PAGE TWO
THE VOICE
MAY, 1965
THE VOICE STAFF
EDITOR - Roosevelt L. Daniels, Jr.
NEWS EDITOR Eva McEachern
FEATURE EDITORS Juanita McRae, Carolyn Council,
Eva McEachern
EXCHANGE EDITOR Mary Jane McNeil
SPORTS EDITORS • Marlyn Walker, Robert Melvin
Floyd Woodard, Jr.
BUSINESS MANAGER James J. Stackhouse
CIRCULATION MANAGERS Sherree Crouch
Carolyn Council
TYPISTS Luretha Coats, Hytheus Monroe
Josey B. Monroe
PHOTOGRAPHER • Floyd Woodard, Jr.
CARTOONIST . - Sam MaxweU, III
STUDENT COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE Sherree Cruoch
FACULTY ADVISOR Mrs. M. H. Scott
Little And Big End Of Lite's Horn
Dear Students,
I know from my experiences here at our college that there are more
than just a few of you who, being up-coming sophomores, juniors, and
seniors, are at this very moment contemplating leaving FSC after your
finals and never returning because of what we generajly caU hard luck,
bad breaks, and lack of funds. All of these things are starmg you m the
face and encouraging you to go off to New York, Philadelphia, or maybe
Charleston, and work on this splendid job that has been offered to your
mother for hei dear, sweet child. Well, all of that is well and good; but,
believe me. nothing is worth leaving school for. Furthermore, if you
leave under these conditions, you are really being a “quitter” and giving
up on one of the greatest opportunities that will probably come to many
of us.
Some of you are probably saying at this point, “Humph, she can talk
big now; she’s finishing. What does she know about our situation? Well,
it is true that I hope to be leaving—graduating, really—but it is no rea
son to think that I don’t know what many of you are going through. 1
know these things because I have experienced them, felt them, and wit
nessed them. Now let’s examine your reasons for leaving.
I know that’s what many of you are planning because I have planned
it practically every end of every year, every beginning of every year,
and nearly every semester smce I have been here. I know some of you
are doubting this and thinking of those few remarks of praise you have
heard from a few people concerning me. But, believe me. It actually did
happen. Well, you are now wondering why and propedly so. The reason
is something similar to those you may have—hard luck, bad breaks, aM
a lack of funds. _
When I say hard luck. I’m sure you know what I mean. ReaUy, it
rather overlays bad breaks, so I will combine them for sirnplicity’s sake.
Hard luck and bad breaks usually run hand in hand and, in schools and
colleges usuaUy result from something done on the part of a teacher.
This can also be something that the teacher neglected to do. Beheve it
or not, these I have had to fight secretly and endure ever smce I entered
school here in September of 1961. From the very first week I had bad
luck and had to have several conferences with our president before
could even register for school. I am not a very strong person when it
comes to sensitivity, so I was ready then and there to go home and get
myself a job somewhere; but the president, our capable administration,
and several others made me see that everyone makes a mistake at times
and I just happened to be the nearest victim when they did it at that time.
Anyway, I managed after that to become an enrolled student of FSTC
(At that time the T was stiU in.) But that was just the beginning of one
bad break after another. They kept making mistakes at my expense,
writing letters to my home saying that I owed large sums of money which
had already been paid, and telling me it was a mistake when I checked
into it. These things did not stop me and they happened more often than
I care to remember, but I could recall nearly all of them if I had to.
These are all on the financial side but there are plenty of others.
I am not the type of person who stands out in a classroom and draws
a great deal of attention. Many of you are not either, and you are the
ones who will imderstand this best. Those who are unfortunate enough
to fail to be of interest to the teachers haven’t much of a chance around
here one way or the other. You can work yourself to death, figuratively,
and do good quality work, but since you are a “nobody,” you will just
get a B+ (for A work) and an A- at the most. Some of our teachers—
and I guess others also—are overly subjective in their grading. Once
you have had a teacher for a particular course and make a certain grade
for this course, please do not go back to him—if possibl^for another
course unless you made an A—that is, if you wish to maintain a good,
respectable average. You know what I am referring to. That teacher
will give you the same grade for every course you take under him after
you have had the first one, especially if his tests are essay. I could get
extra personal and cite some real cases of this.
I also have been given grades that shocked me into disbelief because
they were so much lower than the level of work I had done and the
teacher had said, “You’re doing wonderfully in this or that.” Then when
grade time comes, you realize that you have been carried through the
mill and gotten a grade lower than the grade so-&-so got just because
S0-&-S0 just happened to be in some Greek organization or club, or maybe
just a favorite of the teacher. This has happened to me again more times
than I care to think about. I’m not the type to go and ask “why” for these
things. I just accept them.
It was one of these very things that kept me out of the honor society
and I knew that this semester was the only chance I would have to make
it. I started the term making better grades than ever on the tests and
assignments in all my courses. Unfortunately, I became sick and had to
miss a number of days. Well, this did not stop me even though the time
out of classes impeded my cUmb toward the honor society—but not to
such an extent that I could not catch up. So, I had the usual B+’s instead
of A’s, a few B’s and to top the whole Mt, a C-f instead of the B I
thought I had. A C was so far from my mind that it hurt to the marrow.
I checked aU of my papers and to this day, I believe and know that I
Edward McDonald
I have drawn for the occasion
two horns, representing the general
course of successful and unsuccess
ful life. The sketch is based on the
often heard maxim: “If you wish
to come out at the big end of the
horn, you must go in at the little
end.”
Into the little end of the upper
horn you see a man going. He is
of small stature, and is squeezing
in. However, it is not much trouble
to get into the mouthpiece of the
horn, for it is always larger than
the neck. The greater difficulty lies
in squeezing through the neck into
the gradual swell of the horn. The
ladder is called education and re
presents the early training essen
tial to entrance upon life’s business.
The neck is marked experience,
and this is the difficult part and
period through which every bus
iness of life is to pass. The big
end of this horn is marked success.
And this is the end reached when
the finished man comes out. Of the
upper horn you will observe that
the man comes out much enlarged
in size—the same little fellow who
was so small upon his entrance.
He went in upon a small scale,
he came through the difficult neck
of experience, and he came out
successful and according to capa
city and according to the size of
the horn that his caliber adapted
him to in the business of life.
In the second or lower horn we
see the rule of development and
success reversed. A great big fel
low goes in at the big end of the
horn, and he comes out shriveled,
battered, and dilapidated. He start
ed into business or profession full
handed, and without education or
experience for his calling. If he
does not stay there, as a fellow
sometimes does when he enters
the little end, he goes on diminish
ing in size and importance until
he gets into the neck of experience
and comes down the ladder of
education. He gets his experience
too late, or at the wrong end of
life’s horn; and he comes out no
body or nothing, only to descend the
ladder of education which the suc
cessful man ascended before he
entered the horn at the small end.
The second man proves a failure,
and his life is so far spent — his
experience comes so late, his
energies and ambition are so far
exhausted, and his means and re
sources are so limited — that he
never attempts to recover.
And so I ask you, especially my
fellow students, to join me in en
tering at the little end of the horn.
Strive to receive a good degree of
education and experience. Then,
and only then, may we come out
at the big end of life’s horn with
flying colors and of grand pro
portions. But, those of you who
choose to go in the big end of the
horn first will only come out shrivel
ed into a pigmy, learning too late
the experience essential to begin
with, if you learn at all, and too
old perhaps and too discouraged,
sometimes maybe too proud and
incapable, to try the little end of
the horn by going the other way.
Soccesg
KX?0
//
did not deserve a C from that course. But, what can we, the poor, un
fortunate students, do about it? Nothing. It’s just a cruel, mean system
with its overly subjective teachers.
Now, let’s look at the professor that we call “Ught,” who comes to
class looking like the number-one scholar from the genius school, sits
behind his desk (does not move until class is over) and taUcs about
everything under the ocean as long as it has absolutely nothing to do
with his subject—which he is afraid of because he does not know it well
enough to teach it—and shouldn’t be there in the first place. There is
absolutely nothing to do with this one except studying what is in the
textbook; because even though he never orally mentions what is in the
textbook in class, every word from the most difficult-to-understand sent
ences will be quoted verbatim from the book with maybe a blank left
for you to put in some insignificant word like “wise,” or “splendor” or
some such ridiculous term. Don’t let this discourage you because the rest
of the class is in the same predicament. So, even though he gives you a
C- or a D+ for the course, just be thankful for being out of it and; if it
is something you have to repeat, just make sure to get a different
teacher—who probably won’t be any better in a different sense.
Whatever you do in any case, do not let the college get the best of
you—especially to the point that you wish to disconnect yourself from
it—at least until you graduate. People will be people and in so doing they
will step on you, over you, and around you unless you let them know that
you are a person just as much so as they are. Stick up for your rights
and keep working because you are trying to better yourself and not the
people around you.
The things that are done to you and against you are coming from
human sources, so if your endurance is not the best in the world, get
yourself a couple of strong, sturdy friends to help you through it and
lean on the Bible or church because that is what I did. I leaned on my
belief in God, my mother, my friends, and especially my husband. If it
takes all of this for you to stick and remain on the job for a higher
standing in life, use it; and don’t let the people know that they are
bothering you or hurting you. They don’t mean that much to you anyway,
because, as I said, we were sent here for the purpose of getting an educa
tion mainly. So let’s not let anyone, nor anything, detain us, delay us,
nor waylay us from our efforts. C!ome on back in September ad fight
the odds. The right man always comes out on top ane way or the other.
Have a happy summer. Juanita McRae
Reminiscence
James Stackhouse
It seems as if this school year
flew by, as if it skipped days and
weeks at a time. Why, it was only
yesterday that the freshmen came
for their pre-orientation, that we
saw a new crop of instructors, some
which we may never forget (Mr.
Cox, Miss Alston, Mrs. Massey, Dr.
Guldescu), that Sam Jones, fresh
man, made an outstanding debut
on the football team, that the stud
ents were so excited over the Home
coming activities, that the choir
presented the Messiah and the
Christmas vacation began, that the
band participated in Governor-elect
Dan Moore’s Inaugural Parade;
that Judith Wilkins was elected
State’s SNEA president, that 14
Fayetteville State students made it
among the Who’s Who column, that
Fayetteville State Broncos upset
Winston-Salem’s basketball team,
that work began on the groundwork
which will change Fayetteville
State’s image; that the Easter
holidays began, that Fayetteville
State’s track team defeated Allen
University, that the work study
program was promoted, that George
Langford was elected president of
the Student Body, and that Presid
ent Jones was boosted to higher
levels by the Board of Trustees . . .