Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1913-06-05
GOV. FERRIS ADDRESS
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uals under the strain of social contact.
The Robinson Crusoe type is not a
man. He lacks the experience of con-
tact with humanity and the lives of
others who think. 1t is not easy to
find men who think, even among our
schools and colleges, in fact, it is the
rarest thing to find men who actually
do think. You never can put too
much emphasis upon the develop
ment of the power to think by the
boys and girls of the 5th, 9th, 18th and
sth grades and on through the high
school. We, as educators, are COM
PEELED to pass your boys if they get
busy before the examinations and
load up memory and pass the test,
but it is more important that your
boy and girl be able to think than
that they graduate from any school.
Many today are crying for a voca-
tional education and others for a cul-
tural, but what does it matter which
if the boy or girl fails to develop the
me art Ol llllllklllS II TIC 10Y mas
tiers manual training but cannot work
outside of a shop with a full outfit
OF tools? ii the girl learns domestic
science, but cannot with a tin dish
and some raw vegetables cook a first
class meal over a camp fire. The
humblest man may be the brainest
A driver one dark night of last falls
Il. l. II
of us school men and politicians, for
when a wheel broke down and we
were dozen miles from town and
saw no way to get there but to walk,
the driver took that wheel to a con-
venient pine stump and with a pole
as a lever sprung it back into posi-
ton and fastened it with strong
braces and replaced the broken dou-
bletree with green sapling and we
rode on to our destination. That
mans power TO think was of more
value that night than all the diplomas
of us college men and politicians.
Every boy and girl ought to have an
idea what they would do if they
could do what they want to do.
can tell you quicker than the high
school graduate. He'd say, | want to
be lawyer, or a fireman, or a police
man, perhaps, and | want to tell you
the world needs good many more
good policemen right now.
But why should we lose our Wis
ion at Is and IS? Some people think
that the greatest thing is an educa-
ton, but | want to tell you that some
boys and girls ought not to graduate
from the high school. Education does
not depend upon the high school, nor
the college, nor the university. They
can only finish up the material given
them. They cannot change bass
wood into hickory. When the ma
jority of men and women are bass
woods you cannot make hickories of
the children. But | have great faith
in the small college. They can make
better specimens of Eastwood out
of the material furnished where the
big universities would absolutely fail
to produce anything. The personal
contact with the educator counts for
luOIC llldH the name OF the school.
If | had my wa not one of you high
school graduates would go to college
next year. You would go to work
and become independent and then
make the college course in three
years instead of four. am tired Of
this evening up process of bringing
boys and girls up to certain uniform
standards in school I'm no singer
Suppose my father had spent thou
sands of dollars to give me a musical
education, what would it have
amounted to? / once offered a must
clan $500 if he would teach me to
play piano, and he thought he could
do it; but he didn't. Yet Blind Tom
is musical prodigy and the puzzle
Of psychologists. | have unbounded
faith in boys but the majority Of
them are using less than ten per cent
OF their energies. The thought that
gave me a start in life was, Did | not
have as good a chance in life as Ben
jamin Franklin the youngest of four
teen children? Gorky was only
steamer cook till he read John Tyn-
dale Let the boys come in contact
with great men. The girls with great
women. In literature, if not in fact"