Park University - Narva Yearbook (Parkville, MO)

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Walter F rederick Sanders, AM., LL.D., our popular Dean of tke College, well known educator and administrator, lias been at Park since 1911. By DEAN W. F. SANDERS HE pursuit of knowledge has always Held a strange fascination — for a small portion of mankind. Why men should devote their lives to the search for truth or the discovery of new knowl edge is not easily understood by man in the mass. Socrates and Plato with a small company of followers meeting day after day in Athens to discuss the nature of the good life may seem an anomaly to the average busy man of today. In the face of persecution, this strange hunger for the truth, for knowle dge, has driven man to meet any danger, to overcome any obstacle. Learning may be defined as knowl edge acquired by study. The most appropriate places for study are colleges and universities. Through the centuries, institutions of higher learning have become for men and women cities of refuge. They are still so. Here for a few short months or years, students can yield themselves to the most enduring influences

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u LLIAM L. YOUNG called out , Hey, Jimmy, where are you going? breath, I don’t know, ask the calf.’’ And Jimmy cried back in bated It is now about fifty-five years since this experience transpired and I have often wondered whatever became of Jimmy. Did he go through life not know¬ ing where he was going except that his course was being determined by a calf? Did his means of livelihood remain so exasperating that he never could learn what it meant to live? Did sheer economic necessity alone draw the lines of life’s meaning for him? Was the significance of human existence limited to or dictated by the grim need of something to eat and a place to sleep? Did work remain his master or did he become the master of his work? There is a vast difference between making a living and making a life. One can be spiritually, morally, aesthetically and socially maladjusted and underfed even though he may possess ever so much of the material things of life. It is possible to possess all the flesh pots of Egypt and remain a shrivelled and mis¬ erable person. That is w hy it is the first and most important task of a college like Park to teach the students how to live. What s hall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, that is, succeed marvelously well in making a livelihood, but at the same time lose his soul, that is, never really learn the meaning of living. Life is more than mere material existence. It is a strange mixture of conflicting impulses, desires, emotions, ideals, purposes and problems. College men and women have no right to membership in their fellowship of liberated souls until they have integrated and unified these diverse elements within their personalities. Not until they have learned to master themselves can they hope to live creatively and triumphantly in the bewildering social world of which they are a part. Living the abundant life is no simple and easy task. With open minds we should, therefore, seek to learn from every possible helpful source. Science can teach us to face life’s challenges with the cool, calm, dispassionate objectivity essential to its method. Art can assist us by its direct intuition of values, arriv¬ ing, as it were, at some high goal by a simple leap. Religion at its best accepts the contributions of the scientist with his analytical techniques, of the artist with his immediate flashes of insight, but moves higher and makes possible the fulfill¬ ment of all that both science and art cannot do. To ascend to the highest possi¬ ble level of culture calls for a self-commitment to the true, the good and the beautiful as made known in the Christian revelation. The art of living is a divine enterprise. It never finds its richest meaning until it is in harmony with the ultimate purposes of the Infinite. 7

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that will ever touch their lives. We cannot recall the history of the universities of Europe without a feeling of deep emotion—Paris, Oxf ord, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Strassburg, Vienna and Prague. Few are the movements that have blessed humanity, and advanced the cause of truth and justice, that have not had their origin at these seats of learning. Universities have proved themselves the most en¬ during of human institutions. Park College is not yet much more than a half century old. Yet in that time certain ideals have grown up that are a part of her very life. Among these must be included, a respect for scholarship, a genuine appreciation of learning, an understanding of the meaning and sig¬ nificance of the Fine Arts as a means in creating the fine art of living. Cicero in Pro Archia has expressed eloquently and perfectly, the enduring values of learning or letters. These studies are the food of youth, the charm of age, an orna¬ ment in prosperity, in adversity a refuge and a solace; a delight at home, and no hindrance in public life; they are our comrades of the night, in foreign lands, amid country scenes. Dean Sanders lecturing to his Faust class. In addition to his many duties as Dean of the Col¬ lege, Dean Sanders also teaches two classes in General Literature.