Tennessee Military Institute - Radiogram Yearbook (Sweetwater, TN)

Page 17 text:

If you, as a parent, have already given thought to these problems and have written for a number of school catalogs in your efforts to find a solution, perhaps you are now still more perplexed as to which way you should turn. Some catalogs appear to claim too many excellenciesg others seem not to make any particular claim and to outline no definite policy. Instead of attempting to tell you what we can do for your boy in Tennes- see Military Institute, we would much prefer to let some of our patrons tell you what we have accomplished with their boys. It is quite probable that we have had some boy from a section near you, where it will be easy to ar- range for a conference or an exchange of communications. Therefore, here is our request: First, write us about your boy. Give us just as many facts as possible about him and his work. Give us his age and grade, what work he seems to take to most readily, his habits, his athletic and social interests. It is almost certain that your description of him will call to our minds some boy of similar temperament and interests who has been with us. It is almost equally certain that the parents of that boy will be happy to tell you what they know of this school and what it accomplished with their boy. Second, accept our suggestion on an earlier page of making a trip of in- vestigation and inspection. We want you to know, in advance, everything possible about T. M. I. Your acceptance of these two suggestions will make this possible. If, however, it is not convenient for you to make the trip sug- gested, let us know that you would like to have a personal conference with a member of our faculty, and we will undertake to provide for it. We hope to have an early letter from you about your boy. Very sincerely, C. R. ENDSLEY, Snperfintendent. Page Eleven

Page 16 text:

I TO PARENTS . . . You are probably perplexed about the progress of your boy's education if you have taken the trouble to observe his procedure. Perhaps you have ob- served that he brings very few books home with him and that he makes small use of these in the Way of home study. When you recall some of your own ex- periences in the pursuit of knowledge, you doubtless wonder whether the teaching art has so improved in a quarter of a century as to remove all need of labor on the part of the pupil. Again, you have perhaps noticed the readiness with which he and his associates find it possible to cast aside all thought of lesson assignments when any one of his group suggests something more interesting to do. And how many of those more interesting things there are these days! A radio at his elbow C and the educational programs are not what he listens toj 5 the movie, parties g dances, planned and unplanned 3 auto trips-in fact, about every- thing to disturb orderly efforts in the line of study and hardly anything to counterbalance these disturbances. Even if it be argued that teaching methods have improved and that teach- ing now plays a more important part than formerly in education, what about work habits? Just how is your boy to acquire those habits of work, the qual- ity of persistence, of seeing the job through to completion, things that will determine the degree of his success in any line of business or profession? Is he getting this fundamental training in his present situation? Formerly this kind of training was possible in the home. In addition to schoolwork, there were duties and responsibilities for different members of the family, including the boy. But not so any more. Furthermore, no sin- gle family can remedy the situation. Calls from the outside will not permit it. Attempts toward the old-fashioned parental restrictions arouse antago- nisms and feelings of resentment. In Tennessee Military Institute we believe that uninterrupted work is just as important as it ever was in training boys for successful living. We believe in a sensible division of work and play, and we believe that the pe- riods set apart for wholesome play and recreation are enjoyed more when they follow periods devoted to work well done. Therefore, through the years, we have followed policies and developed traditions that exclude from the working periods of our boys the sort of dis- turbances that prevent work in the average home and community. These policies have become so well established in the school that our boys, without complaint or any feeling of resentment, accept with good humor restrictions such as few families would now have the courage to attempt. Thus we make possible not only a better order of schoolwork, but we accomplish what is of greater importance: we cultivate habits of individual effort and uninter- rupted Work. Page Ten

Page 18 text:

TO BOYS.. We invite you to a bit of self-analysis. Put a few questions to yourself. Are you making good on your present job-that of making a success of your schoolwork? If not, why? Is it not a fact that you could do a great deal better schoolwork than you have been doing? Is it not a fact that you would do a great deal better school- work if your companions would let you alone? When you decide to prepare your lessons better, are you not frequently called away by the ringing of the telephone, or the signal of an auto horn, inviting you to something more interesting than Algebra and Latin? Our intimate contacts with many hundreds of boys have convinced us that practically all boys want to make good, that even those who seem to be careless and reckless nurse a secret ambition to attain to something worth while. Yet it is a stern fact of life, known to every mature person, that it is the few who really succeed, while the many are swept along by the tides of the times, frolic away their proper period of preparation, are swallowed up in the common level of the untrained, and are forgotten. TENNESSEE MILITARY INSTITUTE helps boys to find their ambition and to make progress toward attaining it. Emphasis is kept on the important purposes for which a boy goes to school. He finds himself in a group striving for something worth while. He catches the spirit of the thing. He learns how to study and to get results. Yet life in such a school is not monotonous. The periods for athletics and recreation are just as carefully provided for as are the periods for study and recitation. Football, basket ball, baseball, and track furnish continuous in- terest through the year to all those interested in athletics. In addition to the varsity teams in these sports, there is keen competition for places on the re- serves, second, and third teams, also for places on the company teams in dif- ferent lines of sport. The rifle team always ranks among the best in the South. Letters are awarded the rifle team, just as in other sports. fSee page 65.3 Boxing, fencing, golf, tennis, and swimming add to the enjoyment of school life. Cross-country hikes appeal to many cadets. Boys in non-military schools cannot imagine the keen interest attaching to the preparation for and passing through the Honor School inspection period. To all these there is added the daily round of rollicking campus fun, un- planned, but entered into with the overflowing spirits characteristic of a healthy bunch of boys, happy in their surroundings. Puge Twelve