Show STUDENT LTFE in which to bury themselves from the light of the world instead of making it serve as a pedestal from which they could more clearly view the immense universe of truth and be humbled by the comparison of the summation of knowledge with the infinitesimal portion of it in their possession Humility is a characteristic of the great man One mistake that tends toward narrowness is that of assuming the attitude of a specialist too early in life About the time a boy emerges from the state of infancy he decides he is getting too old to go to school much longer He must prepare immediately to do the work of his chosen pursuit Therefore he seeks to avoid such courses of study as appear to him not directly related to the work he is preparing to do Many young prospective engineers have sought to substitute mathematics for English in their preparatory years because as they say “We aintgot no use for rhetoric in engineerin” Man'' silly little creatures from the kitchen have tried to substitute English for mathematics for various reasons and for all but the most elementary courses in mathematics the girls have succeeded in getting the coveted substitution The purely elective system is good for men of mature minds or for younger persons who have completed good prescribed high school courses but for the majority who enter our preparatory department a careful guardianship is necessary to prevent an early and extremely narrow specialization Other students discover at a very early age that they are especially well adapted to a certain kind of work and they at once begin their specialization By eliminating all courses that they “dont need” they often fail to get even an introduction to fields of study in which they would find more pleasure and accomplish better results than in the work they blindly select A young man is successful in a debating club He wins in a number of contests and the victories intoxicate him He can clearly see that he is endowed with exceptionally logical reasoning faculties coupled with unusual powers of expression He must enter the legal profession where he can develop and exercise If he his gifts and attainments had stepped to complete a general science course before entering exclusively upon the study of law he would probably have gained an insight into fields of study far better suited to his mind than that which If not he could then he elected begin to specialize with a broader foundation to build upon and in |