oughts of my very
own. Just now I recall the time I first noticed a tiny chick
raise its head after drinking from a basin of water. To me
that slow raising of the head after drinking seemed to
indicate the chick's silent thanks to God. It meant that for
each swallow it offered thanks. This was before I went to
school.

There I learned the plain truth that the chick must raise its
head to swallow. School had grasped the door-knob of my soul.
The many children taught me the world's lesson that each man
must look out for himself. If the simpler children did not
keep up, that was their look-out. There was no time to stop
and help the less fortunate. Push ahead! This is what I came
to learn.

At school I met for the first time with distrust. At home I
had always been trusted; my word never doubted. Once I was
accused of copying; that was the first wound. How I would
have those all-powerful teachers make the child know he is
trusted.

At school there were many other lessons for me to learn. One
of the chief was competition. I learned it early. To have
some of the class-stars shine brighter than I was
intolerable. To shine as bright, was sufficient compensation
for any amount of labour. The teachers encouraged
competition. It lent life to labour; made the children more
studious. Our motto was not to do our best, but to do as well
as the best. Competition often grew so keen among my school
friends that rivalry, jealousy and dislike entered our
hearts. I am afraid we sometimes rejoiced at one another's
misfortunes. Yet these competitors were my school friends.
Out of school we were all fond of one another, but in school
we grew further apart. My sister would compete with no one. I
have often since wondered if that is why she, of all my
school companions, has ever been my closest friend. The child
filled with the competitive spirit from his entrance to his
egress from school, enters the world a competitive man. It is
hard for such a one to love his neighbour.

The one thing I consider of great benefit from school life is
the taste of the world it gave me. For school is the
miniature world. A man is said to benefit from a past evil.

The school did not teach me to express myself; it taught me
how to echo the books I read