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Page 17 text:
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£ THE PIONEER 1915 . Rector George Shick, Ph. D. THIS world is a world of relative values. What to one man appears great, noble, worthy, of the highest endeavor, to another appears paltry, mean, valueless. And this applies also to the esteem in which men hold the various professions. The standards of judgment vary almost as much as the ability of the judges to form an opinion. The work of the teacher accordingly is judged in the most widely different fashion by the different people. An old saying has it : They that can, do ; they that can not, teach. This judg- ment of the ignorant, the hoi polloi, of all ages, is still the judg- ment of the broad masses of our people. The successful political intriguer and schemer, the sophistic Chautauqua lecturer, the man who by methods of more or less doubtful honesty accumu- lated vast stores of money, are held in high esteem; they are called statesmen, orators, financiers; but the man who devotes a great soul, more than mediocre powers of intellect, extraor- dinary patience, and above all, abounding love, to the work of training the youth of the country for useful citizenship, for an honorable career in church or state is only — a teacher. While the remuneration for the work of the politician, the public enter- tainer, and the business man is liberal, if not disproportionately great, that of a teacher is small indeed. Tis true the work of the great specialist, especially if it can be measured in dollars and cents, is appreciated and rewarded. The position and salary of the great university special teacher is in a measure commensurate with his usefulness. But the work of the college teacher cannot be measured in dollars and cents, and is, therefore not valued very highly. And yet his work is of the highest value. He awakens the slumbering soul of youth or maiden, teaches her to use her growing and un- folding wings; he is the bearer of the divine flame, the divine Eros, as Plato called it, which is the real life of the human soul. He kindles in the soul of youth the divine ardor, the zeal to strive ever upward and onward ; the divine discontent with that which is, and the yearning for better things. Books can do and have done much to stimulate men to strive for the attainment of high ideals ; but such cases are rare. Usually it is some teacher, some great soul, filled with love and sympathy for youth that awakens the soul of the young and points out to her the path which she is to go. And such a teacher was our beloved Professor Schick. Much has been said of his scholarship, of his pedagogical skill, of his long years of faithful service. I trust I may be permitted to ex- press here the thought which is uppermost in my mind. It is
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Page 18 text:
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£ THE PI ONEER 1915 g this that to my boyish days as well as to untold numbers of others he was an ever present inspiration. In days when temptation came to cast all ideals overboard, to become hard and cynical, to become selfish and worldly minded, to give up the things of the mind and to strive only for pelf and power, it was the uncon- scious influence of his personality, of his idealism, of an occasional word of cheer or of mild rebuke, that made the soul ashamed of its weakness, and turned it from the flesh pots of material gain, from the thought of pelf and vanity to a realization of the value of the higher things of life. Though I do not remember that I ever heard him make many words on the subject, he impressed my boyish mind with this one idea that time and labor expended upon the pursuit of the highest ideals in cultivation of the mind was never wasted, as it were, upon a mere hobby, upon something merely ornamental, that all the learning one could acquire, could be turned to account in the service of Our Lord in His vineyard. Tis true, he strove to kindle in the souls of his students an ap- preciation of the great thinkers and doers of antiquity. He ever impressed upon our minds the thought that we could not but fail to understand the present unless we understood the past. He showed us that our culture was founded upon the culture of the Greeks, and that we, who were receiving what is commonly called a classical education, were highly favored among the children of men. But at the same time, we knew that our teacher would have us study these things for this sole purpose, namely, to serve our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. And now he has gone from us. He who held up before gen- eration after generation of students the flaming torch of idealism in study and in service is no more. But his spirit is not dead. A number of his colleagues who are imbued with the same spirit are still teaching at Concordia. And a number of his former pupils have taken up the work at our beloved Alma Mater, and are carrying it on, onward and upward, in the spirit of him that has gone to his reward. May his spirit ever be with us. M.
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