University of the South - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Sewanee, TN)

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z )e sewanee M3in

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. If you would know a mother, look to her ■ m m k m k children, and if you would know Sewanee, look r r to her sons. Young and old, you will find in them a reflection of her: the indelible mark of a deep and meaningful experience. To g raduate from Sewanee is to view her with respect and affection; for she is a demanding matriarch, setting hurdles which neither indifference nor dislike can leap. It is not for wisdom alone that men endure her hellish winter temperaments and brook her intolerance of soft-spoken competition, nor is wisdom all they learn. Sewanee ' s smallness has no room for superficial refuges, and her communal living generates an intimacy sharp enough to pierce the hardest shell of ' ' coolness . Try as he will, the Arcadian sooner or later must recognize and accept himself as he really is. Such acceptance usually comes slowly and painfully, aggragated by an ' 7 and me and what can we do now? situation repeated many times. The Sewanee professor knows his students well and is quite fluent in their individual capabilities. Most professors couple this knowledge with a demand for the best, thus producing a situation in which the student finds it difficult to be an ' ' ' ' academic slow boat to China , unless inherently so equipped. Yet if Sewanee demands and tests, so does she give. There is no greater beauty than spring on the mountain, nor one more appreciated thanby those who have lived through the icy winter. If the process of self-acceptance is painful and disillusioning, so is it also a beginning. xrbis is

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' Strive mightily, but cat and drink as friends. Prometheus Reliberated. A close and often familiar relationship with those who teach us: Four copies of How to Win at Soccer, After being pushed to top speed, many students learn the satisfaction that comes from all-out effort and continue to do their best, not only in academics, but in other fields as well. Thus does Sewanee mark the men who come within her embrace: a mark engen- dered of wise leaders, great silences, and li ing truths. Sewanee is different in many ways, per- haps best so in her manner of teaching. For the Sewanee Man academic endeavour is a humanized undertaking, centering upon the relationships between student and teacher. The professor is not a distant ora- cle behind a rostrum, but a man who lives and breathes : someone to share a beer with or to visit in his home. Often he is a close friend and an invaluable consultant in personal as well as academic problems.