Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-09-24
Don't Quit School
ton than its loaves and fishes, but
- ;n 1xrnr

ton than its loaVes and fishes, but
- for these alone it is well worth con-
sidering. Figures compiled by United States
Government investigators show that of two
boys, one of whom remained in school till
he was eighteen while the other left at
fourteen, the former, at the age of twenty
five, had received in total earnings upwards
OF two thousand dollars more than the lat
Ter. and then was receiving upwards Of nine
hundred dollars a year more.
Rema1king that this is equivalent to an
investment of eighteen thousand dollars at
five per cent the Children's Bureau at Wash
ington aptly asks how else boy can multi
ply his capital so fast? Investment in edu-
cation is investment in opportunity. The boy
who remained in school till he was eighteen
bids fair to increase his earnings still more
substantially from this time forward, be-
cause he has within himself the training
and equipment for progress; but the boy who
left at fourteen, thereby missing the richer
part of his educational birthright, is likely
to go little further along prosperity's way.
Exceptions there are, of course, but where
native capacities are equal the youth who
takes a High school education will begin
over the one who goes no further than Gram
mar grades.
This is more emphatically true today than
ever in years gone. When America was still
for the most part an uncOnquered wilder
ness and her fortunes largely those OF the
frontier, keen eye and strong ARM guided
by ready wit, covered multitude OF dell
ciencies in schooling. When land was SO
abundant and so cheap that farmers could
afford to impoverish the soil and move on
to virgin fields, knowledge and use of the
science of agriculture were not accounted
essential to success. When labor was more
a matter of Drawn and dexterity than or
thought-force and skill at machines, the
mere rudiments of education were supposed
to be enough for mechanics and their kind.
But in this age, when the Daniel Boones and
Davy Crocketts have subtler perils than of
stream and forest to adventure, and when
mere muscle finds itself hopelessly outri-
vailed by machinery, in such an age educa-
ton becomes, not the relish of few, but
bread and meat for the rank and file.
One of the most grievous mistakes, then,
a boy or girl can make is to let slip the op-
portunity of completing the High school
grades at least; and one of the richest serv-
ices parents can render is to see to it, at
whatever sacrifice, that this opportunity is
not withheld. Temptation to leave school
in order to begin money-making presents it
self in many alluring guises but almost in
yariably it makes dupes of those who yield.
Work that is worth doing can be done in
tcomparably better by the educated than by
the illiterate; and Jobs with a future to them
require knowledge and training. Ambitious
youths, by waiting until they have prepared
. themselves to enter a business or craft,
will go forward with stride where other
: wise they would move but haltingly and
soon reach their limit.
/. 1t is exceedingly gratifying that Atlanta's
High schools are overlooking. Let all who
have entered stay resolutely to the end.