Fork Union Military Academy - Skirmisher Yearbook (Fork Union, VA)

Page 8 text:

CCL. JAMES CALDWELL WICKER, D.D PRESIDENT

Page 7 text:

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don,t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream-and not make dreams your master, If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same, If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at youil beginnings And never breathe a word abdlit your lossg If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: Hold on! If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings-nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much, If you can till the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And-which is more-you'll be a Man, my son! -Rudyard Kipling 9

Page 9 text:

FORK UNION MILITARY ACADEMY A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OMB YEARS AGO a poet said, -And there are those who stumbled up to manhood, where they saw too late the road they should have taken long ago. This letter is written to those boys and to parents of boys who Want no stumbling up to manhoodf' It is written to those who believe that right training is vital to successful living. It is written to the Toms and Jacks, the Billys and Jims, and to their mothers and dads who recognize the priceless value of soundest preparation for the challenge of life. This school is a non-profit institution, and as such, has only one reason for existence. That one reason is to answer the need for the right kind of training, we call the right kind of training CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. One may well ask, What is Christian Education, not to a generation, or a country, or a group, but to me? What does Christian Education at Fork Union Military Academy mean to the individual, to the one boy? It means a coordinated, twenty-four-hour-a-day program to help the individual boy grow physically, mentally, and spiritually into useful, happy citizenship, according to the applied concepts of practical Christianity. It should be stated here that, While the Academy is owned by the Baptists of Virginia, substantial representations of many religious de- nominations are present in the Cadet Corps. Let us look further into our specific definition of Christian Edu- cation. By helping physical growth we mean the furnishing of comfortable, well-lighted, warm, fireproof living quarters, a scientifically planned and abundant diet, a regulated daily schedule, daily body-building exercise, voluntary participation in all types of competitive sports, with superb equipment, facilities and direction for those sports. By helping mental growth we mean an academic program based on numerically small classes, a 'faculty carefully selected for professional ability, character, personality and purpose, weekly checks on individual scholastic standings, and a semi-tutorial system that provides additional individual instruction to those cadets whose progress may be slower in some classes. E51