Hope for the Future

 

Last week I attended a scholarship luncheon at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. The purpose of the event was to give scholarship sponsors the opportunity to meet the recipients. During the luncheon, the college president spoke about the school as a source of hope for the world. The school symbol is an anchor, which is seen in the above photo in front of Graves Hall. I had always heard that the founder’s quote referred to Hope College being “the anchor of hope for the future,” but “the anchor of hope for the world” works, too.

My father believed in education, and I grew up assuming that I would go to college. Looking back, I know that my parents would have been disappointed if I didn’t go but would have supported whatever choice I made. At the time, however, doing anything else just never crossed my mind.

I believe in education, too, although my definition is broader than just college. Not everyone is cut out for college, and we need plumbers more than we need lawyers. Daddy’s definition may have been similar, and it definitely including broadening your horizons through travel.

That said, he believed in a college education for everyone who wanted and was capable of it. He showed his dedication to that principle by working his way through Hope College  and Westminster Theological Seminary in the 1940s.

From 1948 though the 1950s, Daddy sponsored three Arab students from the Middle East, making arrangements and providing some financial support for them to come to this country to go to college. One of them returned to Jordan and spent his career working for its government. The other two stayed in the U.S., and one, Michael Suleiman, became a professor in the political science department at Kansas State University.

When my father died, Michael suggested starting a scholarship fund at Hope College in Daddy’s name. We did so, with initial contributions from Michael, my older brother Donald (Hope Class of 1970), and myself (Hope Class of 1972). I’m the only one of the three still alive and am the official contact for the Oliver S. Page Memorial Scholarship Fund, although I hope my daughter Caroline (Hope Class of 2005) will take over that role when I’m no longer able to fill it.

Scholarships are one way to support education. We can’t all afford the financial contributions to provide one, but we can all support college students in other ways, even if it is as simple as encouraging their dreams.

Because education is the anchor of hope for the future

Failing Grades

What do they teach children in school these days?

This past Wednesday I crossed the state line into Illinois to talk to an eighth grade class about being successful. My main point was that successful people don't give up. They try and try and try until they reach their goals.

I used several examples, mostly famous writers who were buried under rejection slips but kept submitting their work anyway. The class seemed to know who Dr. Seuss was, and a few of the students recognized the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. One girl even said she checked one out of the library but hadn't read it yet.

None of the eighth graders had heard of Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell or knew who Jack London was. That didn't surprise me. With all the good literature out there and so little time to read and teach it all, I understand how some of the works we thought of as classics can get lost in the crowd.

But one of my examples left me speechless.

Only one student knew who Thomas Edison was.

Thomas Edison, who invented the phonograph and perfected the light bulb. Thomas Edison, who saw every "failure" as a success even when it took him over 3,000 tries to find a filament that burned long enough to be commercially viable. Thomas Edison, who has been called the greatest inventor who ever lived.

Where have these children--and their teachers--been?

I realize there are other schools that do a better job of connecting children with their heritage. This was a suburban "inner-city" school and probably had more than its share of problems to distract teachers and administrators from their primary job of educating students.

Still, I have to give that school and its staff a failing grade.

I have high hopes for the student who knew who Thomas Edison was. As for the others, I pray the school's failures don't become theirs.

And that they don't give up.

Keep on Learning

"The self taught man seldom knows anything accurately, and he does not know a tenth as much as he could have known if he had worked under teachers; and, besides, he brags, and is the means of fooling other thoughtless people into going and doing as he himself has done." Mark Twain (from "Taming the Bicycle")

I believe in education. I must, since I have THREE post-graduate degrees. But although I mostly agree with the Mark Twain quote, I also respect the self-taught person. (I bet Samuel Clemens did, too.)

Recently, I purchased Mark Twain's entire collection for my Kindle, and last week I started reading his compiled letters. The compilation includes a biography and running commentary written by his friend Albert Bigelow Paine. While reading the biography, I learned that Samuel Clemens was forced to leave school at age 13, when his father died, to become a printer's apprentice. This icon of wit and wisdom had little formal education. And as noted in last week's post, the same is true of Abraham Lincoln.

I come from a well-educated family, and by the time I met my husband through a dating service I already had a Master of Science in psychology and was working on my law degree. (My third post-graduate degree, an LLM in Financial Services Law, came later on.) When I found out that I had been matched with a man who had dropped out of college, I was skeptical.

We've been married for 31 years. If Roland had been satisfied with what he knew, our relationship would have ended after a few dates. But he was well-read and eager to keep learning, and I discovered that is more important than a formal education.

Still, I'm glad Roland went back to school several years into our marriage and got his college degree. Followed by a Master of Arts in history. Followed by 31 hours beyond that. The college degree enabled him to become a high school teacher, and the MA and Plus 30 increase his paycheck, but I'd like to think he enjoyed the learning, too.

The point is that a formal education is a good thing, but if something deflects you from that path, don't stop learning. Because even the self-taught individual can do great things.

By the way, when Albert Bigelow Paine wrote about his friend in 1917, he predicted that Mark Twain's greatest success--the book that would survive the longest--would be Personal Reflections of Joan of Arc. So much for predictions.

But Paine was right about one thing--Mark Twain lives. If Samuel Clemens had been content with his printer's training, "mark twain" would be no more than a nautical term for marking depth.

So keep on learning.