Watkins Glen High School - Senecan Oracle Yearbook (Watkins Glen, NY)

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2 THE PEPPER POT It is to pupils in this latter class I wish especially to address this article. In so far as the college course trains you directly for your vocation it is advantageous. In addition to this are the indirect values. They train your mind by mastering specific problems, to think independently, to interpret facts and conditions correctly. They brohden your horizon so you will not only lead a richer, bigger lifej but also be better equipped to cope with the important business of earning a living. The social contacts which you make and the friends you meet are other important advantages of attending college. But they should be placed secondary to the other advantages and not first as they are by some, particularly the socalled “idle rich.” The purpose of a college is not to provide an opportunity for a person to spend a four year vacation merely having a good time. Neither is it a place to achieve athletic fame. It is designed to prepare him to live a better life and be more successful in his vocation: • j Former President Woodrow Wlison wrote that a college is for., the training of the men who are to rise above the ranks, to give them a quickening and a training which will make them in some degree masters among men. Dr. Frank Crane says: “No matter what a man’s work, he can do jt better if he is well informed. Education, while it has a larger bearing than a mere preparation for one’s trade or profession, is the very best equipment for any sort of efficiency. Whatever your calling, your erpertness,is more telling if it rests upon a basis of general culture. Culture means intellectual background. It means accumulated force behind your stroke. It means that you are not only capable yourself, but that you know how to absorb and use .the capability of wiser persons .It gives you perspective. It increases your personality. Tt strengthens your influence. There never was an age in the history of the world when it was so true as it is now that ‘Knowledge is power.’ There is no single

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THE PEPPER POT 1 Shall I Go to College? Shall I go to college is a question that faces most of the high school pupils, especially the Seniors. The baffling question of what shall I do when I am through school, what shall be my occupation in life is closely associated with the one, whether to go to college. For years it has been conceeded, by most people, that to be successful in the professions of law, medicine and the ministry a college education was very desirable if not almost essential. Gradually either professions and occupations have been added to this list. But there are many occupations for which there is considerable debate as to whether a college education would be advantageous or not. The purpose of a college education is usually given as: (1) cultured value or (2) practical value or the preparation of the student for his future life work. There are a large number of colleges of different types some emphasizing the cultural value and building curriculums designed for that purpose. Some go to the other extreme as our business, trade or vocational schools preparing definitely for some particular business or vocation. Then there are many colleges varying between these two So a person must consider the kind of college when he is debating whether to go to college or not. For persons expecting to enter professions or vocations where special training is necessary, such as law, medicine, engineering or teaching I think there s little question. Hes hould go to a college or school especially designed to prepare him for that work. It is for persons entering occupations for which specific training is not so necessary, for which schools are not so definitely designed, and the schools which he would attend place more emphasis upon cultural training that the debate arises; whether time could more profitably be spent in college or in the occupation itself.

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THE PEPPER POT 3 thing so essential to success, in whatever calling, as education, ’ ’ Even though a person has decided that a college edu. cation is desirable, before he sets out for college he should ask himself the questionAm I fit for college?” With a rapidly increasing number of persons seeking admission to the colleges, many of them receiving two or three times as many applications as they are able to admit, more and more careful selection is taking place. Some colleges only admit pupils who were in the upper third in their marks in high school. A person is not fit for college unless he possesses the following qualifications: fl) Intellectual ability, a little better than the average and an inclination to study (2) apibiion (3) industry and a willingness to study (4) a definite aim. Some authorities claim that not over 15 per cent of the young people have intellects of sufficient power to cope with a college curriculum. Also not every person can be educated. They may lack ambition, a willingness to work, or be too interested in social or athletic activities. Unless a person has been reasonably serious in his high school work and better than average in his grades he probably will not get much benefit from a college education. The pupil, who has decided that a college education would be desirable for him and that he is worth a college education, but who lacks the funds to pay for his expenses, should not be deterred from securing that education. If he is mentally and physically able to do the college work he can work his way through college, by several of the following means as (1) working before going to college and during summer vacations (3) securing sholarships and (4) by means of loans. At the University of Virginia more than half a million dollars was earned last year by students who are wholly or partially self-supporting. Of 2,045 students answering the questionnaires 252 are wholly self-supporting, 967 are partially self-supporting and 826 do not