Evening star., 1936-06-11
The Future
Of Young
Graduates
Guiding Hand Of
Fate in Life
Course.
BY ANGELO PATRI.

livery term-end. as the graduates
prepare to leave school and enter
on some course that they are to follow
through life, have a delightful time
trying to pick out the one child who
will find new way to work out his
time on earth. Most of the children
will go out to find places in accepted
inches. They will be more or less sue
ceSSful in the professions and the in
duStries. but there will be one who will
be different. who instead of following
old paths will break out a new one in
which many others, in time to come,
will follow.
! to be opened. What new service given
to men and women the world over;
one that will enrich their lives, pro-
long their health, make work lighter,
remove some great burden from the
backs Of humanity. / am very cer-
tain that there will be such a miracle
How I would like to see it, to be able
to pick out the boy or the girl who is
going to perform it.
That Is something that we cannot
do. with all the testing and plotting
and curving imaginable. The childs
secret is hidden even from himself.
Time and his own effort to develop
the power that springs within him
disclose the gift. Edison was hidden
from his teachers, yet he was one
among the million. We can't pick the
Curie, the Marconi, the Lindbergn,
the Jane Addams-yet they are there,
present In some active, eager child,
hidden behind some grave face, fer
menting In the mind of some trouble
some youngster.
1t is that search for the one child
among the host that makes teaching
such an adventure, and such a re-
sponsibility. 1t Is that hope that leads
teacher on day after day to perform
the routine duty, to sacrifice it for
some queer child. to speed it up for
another. slow it down for still another
It is that hope that holds a teachers
patience after long trial. It is that
chance that holds him to his task long
after every one else have given up,
except, perhaps, that queer child's
mother.
So 1t is that at graduation time all
listen with strained ears to the choice
the child makes for his next step.
What work win he elect? What
school? What course will he pursue
for the next years? The choice some
times kills hope in our hearts, but
only for the time. Teachers know that
the chosen work, the elected school.
the course to be followed are not the
final answer for the one. He or she
will start OF in the familiar way, most
likely, but there will come day when
he will turn aside, and, in spite Of all
precedent, all powers to the contrary,
will mark out the ne wway. If he has
1t in him 1t will come out. 1t must.
So we hope and watch.
This hope Is the teachers life. For
Its sake she is gentle and kind, strong
as rock, safe as mother. Seeking
to nourish the tiniest germ of power,
she lets no child, however unrespon-
sive, go without his days ration Of
help and inspiration. Each one of
them is precious in himself, but there
may be one among them. the one
bearing the light for his generation,
and for his sake even the last must
be treated as though he were first
He might be.
He or she might be your child. Are
you giving him, and her. the oppor-
tunity to prove himself?
(Copyrisht. 1850