He Helps Youngsters

A genial fellow who stays young by listening to what the teensters have to say, John S. Greene '26 has just been chosen "Man of the Month" by the Santa Barbara Recreation Center Youth Council. At the Santa Barbara High School, where he is Counselor, he is said to know every boy and girl.

He has been continuously the most popular member of his classroom since 1927 when he began his first teaching job, as physical education instructor in his home town of Douglas, Arizona. Moving to California in 1930, he taught English, Spanish, and physical education at the high school in the Imperial Valley. Wed to the "golden" state, he then brought his talents to Ventura Union Junior High, simultaneously earning a Master of Science degree at the University of Southern California. In 1938, he became a teacher of belowstandard students at Santa Barbara High School. His first counselling assignment came the following year and he has been devoting himself to this fertile field ever since.

Particularly concerned with the breakdown of the American family, Greene attributes it to the crowding caused by increasing urbanization. When the family is jammed into small quarters, the young people are deprived of duties and obligations at home which help to build their initiative and ambition.

Now living on a small ranch in the Goleta area with his wife and sevenyear-old daughter, he grows lemons, walnuts, and a few avocados.