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Show Mrs. Glenn Frank is the widow of the distinguished editor and educator who for twelve years" was president of the University of Wisconsin. After the tragic death of her husband and only son in an automobile accident in 19 AO, she turned and' writing r Since thenher articles have appeared in mqny leading national magazines. In this article, especially to lecturing t " '.' ' w- - '4y .''1 ' prepared for Family Weekly, she writes knowld from close observation and , V edge of her subject. A first-han- by Mrs. Glenn Frank Iff i V 'It' v- . i ':3r Send Your Child to the RIGHT College The writer gave high praise to the influence of his little alma mater, and the sustained applause after his lecture testified to the esteem in which the audience held him. Yet after the meeting I couldn't find a single person who had ever before heard of the college the author had attended. America will welcome TEIE COLLEGESourof sons as and daughters freshmen this fall. But by the time many of our children have learned their way around campus, they will suspect that a serious mistake has been made. Unfortunately, some of them will be right. Too many of our youngsters are sent to the wrong colleges not wrong in the sense of educational inferiority, but wrong for the individual needs of the children themselves. , In deciding which school seems best, first rid yourself of false pride and selfishness. Podunk University may not be the best choice for your child despite the fact it's close to home or your alma mater. Don't, select a college Just because you think its name will give your child social prestige, either. There is only one thing which will give him any value in the eyes of his fellow citizens: contributing to his generation the best of which he is capable. I had ample proof of this recently. A famous American poet and novelist was lecturing to a large audience. T At one point in his' speech, he explained that poverty limited his childhood schooling. When he reached college age, he found almost every college closed to him because he lacked formal preparation. Finally he was accepted by a small, poor, and comparatively unknown school. It was. there he first started to write poetry which ; later was published in some of America's of . i T leading magazines. FAMILY WttKIT MAGAZINE MAY j 1954 Don't select a college for your child to compensate for your own early disappointments. I know a father who, over his son's protests, entered him in a large Ivy League school. Why? Because when the father, fresh out of a small Midwestern college, entered a law firm, the other members, were all Harvard, x Yale, and Princeton men. The father outdis- tanced them professionally, but he still envied their Ivy League background. The son wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and attend a small college where there would be a steady, personal give-antake of ideas between students and instructors, both in class and out. But the father's will prevailed and off the boy went to the big school, where he floundered unhappily in the impersonal vastness. "I think I could be dead a week in my room without anyone knowing it," he wrote his mother. r What's more, the boy's grades, which had always been excellent, dropped badly. The boy has a keen mind, but he is shy and sensitive. At least for his freshman and sophomore years, he should have entered a smaller college where his personality would have had a chance to develop under personal supervision and encouragement. Of course, the smaller school isn't always the answer. A boy or girl who is a born leader ' and learns easily may find a small college dull, The challenge of a large college with difficult scholarship requirements and the " competition of many other able students may be Just what is needed to inspire your youngster to develop his full potentialities. There can be no blanket answer to the question, "Should the child or the parents select the college?" The ideal decision would be the result of agreement among parents and child after thorough research and But a teen-ag- e boy or girl often is too immature to make a wise choice, yet good work cannot be done if the college's atmos d- dis-cussi- on. - phere makes the student unhappy, or fails to inspire him. I know an able but disappointed young man who had ambitions to be a physicist. But he talked his parents out of sending him to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and went instead to a university famous for its football teams. In high school, football hadn't interfered with his studies, but college was different. His dreams of becoming a scientist were ground out on the gridiron, and he blames his parents for a blighted career. "They should have picked the right college for me," he says Parents, remember that you send your chil- dren to college to make them better men and women. Only the right college foK their particular needs will fully develop the judgment, the discernment, the power to think of which they are capable. Fully developed by the proper education, these powers will enable your children to give sane, intelligent, and fruitful direction to their lives. Only then will they be as good human beings as it is possible for them to be. 3 q&L |