Navajo Times

The Teacher
Students who fail usually do so not because they cannot do the work, but because they have not learned to approach their studies in any organized manner.

They have drifted through their early school days without acquiring any method of study. In most instances there has not been any need. School was merely a place to them and their parents where they spent their daytime hours. The program was filled with social activities and indeed there was little time allotted or could be allotted to individual work.

Recitation and learning out of necessity was done in groups. Thought was expressed collectively. In our mass massacre of learning, we have forgotten that substitution for individual inventiveness threatens creativity.

Throughout history progress has been achieved in those quiet retreats where men examined their problems apart from others. They reach into the realm of aloneness to find self-confidence. They discipline themselves to stay with their task until they have arrived at a satisfactory conclusion. This is what makes a student.

We cannot find answers in an endless round of debate and exchange of ignorant opinion. We must not fear to think alone. We will only find solutions as self-disciplined men, willing to separate themselves from endless chatter and useless activities.

There are many things we do not know, but there are few things that with time and patience we cannot learn.

Sincerely,
Your teacher
(Distributed by Copley News Service)