Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-07-29

loW W WOTk as QUICKLY DIS W uO Tie
work itself. That is part of the
education, and part of it should be
known before the college course IS
taken up. The college course is not a
task that makes judgment, but it is a
job that needs judgment that is
made by practical effort.
A college course is the best thing
a young man can get, if he does not
start at it before he is ready. If he
wants to go and knows what he is go
ing for, then help him to got will
bring results.
There are few channels In this
world where more money is wasted
than on sending children to college.
This is just as much, and more the
fault of the parents than of the chill
dren. The trouble is the children do
not have a clear conception of what
they are supposed to try to do when
they start to college. Their parents
have not given them any serious
thought-they think they have, but
they have only talked about 1t and
they have simply talked without using
their judgment. Parents will look at
their neighbors' children, and say
that the best thing for Mr.. Blank S
boy would be for him to have to work
a year before he goes to school, and
while they are saying it, their inner.
most judgment tells them that that
is just what they ought to do with
their own boy. They know that-and
their knowledge is what makes them
think of 1t in connection with the
neighbours boy, but they do not i'm
press that upon their boy. They will
let him go along in an undecided way,
and finally after talking about it all
summer, they just sort of let circum-
stances at the time, settle which
school the boy will go to this year,
without making a clear cut decision in
the matter at all. What a shape that
boys mind is in to go to college. He
does not know what he is there for,
he has never been taught anything
specific at home, he has no decision or
perception, he has never had to keep
track Of affairs in his own home, nor
has he been employed at anything
where he has had to do a certain thing
in certain time, and was responsible
for the performance of that duty, and
he has no idea that any one else has
had to do anything in certain time.
Parents ought to see that their
boy has had to work before he goes to
college. They ought to see that he
has had some chance to develop In
his mind some ability to judge for
himself, and that he has been taught
to know what is going on around him.
Otherwise when he comes out Of col
lege, and gets back home to start
into practical hard headed life, he will
find that some boy who has been 4
news boy, messenger boy, or re-
porter or bill clerk, will beat him on
everything in which they start togeth-
er. The boy who has had to make his
own way has had his faculties of judy
ment and perception sharpened by
contact with the world He has kept
his eyes open, and when the balloon
goes up he sees it every time.
It is foolish to expect college 10
make man with mans mind out OF
starts in college.
Forrest Crissey in the Sunday Chi.
cago Tribune under the heading "Col.
lege Education that Cashes In writes
the following:
There is a kind of college educa.
ton that is worth hundred cents on
the dollar every day in the year-and
there is also kind that isn't. I new
er meet certain friend without think
ing of both kinds and the difference
between them. Here's what happen.
ed in his case:
when the big ambition to go to col
lege grabbed hold of him he was liv-
ing in little log house away up in
the northern backwoods, along with
father, mother, eleven children and
grandpa and grandma 1t was tight
fit-that little log house and the fam
ily-the cabin was stuffed fuller than
a Christmas stocking; but still there
was room in it for large contentmept
and big ambition.
THE great day in this boys life, be-
fore his actual departure for college,
was when he went to the nearest big
town and discovered bookstore. He
had never seen p bookstore before,
and when he got his blue eyes on the
pages of world history they were gl,l-
ed there. Finally, he came to- enough
to buy the precious books and lug
them away with him. On that trip he
saw other marvels of which he had
never misunderstanding carpet
and piano, But the books We're the
most wonderful of all--for they told
him about the great outside world and