THE ELON COLLEGE WEEKLY
Vol. III. New Series.
Greensboro, N. C., Friday, January 17, 1913
and Elon College, N. 0.
No. 33
LOCALS AND PEHSONALS
On account of the illness of her daugh
ter, Miss Nellie Sue, who is a sludeiit of
the college, Mrs. P. H. Fleming- of High
Point, N. C., is spending a short while
at West Uormitoi-y.
Ur. Matryn Summerbell of Lakeniont,
New York, returned to his liome on Tues
day ev;/ng after delivering his annual
course ( . 'ectures here.
Mr. A»-'niaduke Woodward returned
Tuesday i|l,^iing after a brief visit to his
))arents iii^nffolk, \ a.
Misses Thelma Clymer. student in the
art de)>artment, is at her home in Greens
boro for a short wliile.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.
In this day of experimentation and u^-
rest in every line of living, there are di
vergent, conflicting notions of the man
ner, method, content, end, and aim of
education. Some for example imagine that
in order to secure an education one has
merely to spend so many years ia school,
college and university, and that when the
student has been drinking for all this
time at the Pierian fount, and emerges
at last the happy possessor of a sheep
skin and some sort of an honorable de
gree, that of course he is educated. In
such case it is granted that he may carry
some of the earmarks of an education,
and yet it is not always that such are
educated. For with some there is funda
mental and self-evident lack. Some in
spite of a college degree are inefflcient,
unsuccessful and incompetent. I have
known men whose names are on the
alumni lists of some of our great uni
versities, who have found their vocation
in driving a trolly ear, and you may have
know instances to match. Now, of what
nse were all those years spent at the uni
versity? Nothing is to be said against the
business of driving a trolly car, but there
are trolly ear drivers in plenty who are
experts at their job, who never saw in
side of a university. Say of a man like
that not that he is educated, but
but that he had a good cliance for an edu
cation and missed his chance.
Again it is sometimes supposed that a
man who has been at a college or a uni-
\’ersity is educated, if he has a fair com
mand of certain subjects that the uni-
^■ersities teach;—^if he has some critical
knowledge of one or more languages; if
he be a mine of information on the Greek'
digamma, or the prehistoric voyages of
the Norsemen to America, or the relics
of the moundbuilders of Ohio. But again
I submit that a man might possess a
fund of information on such topics and
yet be far from having a real education.
He might recite you off-hand the list of
English sovereigns from William the
Conqueror to George V. nithout an er
ror and name the years of their acces
sion and decease; he might recite you the
speeches of Demosthenes, or tell you of
the debate between Cicero and Caesar
over the prospective fate of Cataline, and
yet for all that, when he comes to prac
tical affairs be erratic, vain and full of
ineptitude and helplessness. No! getting
an education is something more than
hearing college lectures, or than loading
the mind with an undigested mass of
facts, theories and opinions, no matter
how well grounded these particular
facts, theories and opinions may be in
themselves.
What then, I am asked, is it, this edu
cation, which so many are in pursuit of;
which so many conspicuously fail to ac
quire. and which some are fortunate
enough to actually obtain?
To this it may be answered that one
mark of the really educated man is a
general knowledge of the topics which
are discussed by intelligent jieople; topics
historical, scientific, literary or political,
and which renders 'him an associate on
equal terms with people of culture and
refinement. Be the place what it may,
the commercial office, the parlor or the
men’s room in a Pullman car, whatever
tlie subject of discussion the educated
man is able to bear his part, modestly
and yet fearlessly, because he has thought
for himself on all these matters, and has
something to say that will add to the
general fund of interest. It is at such a
time that ignorance has hung its head
in humiliation and silence, because it
recosTiizes its own incompetence in a
difficult situation. P^ducation at such a
moment enjoys its share of fellowship
and feels the u|)lift of courage and
conscious power.
Another benefit of a real education is
the general training of the mental facul
ties so that they work together easily
and without strain, whenever required,
and produce prompt and correct judg
ment of men and measures. This coordi
nation of all .mental forces and powers
comes only through years of culture and
practice. It produces ability to concen
trate attention even under the most ad
verse circumstances. The really edu
cated man is master of his moods, and
wlien difficulty confronts him, the more
troublesome they are the more he pulls
himself togetlier to overcome them. He
can tliink by himself in the solitude of
his library and under the inspiration of
the great men, whose books line his
shelves; or like Lincoln he can write a
classic that is to endure through the gen
erations on scraps of paper in all the
rush and bustle of an express train,
('ontrol like this of one’s mental, ma
terial and spiritual possessions, so that
whatever the occasion, the man is sure
of himself, and that 'he can meet the de
mand of the hour, is one of the ends for
which boys are put to school, and which
when it is obtained is well worth all the
years of stnignle and preparation. If
such control of his own thought powers
is achieved, it matters little to a man
whether he has so far neglected some
field in the broad domain of knowledge,
for he can traverse it whenever neces
sary and win all its treasures for his
owTi use. Whatever his need he can sum"
Dr. Martyn Summerbell.
mon all his active, and all his potential-
energies to the affair in hand and so
can look forward confidently to a meas
urable success.
Taking this view of a real education,
flic making of a man the peer of his as
sociates . who possess culture and refine
ment, and the giving him a control and
concentration of all his mental powers.
We may perceive something of the value
to a community like this of a college
wliicli puriiosc« to give it« young people
training of precisely this kind.
There is commercial \alue in it at the
slart. Other things being equal, the
trained mind has the advantage over the
untrained mind in any purpose or occupa
tion in which they happen to compete.
The trained man has the prompt initia
tive; he decides while the other is de
bating. He has the better method, for he
puts his -wits to achieve his result in the
simplest way, while the other sticks to
the rut which his father traveled before
liim. And he applies to his task any
helpful principle that liis reading sup
plies, while tlie other follows the rule of
thumb, often to liis serious detriment.
Or, put this point in another way. We
frequently meet witli men of little or no
culture who have attained great success.
They have enjoyed few advantages, but
with persistence and energy they have
made the best of tlieir resources, and won
out, while others with better opportuni
ties ajiparently have accomplished little
oT nothing. Such men deserve great
credit for their valiant struggle against
an unfavorable handicap: and yet how
much more the same men might 'have
achieved had they enjoyed proper train
ing. How many mistakes they might
have been saved! How many misjudgments
they might have turned to benefits! Ho-w
many ventures t'liat brought losses might
have been avoided! The whole question
resolves into the relative value of a tool
that is fit, and the other that is almost
fit. Imagine a man chopping at a tree
with an axe that is right in all respects
but the one of having a dull edge. No
doubt, if you will give him time he will
get the tree down. If you are his friend
you w’ill go to him and tell him that he
w'ill save time, if he will but stop twenty
minutes and gi-ind his axe. There is the
difference in a nutshell. The untrained
mind is the dull axe. Of course, one can
work with it, but tlie task is slow and
l>ainful. The t»ained mind is possibly
the same axe, but with a keen cutting
edge and the way it makes the chips fly
is a delight.
If such is the difference between indi
viduals in the matter of training, the
principle is the same when you compare
one community with an other. The com
munity -which trains its children wisely
soon takes the lead of the other that neg
lects education, or that gives education
of the wrong sort. The citizens of the
former surpass those of the latter in
initiative, in enterprise, in progress and m
wealth. Every schoolboy knows that
Athens outranked every city of the an
cient world in all that counts for excell
ing greatness, hut can 'he tell why that
town of but moderate population, and
with outlying (erritory of less acreage
than some of our western counties, still
holds that pre-eminence in the eyes of
the nations? The answer is simple
enough. Athens led the world because
she had more men of cultivation to the
square rod than any city of her own age,
or of any subsequent age in the world’s
history. The education of her citizens
gave Athens power, wealth, ascendency.
Hfxw shall we account for the influence
of New England in the development of
onr own nationality? New York State,
Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas,
Missouri, California, Alabama, all have
cities and towns which trace much of
their prosperity to the thrift and enter
prises of colonists who came from New
England' and brought with them the
training for which New England has
been famous from the day of the Pil
grim Fathers. The idea in New Eng
land W'as to educate (he children, all the
children, and the result of that idea
blossomed out in progress in New Eng
land herself and in every community to
which she has given her sons and dau
ghters.
But so far we have been noting the
effect of education on a community in
its commercial and social applications.
One of the latter, one of the social appli
cations, is de.serving more attention in
detail.
One i>urpose of education is to consti
tute leaders for the people, leaders who
are cajiahle of inspiring confidence, and
whose calmness and accuracy of judg
ment will render them trustworthy when
they are gi\en jiositions of responsibil,
ity.
In a social democracy like ours it
makes vast difference to the public weal
who hold the reins of influence and
power. We have the right to demand the
faithfulest and the best; but if trained
Continued on page 3.