The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-06-09

piece OF work that you would do in
the future could be made interesting
and successful had you the intel
Hgence to bring to bear upon it your
best effort, that ought to be a sui
ficient inducement to lead you in
dustrio1lsly to acquire all the useful
learning and all the valuable training
which comes from higher schooling.
To the girl who expects to make
bread, when she realizes that IN
volved in this is chemical process
which she should understand and
which would make it interesting and
make her efforts doubly successful,
that is an incentive to study one OF
her subjects that she will meet in
high school. If the boy never ex-
poets to do more than lay a cement
sidewalk, the process involved in its
construction can only be fully I'M
derstood and success absolutely as
sured In the work by studying some
of the branches of higher education.
Those who expect to enter the field
OF mechanics, or OF engineering, are
confronted on all sides by problems
in electricity and in many other
branches Of science. many Of. which
are to be studied in high school. 1t
would be an endless task for me to
attempt to show you the useful
knowledge you will acquire in your
high school studies in addition to
the invaluable training which you re-
ceive. If you will take the simplest
thing about you, be it either an OBJ
ject composed by the skill Of men,
OF an object of nature. and seriously
direct your mind to it for a few NOM
ents you will be lost in a flood of in
quiries as to how it is made. Of what
material, how compounded, and an
answer to all OF which can only be
had through study and research
Must Not End Effort.
1T is quite probable that most OF
the things am saying to you have
been said to you before. If they
have and you have understood and
appreciated their Importance, you
will pardon me for dwelling upon SO
important subject as this is, and 1t
will merely serve to fix it In your
memory. If you have not understood
it's Importance, then / trust that my
earnest words to you, urging You to
pursue with renewed interest and
with an incentive coming from with
in, the studies Of your high school
course may serve to make you adopt
this course and pursue it with greater
interest and ease than you otherwise
would have done. This then is my
first thought that ] would impress
upon you - that you each and
every one this day resolve that your
graduation from this grammar school
shall not end your effort at an edu-
cation, but that each of you will enter
upon your life work in high school
with an interest thoroughly awakened
and aroused, and feeling that the
studies that you there enter upon are
not only in themselves deeply inter
esting and a source of infinite pleas
ure and satisfaction to you, but that
your success or failure in life may
depend in a great degree upon the
manner in which you pursue your
studies there, and that this thought
will act as an undying stimulus to q
determined and unflagging effort.
Let us, before we leave the pre-
cincts OF this grammar school, indulge
in a few moments of reflection.
know that you are all of you old
enough to remember in your later
life the pleasant days you have spent
here in this year of your childhood
just closing. / know that in the
years to come, wherever you may be
among the days of your childhood
there will come to your memory many
of those spent in this building. There
will come to you -ecollections OF
your schoolmates, and the pleasant
associations here and on the play
grounds, that will constitute one Of
the bright spots in your childhood.
l also know, which you may not now
realize, that in those days of later
life when your childhood lies in the
background, among the recollections
borne down to you through time, Will
come those of the faces and voices
of your teachers who have for the
past year been associating with you
and guiding you in your work, and
whose solicitude and interest in you
you did not then appreciate, and
whose many acts Of kindness. which
were taken at the time as a matter
of course, will then dawn upon you as
among some OF the chief blessings
of your childhood.
RecolIections That Are Dear.
ut is an old saying that Familiarity
breeds contempt but in the relation
between yourselves and your teachers
/ am sure that this old adage does
not apply. am sure that the famil-
iarity OF daily intercourse between
you has, in the minds OF all Of you.
instilled$ deep, profound, and last
ing respect for those who have so
earnestly and so well labored with
You when fear at times you have
not appreciated these efforts. l am
sure, however, that with lapse of time
and with that increased intelligence
and appreciation that comes with
more mature years, and with ex-
tended experience. the teachers Of
this school will find a place among
the dearest recollections Of your
childhood"