Radcliffe College - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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Baccalaureate Address f gf e 3 no normal human being could possibly like, because they have been told they ought to do so. They read books which are absolutely dull and uninteresting and tell every one how charming they are, because some literary person has admired them. They turn from some other book, that has struck into the very most vital roots of life, with horror, because some conventional person has raised his evebrows at it. Such educated folk become very clever. Thereare ciertain so-called canons of good taste or classicism which they have at their tongue's end. If a thing conforms, they know it 1n at mo- ment and call it admirable and wonderful,-if it does not, it is declared hopeless. They do not realize that what they enjoy is their own cleverness in applying the standard and not any worth in the thing itself. A Modern education is swinging away from the enforcement of conformity to the opposite extreme of individualism,-you must not force a man to learn anything, it says, his feelings must be his guideg let him follow his bent. They forget that the first steps in any new branch of knowledge are dull and hard and must be enforced by artificial stimulus until interest awakes. Very few enjoy five-finger exercises in any branch of knowledge, aft-er they have pounded away for months they acquire the freedom and joy of full self-expression in some great sonata. It is so with every- thing. It is possible that the students of our universities might even be interested in religion if they were compelled to listen to enough of it to find out what it was like! The elective system has its great dangers, from the kindergarten period up through that of the university. The young woman of to-day says to her professor, Interest me, or I Won't listen 5 the public says to the ne-wspaper, Excite me, or I won't read g the congregation says to the minis- ter, Move me, or I won't come l There is no disposition to do the hard, faithful work that is requisite to true education. We find certain universities engaging tuto-rs to pro-be into the mind of de- linquent and uninterested scholars for some evidence of intelligence and interest in something with which he can connect the studies of his department. The self within is a network ofninterests and de- sires, like a mesh of live wires. I cannot tell what your self,-that is to say, what your interests are. If I am. speaking to you, I have to probe around with various illustrations to discover. You may be interested in beetles, or postage stamps, or babies, or foreign mis- sions. You sit there, dully thinking about catching the trolley car for.home, until in some way the teacher strikes a vital interest,- a live wire,-then the eyes brighten and you look alive, until at 8

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Baccalaureate Address S B misery, new causes are operant on every side! It is absurd for women to study ancient Anglo-Saxon literature and Greek phi- losophy when they know nothing of the method by which a small ring of business men can succeed in controlling a city, in making the mayor and council its puppets, and all their husbands and brothers as putty in its hands. They are taught theories and forms rather than realities,-that it is more important to get the form beautiful than to have worth in the substance. It is not entirely due to the kind of things taught, however. Even in the professional school and technical school, where educa- tion is practical, there are few baptized men and women. They keep at work more than the pupils in college, but because of the motive of earning their daily bread. It is continually brought home to them, If you do not work you will starve? if you do you will get richlv But the work is drudgery. Men do not go tothe medical school always led by the impulse to cut out tumors or give quinine to fever patients. lt is not a passionate thirst for truth that takes the law student through a volume on torts or sets him looking up a thousand cases of ancient English law. nor is it a real devotion to that art that leads a girl to study housekeeping or dressmaking. 'l'hey work to get money or to win success, and because of this the work that they do is drudgery to them and halt their power of usefulness is lost. The old education took it for granted that men were not inter- ested in learning to know. lt knew that it is itnpossible to get any- thing into the mind without attention. lt felt that it was necessary that every tuan should have certain essentials tif information which he would not want to have. lt believed that tliese must lie pound- ed in through the thick skull and injected with a ncetllc lietteittll the mental cuticle. lt assumed that a boy-'s attention would lie on other things than his studies.-he would be looking out of the window at a dog or a bird's nest. lt believed. however. that with the aid ot a birchen rod his attention could be withdrawn from the bird and held down to the quality of a l.atiu syllable, or the rule in tireek grammar for a past condition contrary to fact. lts etitect was to compel tnen to accept' certain cations about art. certain opinions about literature. certain creeds in religion, certain Clhlitlll- in so- ciety. livery vapid imitation of classic form must lie admired. .Xu artist recently stated that all men to-day judge truly will art rave those who have been educated in it. Such education results in making every one artiticial. lt is pathetic to see people at the Symphouy or the .Yrt tiallery going into raptures -wer things that 7

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Baccalaureate Address 5 X S last the interest fades and the dull vacant look reappears. The mind which is stirred only after this fashion becomes a junk shop, filled with the most varied assortment of trash. No curious and venture- some magpie could gain a more strange assortment of old bones and fancy feathers and useless toys! It would be a shocking and pa- thetic sight to have the contents of the mind of the average man to-day voided here on the floor before you! What is the remedy for this? The only adequate remedy is the baptism of fire! There is in the mind of every man the possibility of turning on power. When you are training a man to know some- thing, the power is what we call interest. If you cannot connect interest with what you tell him, your work is vain. In the edu- cation that trains men to do things,-and indeed in all true edu- cation, -the power is a controlling purpose. If a man has one great center of interest, one over-mastering purpose, it unifies his whole mind and brings every fact of knowledge into relation with it. As in a recent novel, it may be that a man's controlling purpose is the success of a patent medicine. At once the world is changed,-all facts gather about this center, every man is interesting as a possible patientg every locality, every form of art and literature, suggests opportunities of advertising his remedy! I-lis life, his intelligence. goes tingling out on a thousand live wires of intcrcstg he is a part of all that he sees, and all is a part of his plan! The educated man must have a purpose to coordinate his knowledge- the higher and truer the purpose, the more real is his education and culture. Christ gave to every man whom lle taught one over-mastering purpose which made the whole world of interest and every man in it: it connected them vitaly witi the whole system of human knowl- edge! 'l'hat purpose in its simplest form was expressed in llis word, Follow me! ln its 'argest signiticance it was to trans- form and redeem the word. That little group caught llis spirit.- they were baptized with tire: ttey went out to conquer the world. to storm the gates of hel: no deed was too small to he of worth. no obstacle too great to attack. 'l'hey became educated lmecause all life hecame signilicant! hey imecame educators because they gave a new and higher interpretation to all life. This is your end! This Christ will do for you! lie will give you a purpose, -a great over- masteriug purpose that will donnnate your lite! 'l'hen whether you darn stockings or write poetry. whether you stay at li--me to do the household chores or get to the foreign tielfl. every smallest ac! and word is signitieant! lt is all a part of the great vocation! ln every deed you hear llis call. lfollow me! lhat great purpose 9