The training of the
will to meet difficulties unflinchingly is their aim, and we can not
gainsay it. These stalwart apostles of educational hardship and
difficulty are in constant fear lest we shall make studies interesting
and attractive and thus undermine the energy of the will. But the
question at once arises: Does not the will always act from _motives_ of
some sort? And is there any motive or incentive so stimulating to the
will as a steady and constantly increasing _interest_ in studies? It
is able to surmount great difficulties.
We wish to assure our stalwart friends that we still adhere to the good
old doctrine that "there is no royal road to learning." There is no
way of putting aside the real difficulties that are found in every
study, no way of grading up the valleys and tunneling through the hills
so as to get the even monotony of a railroad track through the rough or
mountainous part of education. Every child must meet and master the
difficulties of learning for himself. There are no palace cars with
reclining chairs to carry him to the summit of real difficulties. The
_character-developing power_ that lies in the mastery of hard tasks
constitutes one of their chief merits.
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