Classical High School - Caduceus Yearbook (Providence, RI)

Page 9 text:

The Educated llfllll The educated man should know first of all why he is here, whence he came, and whither he is going. Not to know the answers to these questions would render life purposeless- inf deed make it nothing but a vacuum, The educated man should, therefore, be at once and always a man of faithg and to achieve the most from his journey through life, he should also be a man of wisdom and of fortitude, Faith, man gets by the grace of an Almighty Ciodg wisdom, which in the words of Plato is the residue of forgotten knowledge, he ac- quires by the application of those talents with which he has been endowed by his Creatorg and fortitude is born of the happy mar- riage of his faith and his wisdom. To know the truth, to love the good, and to appreciate the beautiful should be the aims of the educated man. He should know, as far as possible, all that can be learned about mankind -- its history, its hopes, its aspirationsfand the economic, social, religious, and political laws to which it responds. Ile should be familiar with the arts? those peculiar and often imperfect means by which man endeavors to communicate the incommunicable. An appreciation of the arts develops in the individual a sensitivity that enables him to regard the work about him with a more sym- pathetic understanding. And in this world which is growing smaller day by day, the educated man should have a world outlook. To do this he must jump across the accidents of history and geography and regard himself as the inheritor and legatee of the entire civilization of mankind and look upon the whole world as his home, The educated man should know that every signihcant event in the history of mankind has been one in which man has been in pursuit of an ideal. ln this knowledge then, he should realize that life has inhnite possibilities and that the human being -f -the noblest of all Gods creations- is perfectly capable of living up WIT-IAIAAI P- ROIXINSONQ JR- to the loftiest ideals he has ever devised. Wll.l.lAM P. ROBINSON. -IR, Deputy Commissioner of liducation 'T i f -1 -1. , r X ,tb :,,.y. v .Sr 'V V - s I i l .fat I l AL. W, ,4, I rx? -I u-mir' I Rhode lsland State Capitol

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' f ,Y Q1 i -A U dl. DR. NATHAN MARSH PUSEY The Educated Mem The aims of education should not be exclusively, or even pre- dominantly, defined by the needs of the economic structuring of our society. Knowledge and planning in the light of knowledge, the setting of goals on the basis of a wide range of evidence, and the working towards these goals-certainly, capacities of this kind are indispensable, and education must do what it can to develop them. But there is also a higher obligation for education to produce dedicated scholars and investigators able to advance knowledge in every held of human endeavor. Though the num- bers who aspire to this level of effort will be limited, those with the capacity to do original, basic investigation must be found, given every opportunity for their own intellectual development, and encouraged to stay at basic research in the universities in an environment of freedom and high purpose. The values of words are constantly shifting. A word to which extraordinarily high value is attached at the moment is com- petence On all sides we hear that what is wanted from the edu- cational process are competent people. He would be a rash man indeed who in the face of such universal acclaim of competence would set out to make a case for incompetence, but it may be admissable to suggest that the notion of competence by itself does not exhaust the meaning to be found in the phrase an educated man. Understanding and competence are not the same thing: and one can perhaps be competent without being wise. Education is society's servant but also her tireless critic, for no civilization is ever worthy of worship. Values of crucial impor- tance for human beings are always getting lost, or getting obscured and under-valued, in the workaday world. A complete education has a responsibility to do more than serve society. It has to save us from ourselves. DR. NATHAN MARSH PUSEY, President of Harvard University Massachusetts Hall, 1720, the oldest standing Harvard building.

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Dear Graduates of 1958, You have completed the second ,stage of your educational life and next September you will enter college for the final stage of becoming the educated man. The educated man may be a doctor, a states- man, a teacher, or your mother directing her house- hold. Countless volumes have been composed on the educated man, and it would be wise for all of us to read a book on the teachings of Socrates, Benjamin Franklin, or other philosophers. We look upon the educated man as one who is master of his vocation or profession, and who reflects in his living the images of sterling habits and deep interests. He is a person of confidence, courage, in- tegrity, and self-control. He has a firm belief in Mr. james F. O'Neil Prifzcipal f' God, and regulates his life according to a set of moral principles. He strives for a pleasing personal- ity within himself, loves his neighbor, and rears his family by excellent example and tolerant firmness to be good citizens. As a bulwark against reverses, suffering, and old age he has preserved a love of reading, an apprecia- tion of music and art, a philosophy of hope, of char- ity, of self-sacrifice. He has learned to forget him- self in his life-long practice of helping his fellow man. What you may become on Commencement Day will depend on your daily manner of living and your daily practice of habits in your four years of college. Keep in mind your school motto: Certare, petere, reperire, neque cederef' JAMES F. O,NEIL, Principal