Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1944-08-25
Whats
New?
By
Edward Duck
Educational
Director,
Local II
FOOLS GOLD

FOOLS GOLD
Summer is drawing to a
close, as summers have way
doing.
Five million boys and girls
between the ages of IA and II
who have been working in
stores, factories, and farms
will decide whether to return
to school or remain on the job.
Older and wiser heads will
counsel these youngsters, but
much of this advice will fall
upon deaf ears. The feel of
folding money in pockets ac-
customed to pennies and
nickels is a tough thing to
beat at any time. How can
you convince a young man
who is earning fair wages that
he should give up his war
Job and be a kid again?
There's a story about a lad,
who at 18 considered his dad
a dumbell, but who, when he
reached the ripe old age of
81, was amazed to discover
what the old man had
"learned" in three short years.
Our national government is
very much concerned with
this problem. 1t knows that
the very youth of these chill
dren is the most precious as
set that the Nation owns, and
that the unplanned child labor
we are permitting now is the
most expensive way possible
of meeting labor needs.
AFTER WAR?
What's going to happen to
these young people after the
war boom stops? We're going
to have millions of disillu-
stoned youngsters. Instead of
scientists, engineers, econom-
lists, doctors, and trained spe-
cialists, we will have an over
supply of laborers.
Whittier wrote, "The sad
dest words of tongue or pen
are only these, 1T might have
beenp F." Certainly Edison,
Marconi, Bell, Pasteur, Curie,
Bach, Blackstone, Lincoln, the
Wright Brothers, Franklin,
Webster, Newton, Fulton, and
Whitney, to name few,
would never have attained
the success they enjoyed, had
they chased the will-o-the-
wisp and not persevered in
their respective vocationS.
Seldom is success an acci-
dental thing, except perhaps
in Hollywood's fairyland tales.
Those who make their mark
in the world of today do so
because they have specialized
in a given field and have
taken full advantage of the
educational opportunities af-
forded them. .
The uneducated person who
succeeds in life is the excep-
tion rather than the rule. He
does so in spite of his lack of
education, not because of it.
RIGHTFUL HERITAGE
American youth should be
taught that an equate
education and normal
growth period is its rightful
heritage. America needs train
ed leaders. School helps to
build leaders and train tech
nicians. Adults generally do
not go to school. The future
of postwar America depends
on the youth of today. We
must impress the teen-age
children that it is smart to go
to school, Those who break
off from their classes now
will find ii difficult to return
to them.
Education pays dividends.
Statistics prove this. Ask
your children if they are as
wise as our wisest men, who
know what schooling means.
Jefferson said that educating
and informing the mass of
people is the only sure re-
lance for the preservation of
our liberty.
Parents who selfishly en-
courage their youngsters to
quit school prematurely when
they have ambitions which
require study, are unworthy
parents. Don't force your chill
dren to do the job you should
do, Don't count on them to
earn money you can do with
out. Your children are your
wealth. Worthwhile parents
want their children to be bet
ter and wiser than they.
One final word to the youth
who contemplates working
his way through high school.
Don't take on too heavy a