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8 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTY DIRECTORY.
A Letter to the
Young.
My Dear Young Friends:
Let me give you a truth,-one that you will recognize as a truth all
down the years of your life, even to old age. It is this: A trained mind
and a noble character are the basis of success and happiness. Do not fail
to do all in your power to secure these. It will pay. You never saw anyone
who regretted having too much education. You find hundreds who regret
having too little. Get all the mental training you can. Get it at any cost.
Get it now. Decide after you have gotten all your home school can give, to
go to school away from home. Do not stop to question whether you can
afford it. Decide ! . The thing you cannot afford is, not to decide. Those who
decide to go higher in their education will go higher in their life-work. If
you don't have the money it will come, after you have decided. There are
young men and women in all our higher schools and colleges who did not see
their way clear at first; but they decided and the way cleared.
The next important thing is to choose a school. Time and money are
both wasted by attending an inferior school. Putting in time is not getting an
education. "Going through books," and "reciting lessons" do not educate.
There are some institutions which hold out great inducements (on paper) to
young people, without being able really to educate. Such pretenses do much
mischief. Pupils find out after leaving such a school that they are unable to
do that for which they supposed themselves prepared. Be careful about your
choice. Choose the best. Nothing is so good as the best. A few weeks at a
-good school, under live teachers, is better than months at an inferior school.
I am not going to advise you to attend the State Normal School at
Bloomsburg until I know something about you. That might not be the best
for you. If you want help, however, either in deciding the question of going
to school, or in selecting a school to attend, I shall gladly help you. When
you write, tell me what you have already acomplished in your education, and
what obstacles you need to overcome. Yours truly,
J. Pi WELSH,
Principal State Normal School,
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.