The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
SEPTEMBER 10, 1951
HYDE PARK, Sunday—The September issue of the Scientific American is one which I believe every citizen of the United States should read with great care. It sets forth the story of the human resources of our country as they are today and points out the needs which must be filled by the coming generation. The article by George D. Stoddard on the next generation shows that the increasing need in our society for persons of advanced capacity and training is going to be a crucial problem for the next generation. In this country today, we are putting through college and post-graduate training nearly all the young people "who have the ability, the inclination, and the means to secure such training."
There are two things, it seems to me, that must be done. Our schools must produce more young people who have the proper training, pre-college training for the work that is needed in our society. That means that our schools must learn to keep our young people sufficiently interested so that they will have the inclination to continue in their academic courses.
I believe the crucial question, however, is the question of "means." I have long felt it to be essential that all young people with ability and inclination should have the opportunity for education in whatever line they show the greatest capacity. A country like ours cannot afford to waste its able young people simply because they happen to have been born into a family where there is not the wherewithal to give them the advanced education to which they aspire and for which they have the capacity. I have known many a boy and girl to waste time in college and that has always seemed to me unpardonable, for they are actually stealing from someone else an opportunity that might be used to the full.
This issue of the Scientific American puts a problem squarely before us which cannot be allowed to go unrecognized.
Thursday afternoon I went to the library here for a ceremony in which the British Admiralty kindly presented the library with the ship's badge and other mementoes of His Majesty's Ship "Churchill." The "Churchill" was one of the 50 over-age destroyers transferred to Great Britain by the United States in September, 1940. His Majesty's Consul General, Henry A. Hobson, together with a number of high-ranking naval personnel from the United Kingdom, came up. I can think of nothing which my husband would have appreciated more than a presentation such as this. I am deeply touched by the kind thought of the Admiralty and very glad that I was able to be present to accept this gift in behalf of the library.
After the ceremony I left for New York City to meet my eldest granddaughter and her husband and baby, who were arriving by plane Thursday evening from Portland, Oregon, on their way to Paris after a 10-day stop-over here. It is really quite exciting to have a great-grandchild visiting, and we are all enjoying these few days.
E. R.
(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1951, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.; REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)
Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced
Persons
- Hobson, Henry A., 1898-1068 [ index ]
British Consul General in New York City, 1951-1953 - Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945 [ index ]
American politician; 32nd President of the United States
[ ERPP bio | LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives | ANB ] - Seagraves, Eleanor, 1927- [ index ]
American educator; ER's granddaughter
[ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ] - Seagraves, Nicholas Delano, 1949- [ index ]
ER's great grandchild - Seagraves, Van H. [ index ]
American economist; spouse of ER's granddaughter Eleanor Seagraves - Stoddard, George D. (George Dinsmore), 1897-1981 [ index ]
American psychologist and educator
[ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | ANB ]
Organizations
Geographic
- [ index ] Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States)
Other Terms and Topics
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, September 10, 1951
Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007
Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.
Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.
MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.
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