The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-20

l believe that these things, on the
whole, are pedagogicaIly wrong. There
must be certain degree of freedom al
lowed to children. To grow up into
life and find oneself hampered with
| these vows is unpleasant to think of, to
say the least.
When we pass into the activities of
adolescence, the social instinct takes on
strong form. AS soon as the children
feel the spirit of altruism which they
could not have known before there is
the strong tendency to congregate. This
IS seen in college. The medieval stu
| dents had their nations" where the
students ruled, and these have now de-
| Veloped into secret societies and class
lines. We have the four classes in our
colleges now, the freshman, sophomore,
| Junior and senior.
Inc rag system, the rushes, the class
supper, the class color, and the strong
reellng between classmates are ali
forms of the social instinct. Then we
nave the debating societies. Fifty or 100
years ago every college, school, village.
had us debating societies, where great
questions were decided. The dispute is
one of the most powerful of mental
stimuli
10 be asked question rouses the
mind as nothing else does, and hence
the value in debating societies. and I
tnink for the age of adolescence the
oeDatlng societies are excellent things
we nave the Greek letter fraternities
IN college, often secret, with comnlex
organizations, with large buildings. We
nave innumerable clubs of all sorts. for
pleasures and profit; we have such fra
lernitles as the Masons and Odd Eel
| lows. Inc best and worse instincts of
man are shown here. Man has such A
eenoency 10 make part of a group. The
crowd will do things that individuals
would never think of. The French revo-
luton was made by a mob.
It would appear that the world was
gettlng more and more solid and in this
country solidarity has never been de-
Veloped to such an extent as before 1t
seems to be tendency to get back to
the older idea of communism. Social
ology is a rash thing, it is a dangerous
thlng, and it seems to me that we ought
10 give very wide range to opinions
here.
The public school illustrates another
| peculiarly of the development of social
instinct. The massing together Of all
sorts of boys and girls brings each into
contact with the other and teaches
each one something about other hui
man beings. The danger is that it will
Interfere with the free growth That
state is best not only which gives most
LiScuOAii, Jul Which gives the most IN
dividuality.
Service is the watchword of growth.
Sell every atom of energy in sacrifice
for another. What is university for?
1t has for its ends to develop individu-
atty, and the only way to do this is
in research, to add a little something
to the sphere of human knowledge.
When man comes to be an authority,
only then does he know what intellec-
tual freedom means. Socialism seeks to
level all fields into a dull monotony.
What kind Of world would 1t be if
we had kind of "divvy up jubilee"
every year? L plead for rich men. what
would we do without the initiative of
rich men, who have founded new in
| dustries, developed the mines, given
work to the people? 1t is necessary
that efforts should have their rewards
| and those rewards should be strong
enough to stimulate.