The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-30
EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS
AND A MANS LiFE-WORK

hundreds, of others astray, and no one
may know the mischief he will do.
have known a single boy to disorganize
a whole college and turn the place
into bedlam, all on account of drink.
This business of educating and bring
ing up children is most difficult
problem to solve for no matter what
we may do, as Bobby Burns says,
after all, 1.-The best laid schemes of
mice and men often gang awry." And
boys will be boys and they will have
their fling, and have their experiences
at first hand, whatever we may do.
Now a few words about schools, and
I want to say, that the Kamehameha
Schools are my idea of what a school
should be. These schools are doing a
most useful work, and they are GER
tainly teaching the young idea how
to shoot in the right direction; and
it's a most pleasant surprise to see
the many really wonderful things the
little ones make, while the work of
the larger scholars is of a very high
order and for finish and beauty it
would be hard to surpass, even by a
regular mechanic.
But while these schools may not be
able to turn out master workmen, they
nevertheless give a boy chance to
learn for what he is best adapted, and
which alone is a great thing to know.
For it's evidently a shame to spoil a
good mechanic by making a poor
scholar and just as bad to make
poor mechanic out of material that ma
ture had designed for the highest edu-
cation. 1t is the misfits. the round
pegs placed in square holes, and the
square pegs that are place in round
holes, so to speak or boys placed in
the wrong calling, or occupation, and
for which they have no taste or incH-
nation which causes so many failures
and so much trouble in life.
The most important thing to decide
and to find out is what a boy is best
adapted for, and the boy ought to
knew himself what he is best fitted to
do, and what he most desires to learn,
and then let him learn this thing
whatever it may be, and then he will
certainly succeed.
What little success that 7 have |
achieved in life is due to the fact. that
was permitted to learn that which I
most earnestly wished to know
It was my greatest desire to become
an engineer, and I may say, that I |!
would rather be an engineer then the |
King of England, or the President of |
the United States: and in spite of ev-
erything, for my father had other |
views, I became one, also a machinist, |
and mechanical draughtsman, and a |
student of many other things pertain |
ing to same and to other things. And !
in consequence, my life. or at least the |
workaday part Of it, has been a |
source of pleasure; for I |
would like to say, the true craftsman |
finds as much pleasure in making a /
machine out of a few common metals, |
as the artist does in making a pic |
ture out of a few common paints. The |
latter may be the finer and the more |
beautiful but the former takes the |
palm for strength, power and useful |
ness. 1t is this throwing ones |
whole soul into an undertaking |
which tells, and without which nothing /
of much account can be accomplished. |
1t is this desire to learn some one thing !
that must be felt before we can look |
for results. No painter ever painted |
any great work that he did not first |
feel. and see in his minds eye, so to |
speak. Nor did any one ever become |
great in any walk of life, that did not |
love his calling or occupation above |
everything else, and if need were, |
sacrifice everything else so that he |
might excel in that one particular |
branch of study or work. This concen- |
tration of mind m y be partly a gift. |
but it can be pa. thy acquired if one
will only try hard enough; and the |
results to be obtained are certainly |
worth the trial For there is nothing
more to be desired than to be in dead
earnest about anything we undertake
to do. because il gives a zest and a
pleasure to life that can be got in no
other way. Boys, try to lern your
true vocation. learn TO be ambitious,
to be earnest. and to throw your
whole soul into your studies. and your
play. and everything you do. and you
will surely be successful in life
Very truly,
GEORGE OSBORNE.