Excerpt from The Register, Vol. 59: October 1939

When a boy enters Latin School, his parents state that it is their present intention to send him to college, and we assume that the boy agrees with his parents in this intention. That is the reason why each of you has chosen this school rather than one of the many high schools to which you might have gone. You feel that Latin School offers you something that other schools do not. And that is true. You have here, for the taking, a preparation for college which is at least as thorough as you could get in the best private preparatory schools in the country. Incidentally, you get it free; but you must be able - and willing - to take it.

To master the fundamentals of your various studies calls for a certain amount of drudgery; and this is true, no {matter how attractive the subject matter may be. Even musicians have to Spend hours of dull practice upon scales and fingering; without such drill they can never hope to become artists. So a Latin School boy must be philosopher enough to deny himself some of the pleas ures of the moment which he sees his friends enjoying, such as movies and social parties during the school week; knowing that this kind of self-denial is an invest ment which will pay big dividends later on.

I do not mean that your studies here are dull and uninteresting; far from it. I mean that there are two ways of dealing with any school subject. One way is to skim lightly and pleasantly over the surface of it, getting thereby a mere nodding acquaintance with it. The other way is to work at it so earnestly that you get a thorough understanding of it and can use it intelligently. The latter is the Latin School way.

No boy can succeed in Latin School unless he has the will to work hard and constantly, spending the full time on his home assignments, day after day, throughout the school year. The bright boy cannot depend merely on his brightness to pull him through; many such a boy has made that mistake and come to grief by it. The first task of each boy is to develop right habits of study, and to budget his time so that each task Shall have its definite time allotment and the mechanical Side of his work Shall become a matter of routine. Such habits are absolutely necessary in college, and the first year in Latin School is none too early to form them.

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