Annie Wright School - Shield Yearbook (Tacoma, WA)

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4 THE HYAK I do not forget that after many weeks of work you are thinking now of the rest and recreation which are before you and all the pleasures and joys which you hope the summer ' s vacation is going to bring you. And while even one more lesson, at this time, may not be altogether welcome, I hope you will not forget it altogether, when, after the vacation, you come back to this place for a further journey up the hill of learning. Fix in your minds this truth and keep it there, that everything worth hav- ing is worth working for, that every duty faithfully and hon- estly done only makes the next duty easier, that every difficulty overcome and mastered makes us stronger to meet and master the next, and that in all real progress we surely go from strength to strength. But for some of you this day has more of meaning, for it marks the ending of your course in this school. It is the day to which you have been looking forward, but now that it has come I doubt not that it finds you with feelings of mingled joy and sorrow. You are glad because you have successfully accomplished the work which has been given you to do and are soon to take your place among the alumnae of this honored in- stitution of learning. You are glad because of all the privi- leges which you have been permitted to share here in class- room, in gymnasium, on the play-ground, and, not least of all, in home. You are glad in the friendships you have formed here with teachers, with classmates and schoolmates, friend- ships, some of which at least will last you all your life through, for it is but common experience that the friendships of school- days are many times the strongest and the dearest of life. For all these you are glad. But at the same time you are sorry, because now it will so soon be over, and all the pleasant associations you have known here will soon be in the past, and, perhaps, too, you realize now that you have not made all you might have made of the opportunities which have come to you here. Well, this, too, you will find to be the common experi- ence of life all through. For all of us again and again through the years which come and go are brought face to face with the fact that we know our blessings only in their passing. But so far as it is within my power at this time, I would bring your thoughts back to the bright side of this day and try to fix in your memories this last and crowning lesson of your sehool-davs here, the lesson which all along has been the real secret of all other lessons you have learned, the lesson which you are still to keep on learning as you go forth to other experi- ences of your life— “from strength to strength . 99 If the days you have spent in this seminary have had any meaning for you at all, you are conscious today that you are stronger now

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THE HYAK 3 Htaffs and start anew, and then out from their goal, as from a fountain of perpetual youth there comes a stream as of new courage and strong incentive. The difficulties which but a little before seemed insurmountable, seem now to make them stronger as one by one they meet and rise above them in the way, and thus onward and upward they go from strength to strength, until at last the journey is done and they find rest and peace in the attainment of that for which their souls have longed. It is a picture from life, dear friends, of a particular phase of life, I grant you, as the Psalmist saw it, and yet, also, it is a picture equally illustrative of other phases of life, and cer- tainly of all and every phase in which our growth and devel- opment are seen. All our life is but a journey and all our life through we are pilgrims journeying onward, journeying ever over a toilsome way and slow, continually meeting new perplexities and difficulties, oftentimes wearied and worn, many times discouraged and cast down, but always, if forgetting the things which are behind, we continue to press on to the things which are before, finding that each new difficulty overcome does but make us stronger to go on to the next. And thus we may go from strength to strength until at last the goal of our ambition is reached, when our journey is done. On this day, and within these walls, I am sure there is not one of us who can fail to realize the force of this truth. There is not one of us with whom the remembrance of school days is not fresh enough to make this picture live again. One and all we remember that the way of learning was not an easy way. Lessons were hard, problems were difficult, translations were troublesome, discipline was annoying, holidays were few and far between, term time was long and vacation surprisingly short. But somehow or other, we kept on, and if we were only faithful to each new duty as it came we found ourselves grow- ing stronger and stronger, better fitted to meet new difficulties as they arose, and thus going from strength to strength. But while it is, perhaps, easy enough for us to know and appreciate this truth after we have advanced some distance on our way and stop to look back upon the way we have come, it is not always so easy to appreciate it when we are still in the way and have the difficulties all around us. And here this morning, speaking more particularly to the members of this school, my desire is to show you that there is so much real truth in this motto which is kept ever before you to the end that it may have a meaning for you and be ever a real source of courage and ambition for you. I do not forget, of course, that this is the end of the school year, and not the beginning

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THE HYAK 5 than you were the day you first came here, and the strength which you have acquired does not consist, let me remind you, merely, or even chi efly, in the facts which you have stored up in your memories. For much of the learning from books, how- ever carefully gathered and nicely packed away in memory ' s storehouse, soon becomes covered with dust and is forgotten. I sometimes take down from the shelves in the attic the old books which I have studied in days gone by, and which I con- tinue to treasure as mementos of my book learning, and as I turn their pages I find myself trying to recall something from them, ami with some of them I have to confess that they are even more Greek to me now than they ever were. But while the facts go, the power of the facts oftentimes re- mains. For along with the acquiring of facts there comes silent- ly, slowly and without observation the development of latent powers of mind and will which powers, with continued exercise in other fields and amid new experiences go on from strength to strength. For true education, according to the literal derivation of the word is ever a leading forth — not a cramming in — a lead- ing forth of the powers of the mind, and the training of these powers for us. I know full well that in the light of some of the modern and so-called “ up-to-date’ ’ methods of education this state- ment may sound old-fashioned, for in some schools which I have known the leading idea has seemed to be to get through all the books possible and take as many short cuts as possible, with little regard to the principles involved, and with very little regard, if any, to the indirect, and, as 1 am convinced the chief benefits of study— the ability to think independently and rea- son logically. And the results of much of these modern meth- ods are only too apparent all about us in the readiness to fol- low almost any fad which presents itself, and in the willingness to regard firmness for principle and for truth as evidence of narrowness, and, on the contrary, haziness of thought and laxity of principle as synonymous with broad and liberal mindedness. It seems to be forgotten that great breadth is sometimes com- patible with exceeding thinness. In view of all this, we need not fear to insist upon the strict meaning of education as a leading forth— a leading forth, if you will, to the knowledge of the truth, through acquaintance with the facts of history, science, mathematics, of what not— but cer- tainly along with this the leading forth of the powers of the mind and heart and will to use these facts in the experience of life.