The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-04-02

service they have rendered to their fellow men by contributing to their knowledge, enjoyment and consola- ton.
 ITO beget good taste for letters a careful though unobtrusive oversight should be exercised as to the stu dents reading and this from child hood: near at hand should be kept books of wholesome content and suit ed to each period of adolescence, and of such there Is no lack Passages of especial merit of literary significance and beauty should be indicated and wherein lie their salient features pointed out. but this not too didacti- cally. This method of procedure should arouse in the students soul a consciousness of the many beauties embalmed in the works of literary master minds and the souls power to respond to these. It should likewise bring about what so often consti- tutes one of the chief delights of literary studies. namely, the discov- cry in the language of eminent wri- ters the expression of thoughts and fancies one had felt were native to himself alone.
 Finally. the student should bS en- couraged to try his prentice hand at compositions and by gradual stages. These. after careful revision by the literary mentor, who should advert more to their excellencies than to their defects should be carefully re- arranged and rewritten When the aspirant for laurels in the domain of letters discovers his particular bent, in what line he is most proficient, he should direct all his energies toward acquiring in this department the highest art possible"
 CT do not hesitate to say that young people are not so studious nowadays as they were in the days of yore and this conclusion is the result of recol- lections of my own school days, of IS years as a pedagogue, of general complaints from parents, college presidents and business men, of con versations with teachers in various parts of the country and of observa- tions of the pupils of these. This lack of study is due in great measure to present conditions of life. so com pleX, so distracting and so different from those that formerly obtained. It Is due also to different conditions in our schools. conditions brought about by the very praiseworthy. If distracted. efforts of educational au- thorities to adapt the school courses to the peculiar demands of modern life. Outside of school there are so many affairs to take up the atten- ton and lime of the pupils that were non-existent in the good old days. Young people, and their par ents likewise, are out onight now more than they were in earlier times and the hours formerly spent around the family lamp where lessons were learned for the following day, where parents exercised a benign oversight and gave judicious assistance, where discussion among the young folks themselves as to their various studies spurred into emulation these hours are now given rather to the movie, to auto rides or to the many other forms of amusement not countenanced In the years that have passed.
 Tn the schools themselves condi- tions have changed, through no fault of the school authorities but because of the manifold demands the schools are called upon to satisfy. School life is no longer simple. Classes are crowded. teachers are few in compari- son and their activities must concern many things from which the old time teacher was free and that are not exactly germane to the medication of