Dear Comrade:
The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in any man or
woman. It is the things which we do for ourselves in any line of work
that count the most for us. The things which come to us without any
effort on our part do not stay with us very long nor do us much good
while we have them.
Sometimes we feel discouraged because we have not had the opportunity to
attend school as much as we would like. There is no gainsaying but that
this is a tremendous handicap and yet, after all, it is not an
insurmountable obstacle. It is much better to have the appetite without
the food than to have the food without the appetite. There is always a
chance of securing the food if we want it bad enough and will struggle
hard enough. So in the matter of an education. Many a man who has never
seen the inside of a college is better educated than those who have been
through college.
These men have really wanted knowledge, have sought it early and late,
and have found knowledge; and because they were in the work-a-day world,
in constant contact with their fellow-men, they were able to relate the
knowledge which they gained out of books to the world in which they
lived and this is true education. This is, also, what many college-bred
people lack. A student is half made as soon as he seeks knowledge for
its own sake. If you are striving to learn, not to make grades or to
pass examinations or to secure a degree, but simply for the sake of
knowing things, then indeed you are on the way to become really
educated.
Stimulate within yourself a desire for knowledge, observe the things
about you, add to your store of information daily; read a good book each
day, even if you have time to read only a page or two, and you will be
surprised at the result in your life.
Take, for example, our spelling. Why should we continually misspell the
words which we use every day and which we see every day on a printed
page. If we are wide-awake and have our eyes open, we can soon learn to
spell correctly all these common words, at least. Make a list this week
of fifty things with which you come in contact in your daily work, then
look these words up in your dictionary and see how many of them you have
misspelled. There is no reason why we should not be learning constantly
and the more we observe, the more acute becomes our power of
observation.
Let us determine more than ever to feel that we are part of the great
world movement, that we belong in the ranks of those who have caught the
vision of what the world might be, and that we belong to that glorious
army of those who are fighting for the dream; so we may take courage; so
we may find joy in the struggle, bitter as it may be, and so we may do
our part in the fight.
Yours for Education,