Concerning Chaperonage – Sunday, February 06, 1944
Like fashions and customs in a good many other things, the words of our language come and go. Many times within our generation we have seen words suddenly come into daily usage, and we have seen words gradually fall into disuse, almost without our being aware of it. One, such word that was once used more often and with much meaning, and which more recently seems to be on the wane, is the word “chaperonage.” To those who have lived through earlier decades, it stirs memories. But to many of today’s youth it has little or no meaning outside the dictionary. But old-fashioned as it is, the word still has a meaning, and old-fashioned as it may seem to say so, that meaning has a fundamental significance.
In bringing up this subject there is no thought of yearning for the past—no thought of going back. Our less restricted social ways, in many particulars at least, are likely to remain. But nevertheless, we are reminded of a time when parents knew, or attempted to know, every hour of the day and night, where their young daughters were, and with whom, and for what purpose, and when they would be expected to return, and how.
This, of course, in some circumstances was not always possible then anymore than it would be always possible now. But the practice recognized a need pertaining to the well-being of the community in general and of young womanhood in particular—and certainly that need has not grown less great in so-called modern times, and especially not in war times. And parents, who have used easy modern ways as a reason or as an excuse for shaking off responsibility, or ignoring it, have been and are due for some rude shocks. The supposition that some good fortune is somehow going to take care of our young girls no matter where they go or with whom is a fallacy that has long since been blasted out of the realm of truth and into the realm of disappointment and sorrow.
There is an obligation in the home that no social agency can take over, that no free and easy ways can justifiably ignore—an obligation that runs contrary to the false supposition that the youngsters should be allowed to run “free as the wind” without reporting to anyone or being accountable to anything. Social companions are more respectful of those who come from homes where it is known that mother and father wait there, and expect to know what and when and where and with whom. Accountability and parental responsibility are words that must not lose their meaning, even if the word “chaperonage” has tended to do so.
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Feb. 6, 1944, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1944.
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February 06, 1944
Broadcast Number 0,755