4
Tuesday, May 30, 1972
It is in these circumstances that the Welfare Supervisor receives
his challenge, for institutional discipline is as humane or as harsh as
he makes it.
This is so because he represents, in essence, the direct link
between the delinquent and the world outside to which the youth will one
day return, and the corrective processes which he implements leading to
the boy's restoration, depending on the officer's devotion to his work,
can be either inspiring or damaging.
It is his philosophical outlook and the norm of the social
conscience that transform the task from being merely another job into a
genuinely beneficial community service.
Dedicated
The dedicated Welfare Supervisor disregards his own personal likes
and dislikes so that in time he comes to react spontaneously to the general
wishes of the boys themselves in matters relating, for example, to athletic
and cultural activities.
Programmes for enjoyment are conceived in the spirit of general
well-being, reinforced by the Welfare Supervisor's maturity and responsibility.
But when the proceedings are underway, he is not detached, aloof, withdrawn,
but rather very much a part of the corporate whole.
"When such an attitude of mind takes hold of an officer, and he
begins to live for his charges, a subtle transformation takes place within
the delinquent," Mr. Mak says.
/"The boy,
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