Bucknell University - L Agenda Yearbook (Lewisburg, PA)

Page 27 text:

The Ideal College Student. Bv John IL Harris, Ph. D., LL. D. HE ideal college student is he who most fully attains the j urpose of college education. That purpose is character. The end of university education is knowledge; of professional and tech- nical education, skill; but that of the college is manhood. Now character is will. Knowledge and mental efficiency are instrumental to will. Will is the centre and substance of personality. The ideal college student develops will. This development invoKes energy and direction. Energy of will, like every other human quality, is largely a matter of in- heritance; but, like every other quality, may be developed or weakened by education. Energy of will is developed by right doing. Idleness debili- tates the will; vice rots it out. The activity must be persistent. Spasmodic activity has little educational -alue. The student needs to do his work with energy. It is not light reading, but reading lightly that weakens. The student must attack the ditificult subjects. Rosenkranz says that, if at the beginning of a day ' s mental work, a student will read a few pages of Kant, it will so tone up his mind that any other work will seem easy. On the other hand, if a man begins his day ' s work with the daily paper, his mind will proljably act flabbily all dav. Leave the easy till the work of the day is done. But, whether the subject be easy or ditificult, the chief thing is to do it with energy. Rest during waking hours should be change of activity. Recreation to be real must be a crea- tion of new will power. Repair belongs to the hours of sleep, and requires entire cessation. Rest, however, is not merely a change of work. For the mature this is tr ue; but for the young, the change must be from work to play. Play requires as much activity, and develops a certain kind of energy, as well as work. One set of extremists would make life all work, 21

Page 26 text:

ALBERT BURNS STEWART, A. M., INSTRUCTOR IN MATHEMATICS. LEO GUIDO CHARLES RIEMER, A. M., INSTRUCTOR IN LATIN AND GERMAN. NELSON FITHIAN DAVIS, Sc. M., INSTRUCTOR IN ORGANIC SCIENCE. HEMAN LINCOLN WAYLAND, D. D., LECTURER ON SOCIOLOGY. GEORGE DANA BOARDMAN, D. D., LL. D., LECTURER ON SOCIAL ETHICS. Mrs. KATHERINE B. LARISON, A. M., PRINCIPAL OF THE INSTITUTE AND INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. THOMAS A. EDWARDS, A. M., PRINCIPAL OF THE ACADEMY AND INSTRUCTOR IN LATIN. WILLIAM ALBERT KAUFFMAN, A. B., INSTRUCTOR IN SCIENCE. HARRIET CLARE ARMITAGE, INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH, ELOCUTION, AND GYMNASTICS. JULIET AIKIN, INSTRUCTOR IN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. ELIZABETH COLLINS EDDELMAN, Sc. B., INSTRUCTOR IN LAITN AND GERMAN. ELIZA BELL, Pit. B., INSTRUCTOR IN HISTORY AND ENGLISH. JESSIE JUNE WHEELER, A. B., INSTRUCTOR IN MATHEMATICS. ANNA MARGUERITE MILLER, INSTRUCTOR IN DRAWING AND PAINTING. KATHARINE ARMISTEAD CRAWFORD, Mus. B., INSTRUCTOR IN VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. WILLIAM CHRISTIAN GRETZINGER, Ph. B., REGISTRAR OF THE UNIVERSITY. 20 ' mmif r

Page 28 text:

a struggle against the unfavorable or the distasteful; another would make it all play, doing nothing but what is agreeable. The truth seems to He between. The youth nmst do the task, must earn his character by the sweat of his face; and, on the other hand, he must play, must give scope to imagination and freedom. But in work or play, he must do. There is no telling where the boys will come out; but one thing is pretty w-ell settled, that unless a student develops energy, and force of will, he will achieve lit- tle in the world. Of course, the student will not confound energy of will with immobility or passive resistance to external incitements, nor with the seeming activity which is forever preparing to do, but achieves nothing. The direction of will includes the end, the means, and the motive. There is need, consequently, of enlightenment, and one function of the col- lege is to enlighten the student in regard to himself, the world, and God. This enlightenment itself develops character; for knowing is always active. Knowledge of the world in which his activity is carried on, and his growth takes place, involves not merely physical, chemical, and organic science, but especially knowledge of man, both as an individual and as organized into society. The student will consequently acquaint himself chiefly with man. This does not mean that he shall study only literature, history, pyschology, sociology, but that he shall mingle with men, and become one with them. A large proportion of the failures of students arises from their ignorance of men. This knowledge of self, the world, and God, a knowledge which should be growing constantly clearer and deeper, furnishes the materials for judgment as to means and ends. The more energetic and forceful is the man ' s will, the more need there is of sound judgment: else his very energy will lead to ruin. While the choice of a profession may well be deferred till the end of the course, the choice of the great goal of life should be made early. The only end worthy of a man is the realizing in himself of the image of God, and the working together with others of like mind in realizing that same image in the souls of others, and in society at large. In the attainment of this end, and in the choice of subordinate ends and means, there will be ample scope for the exercise of judgment. The chief rules for judgment must always be the moral law. Ethics, practical and theoretical, must therefore be the subject of profound and life-long study. The student will devote himself to the study of morality as revealed in history and biography, and in the great moral poets, Aeschylus, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, and Browning; as set forth in Kant ' s Metaphysics of Ethic, and, for prac- 22