Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-04-15
THE UNIVERSAL UNIVERSITY.
Scope Of the Work Done by the Inter
national Correspondence Schools. !

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national Correspondence Schools. /
Many cities, ancient and modern
have drawn large numbers of stud
ents from distant places and remote
lands by the fame Of their educational
institutions. Athens and Alexandria
Padua and Bologna, Wittenberg and
Vienna, Paris and Geneva, Oxford aud
Cambridge. Edinburg and Glasgow,
Boston and New York have been the
gathering places of the worlds seek.
ers after knowledge. Their univer.
stiles have welcomed all who sought
the feet of their renowned teachers
and lecturers.
But great and honorable as may
have been the fame that facilities for
education brought to those cities,
Scranton has still greater claim to
the worlds notice and esteem. For,
instead of drawing to our midst the
few who could pay for the privileges
OF education, Scranton has sent in.
struction to multitudes who could not
afford to seek it. Every day for the
past twenty years Scranton has been
radiating knowledge in an ever-widen.
ing circle, until there is now hardly
a spot on earth, however remote, in
to which its ministry of instruction
and inspiration has not penetrated.
Give the following figures not q
hasty glance but careful study, for
they are eloquent with hope and slim.
ulation to any one whose imagination
can grasp their significance to man
kind. Here in Scranton we have 1,758
men and women employed by the In
ternational Correspondence Schools.
They are engaged in writing and re-
vising textbooks, framing and correct
ing instruction papers, answering let
tiers on problems encountered by the
students and writing letters of inspir-
alton to those who are careless or
slack in their studies. This forms the
educational apparatus for America.
Yet, 1t is only a part. Scattered
about the United States and Canada
there are LOO more. They are men
whose business it is to create a de-
sire for education, to encourage 9TH
ers to believe that with adequate
training they can increase their eff
cheney and improve their lot in life.
They move from house to house, from
shop to shop, from factory to factory,
carrying courage, self-cont1dence and
optimism to the millions of workers
whose early education was neglected,
or who need special training in view
Of new opportunities. These men in
terview 100000 persons each week
and for the year 1913 they enrolled
nearly 100000 new I. c. S. students.
Added to previous enrolments this
makes total of 1,651,765 on this con-
tinent who have studied with the Cor
respondence Schools. What other in
stitution has ever had more than a
million and a half pupils in two de-
cades? Surely it is the romance of
education!
How has Scranton kept pace with
this tremendous opportunity? Last
year 1,066,203 instruction papers were
corrected and returned to the students
and 205,813 special and individual let
tiers were sent to students who found
peculiar difficulties in their work.
And it is grave mistake to think that
the international Correspondence
Schools profit by the lapsing of stu
dents. So far is this from the truth,
that special department exists to
encourage disheartened and careless
men and keep them at their books.
Last year this department sent out
S05,079 letters of encouragement and
inspiration, and during the past four
years SIS per cent more study has been
secured by this means.
Still, these figures only begin to tell
the story. The Scranton Correspon-
dence Schools reach out to every part
of the globe-to the velts and forests
Of Africa, to the plains and towns of
Australasia, to the walled cities and
quaint villages of China and Japan,
to the jungles and hills of India and
the strange islands Of Malaysia, in
fact, into every latitude and longitude,
Great Britain has a branch that prom
Uses to rival and even eclipse the re-
suits achieved in this country. Alto
gether, the International Correspon
dence Schools employ 4,967 persons
whose one and only business is to pro
vide and convey education to anyone
anywhere, and in almost any subject
Scranton should indeed be proud Of
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