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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 22, 1924)
J MAY 8 COPY -1956 The Chemawa American Printed at Chomawa, Vol. XXVI Oregon, and Devoted to the interests of Indian Education Wednesday, October 22, 1924 IMPROVE YOUR WORK On the opening of the schools throughout our land there are millions of young people who voice the happy thought of progress, which carries with it the sense of fresh hope and new opportunities, of old mistakes corrected and new purposes determined upon. We believe each one of our young people is looking this year to bring something into his life to make him bigger, happier and more prosperous. An education is not to be acquired by jerks, nor by single strokes. All achievement is centered on a constant effort to improve, to make each day’s work better than that of the previous day. The secret lies in the ever lasting effort to do your best, by sticking, and by plod ding. There is no young person, be he ever so humble or stupid, but can improve his condition wondeifully if he is constant in his work, no matter what his aim may be. The plodder who tries to do everything better each day. who is everlastingly trying to do his best, gets away ahead of the person who is waiting for the big opportunity, for a chance to do something he considers worth while. Young people, it is simply amazing what a single year in school, or outside at work of this constant plod ding, sticking, policy will accomplish. It is just a little more improvement here and a little better work there, 365 days in the year, that will effect what may appear as miracles. No matter what kind of work you take up the essential feature is that you perform your tasks a little better each day. Everybody is ex pected to do his duty, but the person who does a little moréis certain of promotion and advancement. The person who pushes the standard of excellence a little higher, who is original, resourceful, who is always on the alert for the slightest improvement on his way of doing things, is the one who forges his way io the front. There is a standing advertisement for this kind of a person all over the world. It is the quality for doing your best, of doing a little more than isexpected, that enables people to stand out as leaders, not followers. Young people, be always on the lookout for ways of improving your work, and manage to attract the atten tion, not only of your immediate teacher, but of all No. 2 those in authority. One can tell very quickly when going through any of our departments at Chemawa what are the principles of that place. If you find an employe who is not satisfied with what was done yes terday, or last week, who is always striving to make today a little better, and always working for greater effi ciency, you have found a winner. It is in every young man or young woman at Che mawa to be first-class in something if he or shesowill. There is absolutely no excuse for incompetence at Chemawa where opportunity and efficiency abound on every hand; no excuse when capable people are in demand. If our boys and girls take advantage of their opportunities here, no matter what their conditions or circumstances, regardless of race or color, they will be in great demand here and elsewhere. If one excels in his calling, no matter how humble it may be, nothing can keep him from success. But excellence, superiority, cost something. One must make sacrifices to become excellent or superior in anything. One must be mentally alert, must keep at his job every minute, constantly trying to improve day by day. Of course it will seem much easier to follow the line of least resistance, to be superficial, sloppy and slovenly in your daily duties, than to pay the price of excellence in daily struggle for improvement. It rests practically entirely with each student at this school whether or not he w’ill be an efficient and capa ble worker in his chosen vocation. If so willed, im provement on yesterday’s work is possible for all. We think that any young person at this institution would feel insulted if it were hinted that he or she would never do any better than at the present. There is something in every one of us which tells us that we can do better—that we are immeasurably capable of doing much more than we have yet done. We all know that we can improve on our past; we all know that we can do things better than we have ever done before. We can put more energy, more life, more enthusi asm, more dead-in-earnest methods in our efforts than we have been in the habit of doing. We do not know a single student, or employe, at Chemawa, who cannot (Continued on page 4)
