Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1916-12-01
WHY YOU GO TO SCHOOL
By DR.. Frank Crane.D

Everybody is put into this world
tc get from it ali the happiness he
can. in the worthiest sense of the
term.
IN order to be happy, you need to
express freely your personality. TO
give all your faculties full scope.
Happiness consists in making the
most of what is in you. You 60 to
school to learn how to do that.
FIRST. You 60 to school to learn
to use the past. You are not Adam.
You are not the first man.. There
nave been millions before you. The
world has been vast laboratory,
where infinite experiments in happi-
ness and achievement have been
m ade.
The result is in books. There is
no sense in your wasting time in end
less tasks which have all been done
before you and the conclusions set
down for your benefit.
Every bee makes the same kind of
honeycomb his parents made. Every
beaver builds dam just like his
81 eat-great-grandfat Every ami
NAL begins where his father began.
Hence there is no progress. Animal
life simply goes round and round in
the same circle. But human being
begins where his father left off. Zach
generation stands on the preceding
generations shoulders. So mankind
makes progress, while brutedom
stands still.
1t is in school that the Past is
available. Those who study it have
great advantage over those who do
rot; even more than a millionaire's
son has the advantage over a penni-
less boy.
For the real Inheritance Of the
world, the real endowment of men, is
the worlds accumulated information.
And it is free to all. Those who get
1t, easily Guido those who neglect 1t.
And whoever refuses to take it is a
fool.
SECOND. You 60 to school to
learn how to use your fellow crea-
lures
You are not alone. You are a
thread in the social fabric, brick in
the social wall, a link in the social
chain.
What you get out of life depends
quite as much on how you utilize
other people as on what you do your
self. You 60 to school to learn or
ganization. You become a member
of class. You become duly pigeon
Eoled, find out your place, become CO.
ordinated.
So your offensive egotisms are
rubbed off. The thoughts and feel
you develop group-consciousnes
that increases both your content
tentment and your efficiency.
You learn team play. AS the great
fortunes are made by combinations
in business, by trusts, SO the heights
CT character are reached only by the
intelligent use of our relations with
our fellows. You amount to nothing
until you can keep step.
Outside the school is competition.
Inside is cooperation. And the
prizes of life are for those who un-
derstand how to cooperate. The
slaves of blind competition work for
the kings of cooperation. You go
to school to escape the serfdom of in
dividualism and to learn the royal
secret, the specialization of life, the
kingship of coordination.
THIRD. You 60 to school to learn
about yourself.
The advantage Of culture Is self
revelation. The ignoramus is fettered
by a hundred decisions. The ignor-
ant mind is not blank; it is as full
as the trained mind; only its con-
tents are all wrong, and poisonous.
You go to school to get rid Of mass
Of misinformation.
1t is a common fancy that the I'M
lettered savage is free and that the
gentleman and scholar is bound. The
contrary is true. The savage is a
helpless slave to superstition, fright
ened by the forces Of nature and liv-
ing only in destructive relations with
his fellow men. The scholars Is the
unbound mind. The gentleman's is
the free existence.
At school you find the Masters.
Their realm is Books. You learn to
love them, and only then do you find
out what is worth loving in yourself.
You initiate them and only so do you
discover your own originality.
For the true Master sets you free,
makes you conscious of what Is In
you. A young painter, looking upon
the work of great genius. burst into
tears and exclaimed: Il, too, am an
artist,' In the Master he found
himself The young musician VINO
initiates Beethoven, the young writer
Who patterns after Shakespeare. are
much more likely to develop original
genius than those who consult only