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Is It Better to Be a Junior Now,
or Then?
It’s easy to see that growing up is different now than it
was when the Review and Herald Publishing Association
introduced Guide magazine 60 years ago. When was the
better time to be a kid?
Advantages of Being a Junior in the 1950s
&&
More time was spent outdoors and in nature.
&&
Junior Missionary Volunteer programs gave youth
something to do every Sabbath.
&&
Adventists were sheltered from media, especially
from movies.
&&
No addictive video games (unless you count
pinball).
&&
Mother was more likely to be at home.
&&
Lower rates of divorce.
&&
Strong emphasis on temperance.
&&
No Internet.
Advantages of Being a Junior Today
&&
The Internet.
&&
Smoking tobacco is less of a temptation.
&&
Houses, on average, are twice as big.
&&
More ethnic diversity among friends at church and
school.
&&
Racism is no longer openly tolerated.
&&
Many media choices.
&&
Seat belts and bicycle helmets.
&&
More Lego kits.
&&
Opportunity for short-term mission projects.
&&
More career options—especially for minorities and
women.
&&
Spiritual education is more likely to emphasize God’s
love and grace.
&&
Haystacks.
sumers of books and
magazines than the
general population.
This is true around
the globe, according
to Sahlin.
The Paper
Then and Now
Now Guide is looking
back on 60 years
of telling stories to
the church’s young
people. In the 1950s,
many stories
reflected life growing
up in rural locations.
“In those early magazines,
many illustrations
reflect farm
settings. There are
milk cans and lost
cows,” says Guide
editor Randy Fishell.
“It was like watching
Green Acres.”
Mission stories
were more common
in the 1950s and 1960s.
American missionaries
would come back
from Africa or Borneo
with amazing stories.
The adventures of
native children would
show up regularly.
Stories told of escapes
from wild elephants
or crocodiles.
“One feature that I
really got a lot of
benefit from was Pen Pals—a list of kids
that wanted to write letters,” recalls
Thayer. I would go through the list and
look for those that were from countries
outside the United States. It took forever
to get an answer back, but when it
came, the letter looked so fancy with all
its foreign stamps.” Sadly, the chance
for kids to connect with pen pals ended
in the early 1990s with the heightened
awareness of child predators.
A positive change is that stories now
reflect the rainbow of ethnic diversity in
the church. “It’s fascinating to see the
monochromatic approach to the presentation
of most stories in the past,”
says Fishell. In the 1950s, 75 to 80 percent
of Juniors were of European
descent. Today 75 percent of Juniors
represent other ethnic groups.
“We recognize that the demographic
in the North American Division is very
multicultural,” says Guide assistant editor
Laura Sámano, who is Hispanic herself.
“We ask authors to send us stories
that are set in different countries and
with heroes of different ethnicities.”
Guide continues to adjust to stay relevant.
There are fewer stories about how
to get your horse out of quicksand, and
more about how to respond to text messages
from a depressed friend. But there
are aspects of the magazine that don’t
change. Today, all the stories in the magazine
are true. The first editor, Lawrence
Maxwell, held to the same standard. “I
didn’t want made-up stories,” he said
during a 2003 interview. “I felt that if
we’re going to tell the children this is the
way Christianity works, it had better be
the way Christianity works.”
Distinctively Guide
The stories in Guide continue to affirm
what Fishell calls an Adventist
worldview. They show how
God honors those who
keep the Sabbath. They
underscore the
importance of honesty,
compassion,
and other Christian
virtues. The true stories
of children dealing
with problems in their
lives become an inspiration
Lawrence
Maxwell
20 (980) | www.AdventistReview.org | October 24, 2013