Towson University - Tower Echoes Yearbook (Towson, MD)

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THE TOWER LIGHT The Habit of Adjustment N HER initial address to the women freshmen on the past September ninth, Dr. Lida Lee Tall stressed, among other things, the importance of the new students adjusting and acclimating themselves as soon as possible to their new surroundings. In connection with this, she mentioned as necessary not only the habit of making habits, but also the habit of breaking habits. Each individual has a separate and distinct problem, she pointed out, in fitting himself to his new environment. The rapidity with which he does this will be in equal ratio to the favorable and beneficial existence he will lead in the several years ahead of him. It is at once obvious that in advice like this there is pointed logic and wisdom. For the value of such an opinion as that given by Dr. Tall lies, not alone in its intrinsic importance, but in the startling pertin- ence which is contained in the heart of the thing. When Dr. Tall touches upon the matter of adjustment, even as applied to a handful of new students, she touches upon a subject that is, in every sense of the word, vital and alive. Its ramifications stretch out, with no exception, to every- thing that is contemporary, and the meaning it bears becomes something signihcantly personal. One may understand how true this is by examining the writings of leading scientific, literary, and political authorities. Mr. H. G. Wells has put it nicely. In his booklet, The New America, The New World , he says, The whole present spectacle of mankind, broadly con- ceived, is the uneasy and mainly unintelligent response of this misfitted human mind to the stresses of its ever increasing maladjustment. Few of us as yet appre- hend the reality of our situation and none of us can claim to know with any completeness or lucidity the methods by which our race may be able to adapt itself to the vast and fundamental changes going on. Thus, as Mr. Wells would have it, the root of all our present-day troubles lies in the fact that the human race, as a whole, has not yet learned to adjust itself to the world in which it lives. We have not yet learned to fit the right shoe to the right foot and until we do, we shall experience much pain and worry. In sum, this is what most leading writers will tell you: Adjustment -it is the only cure for the solecistic disease nowadays affecting humanity, on his own planet man is a stranger, his habits, as he practices them, alienate him from his environmentg there is a consequent malad- justmentg on ground that should be familiar to him he is lost, and so he 4

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THE TOWER LIGHT The Outdoor Life Poets have from time to time extolled the beauties of hills and valleys, and groves and gardens: Oh, what is so rare as a day in june! g Oh to be in England, now that April's here! g And then my heart with pleasure thrills and dances with the daffodilsng So hillmen love their hillsv. You can repeat fifty such dynamic tributes you have found in literature. I have rejoiced myself over these September moonlit nights on the campus at our college, and have reveled in the magic warmth and tang of the past ten sunlit days. Oh to be in Maryland in September and October! Let us begin to sense and feel deeply the beauties of our campus. Let us live in the open, together. There are the athletic games to call us forth on the Held, the tennis courts, archery, the glen, and hikes. Do books alone lead us in glorious living? Oh no! Man's body and his soul must be fed as well. Have you a special nook to which you go with some kindred spirit to share the beauty with you? Is there a vine covered wall that serves to calm your spirit in the midst of a turbulent day? Is there a glorious tree, age old, which makes you vibrate to its beauty, its unknown secrets and associations? Do your really find the beauty that lies around you? Seek and ye shall ind. My best Wishes are with you all for the year 1937-38. Come, let us live together! LIDA LEE TALL. 3 13f3'fi1?'i3

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THE TOWER LIGHT fits no place, he is gawky and lanky and out of tune and out of all pro- portion, he can understand neither himself nor conditions surrounding him, typically, he is never at peace. Such a trend of thought may be found in the works of almost any modern influential student of human affairs: Alduous Huxley, Mann, ReMarque, Maxwell Anderson, D. H. Lawrence, Romain Rolland, Elliot. There are many others. It is a sad and regrettable thing that the greater percentage of the world's peoples are totally unaware of this definite maladjustment at present festering on the human race. But it is even sadder and still more regrettable that they are without knowledge of their own personal malad- jusment. Of such individuals there are many, in every imaginable place, in all walks of life, and theirs is a sad lot. Psychiatrists will tell you that they are people without a purpose in lifeg that they can offer no mean- ingful explanation for any ultimate aim in existing. In fact, meaning itself is above them, few things, to them, have either explanation or mean- ing. Prehension of self-satisfying solution is, as far as they are concerned, a rare accomplishment, and more than often they are left utterly baffled and crushed. It is, indeed, a black state of mind they are in. Exactly what percentage of people, young or old, are thus affected, is not known. It is to be hoped that there are not too many, though it is to be feared that they are numerous enough. The gaging of that particular group among the populations of the world today would be, for obvious reasons, almost impossible. But there are such persons among us. That fact it is well to understand and grasp. It can be seen, then, why the references of Dr. Tall to adjustment carry with them overtones of tremendous importance. It can be seen how directly such references touch the very core of the modern world's troubles. That she should at once advise a class of new students along the line that she did is highly commendable, for advice of such a nature to them is fraught with profound significance. No doubt, most of the new students have, by this time, taken full stock of their surroundings. Their separate reactions to what they have seen and what they have till now experienced are surely manifold. But it is well, in the present instance, not to consider that body as a whole. ' As a singular entity, the new classmen will soon enough ind ways and means of adjustment to their environment. In a short time they will have learned how to fit in with the other several groups of students in the school. Past experiences definitively indicate that. More important, and demanding more attention, are some few individual students. They, because of their distinctive nature and make- up, will find the matter of adjustment difficult and complex. They will be beset by many questions, the answers to which, apparently, will not be easy to find, their responses and reactions to puzzling conditions will S