Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-10-14

are going to work what are you going
to do? Take the first job that offers
that has no future TO il, or are you
going into something that has future
and learn a trade. and are you going
To work yourself up i'm the business
What is going To be your route if you
leave school? Have you spent enough
time upon that great question? Very
few schools have paid very much at
tention TO il. 1t makes me shudder
when / think Of the negligence OF the
schools in the past. We wait until
just about a week before the eighth
grade commencement exercises and
/ try to have the eighth graders choose
all at once what they are going TO do.
Il want to outline just some of the
I fundamental steps in the process of
getting ready To make this great de-
csion and whether you are i'm school
or not, or what grade you may happen
about the same.
You can only build a building as
I high as the foundation will stand. If
you are building a great monument
I like the Washington monument in
Washington, ID. G. you could not build
that much higher than the foundation
would stand. Some Of you when you
get along about the eighth grade have
foundation just about 2X1 and you
think this is big enought for you, that
you are ready To go out now and you
have all you need. So you are going
to quit school now and be independent
and ha hnSG htif I,af,
that the height Of your success that
you are going TO build can only go
just so high because your foundation
is not broad enough to support it,
Make your foundation just as broad
and sink it just as deep, and make il
just as solid as you know how, then
when you go out to build the super
structure you can build it high and
make real success in life.
Every week l receive blank forms
from corporations, bonding companies
and different employers asking me a
whole lot OF questions about boys who
attend high school and have applied
to them for positions and there are
just three questions about their
scholarship There are about fifty
questions in the list and all the rest
are, What kind of a fellow is he?
Does he gamble, does he play races,
does he drink, does he spend all the
money that he earns, have you known
of his keeping a bank account, does he
pay his debts?' The AZ questions out
OF the so have To do with the kind OF
a fellow he is. That is what the bust
ness man wants to know about you.
So in our records of the high school
we are keeping a record of what kind
of boys and girls we have got So you
must realize when you start in that
you have something to do in high
school besides learning lessons out of
books. You have got to learn to be
something 1t is what you are that
counts as well as what you know. We
spend all Of our work in the ninth
grade trying TO help boys and girls
TO learn this one great lesson.
After you have made a study of
the various lines of work and have
looked upon the worlds work as an
opportunity not to earn money but as
an opportunity to be OF service TO the
world, for that is what a vocation
really is. an occupation in which you
can be Of service to your fellow men,
otherwise it is mere job, then we
come to that point of choosing a voca-
ton. How are we to choose a voca-
ton? We will take for granted that
you have an impression that you want
TO be something worth while. We will
take for granted that you appreciate
the value OF preparing for 1t, that you
have an education or training of some
sort, and that you realize that you
must be trustworthy. that your char
acter must be well founded. and you
have been studying perhaps all the
vocations that are here in Bedding, you
have made a list Of them and you have
heard men come here and talk to you
as they are going to this year, and
you have learned how ii is best TO APP
proach some of these vocations, then
the question comes, Which is the one
for me- DO not look at it as you
look in a store window and see good
looking suit of clothes and then go in
and buy it without trying it on. You
would not do that. Ii has got to fit
you. No matter how much it may
cost II is no good TO you unless it fits
you. 1t is just so with a vocation.
1t has got to fit you, that is the es-
sential part.
81 urge upon teachers and parents
and the boys and girls to get together
and confer one with the other, get to-
gether all the help and advice we can
and see IL we cannot through these
steps Of ambition and the value
of education, lay founda-
ton of character. Get as broad a view
OF the call of the world TO service as
we possibly can and then by analyzing
ourselves tit ourselves into that call OF
the world and so go out TO serve our
fellow beings to the best of our abil-
ity, and that will spell success in life
1t makes no difference, girls, whether
it be simply in the home, that is the
greatest calling OF all for women,
to be queen of the home and it makes
no difference, BOYS whether you work