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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1923)
T H E C H E M A W A A M E R IC A N PAGE 4 W H Y NOT “STICK” (C o n tin u ed from pag e 1) Its eq u ip m en t was w retched. I t w as losing great sum s of m oney rapidly. M any railro ad s had gone to th e w all. G reat financial syn d icates had attem pted to rem edy the situ atio n . Even the C ongress of th e U n it ed S tates had failed to rem edy the m atter. T h en H a rri m an stepped in to th e breach. All th is tim e his p en e tra tin g m ind had been stu d y in g the in tricate problem , and all at once, w hen the outlook was most d isco u rag ing, an asto u n d in g proposition reached the g o v ern m e n t— an offer to pay fifty-eight m illion dollars in cash for th e w retched road, and an additional tw enty- seven m illions to th e holders of the first m ortgage bonds. T h is was in F eb ru ary , 1 8 9 8 , and the man who m ade the au th o rities of the U nited States w onder, and th e g reat financial syndicates of N ew Y ork open their eyes, sw ung into the w o rld ’s vision as a com ing railroad g ian t. T he resu lt was th a t w ithin th ree or four years from the en d in g of the G overnm ent receiver ship , th e once despised “ streak of r u s t” reach in g from O m aha to O gden was paying good dividends. P u re g rit is the m aster key w hich unlocks all diffi cu lties. W h at has it not accom plished? T h e g reat life questions are: “ Do you keep at it?’ “ Can you stick by yo u r proposition?” “ Can you persevere after failure?” “ H ave you g rit enough to hold on, stick and h an g , in spite of th e m ost d isco u rag in g obstacles?” W e have all observed In d ian boys and girls who have tu rn e d away from co n tin u in g th eir school—s tu d en ts who had pluck enough to begin th in g s with e n thusiasm , b u t did not have g rit enough to carry them to a finish. T h e point at w hich you are tem pted to q u it, the point w here yo u r g rit leaves you, will m easure your achieving power. M any of th e g ran d est men and women in th e w orld today started as poor boys and g irls, w ith not one- half th e o p p o rtu n ities of Chem aw a stu d e n ts— no cap i tal but p u re g rit and invincible purpose. ACADEMIC NOTES O ne of th e classroom teachers said th a t read in g the p u p ils’ essays on H om e B uilding m ade her long to visit each hom e described. All teachers agree th a t th e stu d e n ts have derived m uch benefit from w ritin g th e essays. H ow ever, th e m ost im p o rtan t p art of th is w ork is y et to be accom plished; the w orking o u t of th e pro ject th is sum m er and th e re p o rt to be m ade th is fall, are th e aim s for w hich the w ork was u n d er ta k en . M rs. B rickell read an excellent p aper on H om e E conom ics at the teach ers’ m eeting last W ednesday m orning. T h is ch ap ter, as presented in Classroom M ethod and M anagem ent, was adequately handled and we were in stru cted and pleased w ith M rs. B rick ell’s discussion. M r. D. S. T u rn e r gave us a helpful d is cussion of th e chapter on ag ricu ltu re. T h ese d iscu s sions from the in d u strial teachers have indicated m eans by w hich academ ic and industrial teachers m ay cooperate m ore successfully. Miss Davis and Miss G u n n will lead the discussion at th e n ex t m eeting. Miss Davis and M rs. John so n , both of C alifornia, visited several classroom s and some of th e industrial dep artm ents at Chem aw a recently. M iss Davis is county su p erin ten d en t w ith h ead q u arters at S an ta C ruz. She is especially interested in the course of stu d y in use in In d ian schools in w hich in d u strial in stru c tio n is co r related w ith academ ic w ith such splendid resu lts. I n d u strial in stru ctio n is sadly neglected in the public schools. E d u cato rs are try in g to solve the problem of successfully in co rp o ratin g it in the school c u rric u lum . C hem aw a contrib u ted to this purpose by p re sen tin g Miss D avis a copy of o u r course of stu d y , w hich she u rg e n tly requested. T he follow ing excerpts were taken from the essays on H om e B uilding: “ I will m ake some dresses for m y m o th er to show h er w h at I learned out here in th e sew in g ro o m .” “ W hen I go hom e I am g oing to teach m y sisters som e good m an n ers I ’ve learned here. I ’m going to teach them to be polite. I am going to teach m y brothers and m y sisters lots of th in g s I have learned h e re .” “ W hen I go hom e this sum m er I am going to try to do all the cooking to show w hat I have learned a t C hem aw a.” “ I d o n ’t w an t a fence around m y house. I t is nicer to have grass w ithout a fence th e w ay it is at C h em aw a.” In th e essay from w hich th is quotation is tak en , the youth fu l w riter adds a touch of hum or in these words: “ I w ant a chicken yard w ith a w ire fence around it. I w ant lots of roosters and old hens. ’ ’ A girl who will some day re tu rn to her hom e in A laska w rites: “ I will try to keep o u r garbage can scrubbed every m orning. I will feed th e foxes and chickens and keep the fox corral c le a n .” A nother fo u rth grade pupil will w ork on th is p ro ject: “ I am going to patch the screens on th e doors and the w indow s so the flies and m osquitoes and other insects c a n ’t com e in. A fter I patch th e screens I am going to kill all the flies in the house. I ’ll get some sw atters so I can kill th e flies easier, or I can get my father to m ake them for me, because he know s how to m ake th e m .” An eig h th grade girl and a ten th grade boy w orked out plans by m eans of w hich they hope to im prove th e ir houses in the far n o rth w here th e silent cold creeps th ro u g h protecting w alls, and fuel is scarce and e x pensive. In reading these essays one is im pressed w ith the fact th a t each child so vividly pictured his hom e s u r ro undings th a t, in fancy, he was at hom e, and co n centrated on rem oving undesirable conditions th a t m ake his hom e less attractiv e or less h ealth fu l. E ach pupil m et his ow n peculiar problem an d stru g g led w ith its solution.
