newspapers didn't refer to anyone as White either. It was WASP and everyone else.

Now (2010) all I hear is Black and White. Maybe that was true in the deep south where many of the white settlers were Scotch-Irish and English but that was never true in Michigan.

Indian tribes didn't live together in peaceful harmony with each other and nature as I see portrayed today on television and in movies.. The different tribes fought each other, tried to exterminate each other and enslaved the survivors. Negroes in Africa were and are divided into different tribes, fighting each other,  trying to exterminate each other and enslaving the survivors. When the opportunity arose to capture and sell their enemy overseas they jumped at the opportunity. Negroes  from different tribes, with different religions and speaking different languages were forced to live together in the American South when they would have killed each other in Africa.

In the United States, extended families migrated west together. It wasn't just ma, pa and two kids. It was the aunts and uncles, cousins, in-laws, and neighbors who migrated together who settled the frontier. Since the public schools in Michigan were founded geographically it was likely that the one-room school house contained students from the same ethnic background and probably even related. So all the parents, school board members and tax payers were from the same ethnic group too. .

Today two different ethnic groups are being portrayed as one.  The Scotch-Irish who migrated in the 1700's, were predominately Presbyterian or Episcopalian are now being lumped together today in this country with  the Irish Catholics who migrated in the 1800's  as if they were the same ethnic group when they killed each other and are still killing each other in Ireland.

   Before 1960 almost everyone worked and shopped within walking distance until cars and the freeway system provided choice.

During my childhood, the City of Grand Rapids was divided into ethnic neighborhoods. Since everyone walked to school, every student in that school was likely from the same ethnic group. I grew up in a mixed neighborhood where everyone was different. It was only in the suburbs where everyone had to be the same. Mr. Jung put it quite well, although writing specifically about a Polish Catholic parish it can be expanded to cover the entire City:

     The decade of the 1960's will go down in history for its restlessness and turbulence, but also for the changes and
     expansion it caused in our society's way of life. And no less than society in general was St. Adalbert's affected by these
     conditions, as they brought about a significant number of sociological as well as institutional changes in our parish.

      -- the appeal of television, the greater affluence and the faster automobiles that allowed them to buy a cottage or boat or camper or skis
       and to travel up north for a day, a weekend or a week or more were accompanied by a decline in participation in club and parish activities.

      Or as I (BVM) see it, any neighborhood activity.  Every neighborhood has died.

As a child, there was someone home in every house because three generations lived together so if the parents had to work outside the home, the grandparents were home to watch the children. The father worked within walking distance. The mother shopped at a store within walking distance. Husbands were home working on their house or yard every Saturday. No stores were open on Sunday, we went out for a ride in the country to visit relatives who lived on farms.

It wasn't until I was an adult maybe about 1980 when the state government made a power grab. Now experts run the schools and tell local boards  and parents what to do when before for more than 100 years it was local control and the parents told the state. So whether Catholics or Protestants ran a township school would depend on who settled the township.

It is necessary to understand these social changes to understand the history of the schools. School history

Send mail to Babs27@Comcast.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2006 My Grand Rapids
Last modified: 08/05/11