--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Martin, Thomas L. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 26 number: 1 published: 1922-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Thomas L. Martin, "Life Is What We Make It", *Improvement Era* 26, no. 1 (November 1922): 68–70.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2601unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2601unse start_page: 68 end_page: 70 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1922-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2601unse publication_year: 1922 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1922, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Life Is What We Make It Life is What We Make it By Dr. Thomas L. Martin, Brigham Young University V. We Will Not Be Parasites Now and then when riding through the country, our eyes are directed to the roadside and to many of our alfalfa fields where a beautiful, golden threaded vine has attached itself to the growing plants. To the inexperienced mind, this plant is unusually attractive and one is led to exclaim: "Oh, what a beautiful plant!" If we will take the time to get out of our car and examine that plant more closely, we will find that it has no root; that it is attached to the host plant by little tentacles which work themselves into the life-giving stream of the desirable plant and there absorb from that life stream the food for its own sustenance. It is called the love-vine or dodder plant. It is a parasite, a thing that adds not to the world in which it lives, but takes the accumulations of the efforts of others. It is nice to look at, but, to the man of experience, it is shunned perhaps more than any other weed with which the alfalfa grower has to contend. We have an illustration here from nature which we can ap- ply to our own lives. I have seen men struggle for years to get a little money ahead. I have seen young men work for months to secure money with which to go to school, and some smooth, nice looking parasite has visited these men and by false prom- ises and shallow argument, which we find with all parasites, has tricked this hard-earned money from their victims. I have seen young men, rather than take life as it stands, develop de- sires to secure easy money, and by means of the exercise of a little psychology on the unsuspecting, separate them from their possessions and give nothing in return. Of course their meth- ods have been within the law, as at present constituted, but nevertheless it has been a case of living on the efforts of others Such men are parasites and just as detrimental to the progress of our civilization as the dodder plant is to the successful de- velopment of the alfalfa fields. The idea that life is what we make it applies well with this discussion. These men are really not happy, but those, on the other hand,who associate themselves with productive enterprises, men who give full value for what they receive, men upon whom LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE IT 69 the progress of our communities rest, find real happiness and fulfil the divine command: "Man is that he may have joy." You who are now at the parting of the ways, you who are wondering what to do in life, should ponder well what your course shall be. It is up to us the kind of life we shall live. We have forty to sixty years to live after we reach maturity, and what that forty to sixty years shall be depends upon the way we live and what we do during our earlier years. The biggest things in the world are ours if we will but make the effort. Let us keep in mind that we are worth a lot if we will prepare for real service, that the only way to get happiness in life is to be- come a real lifter, that we will grow by leaps and bounds if we will but take one half-hour of solitude per day and size things up, that if we will struggle hard to overcome the ob- stacles in life and steer clear of all suggestions of parasitism, life will become a real pleasure, because we will have made it such. It is up to us. Provo, Utah Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education and the Program By Francis W . Kirkham The August number of the Improvement Era gives the ob- jectives, plans and methods of the Mutual Improvement pro- gram for 1922-23, which stresses, this year, education in health and education for leisure time activities. The plans, ideals and objectives of the Mutual Improvement Association, as worked out by President Brigham Young and his successors, may, with interest and profit, be compared with the findings of the nation- al committee on reorganization of secondary education, ap- pointel by the National Education Association. , The United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1918, No. 35, Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education*, is, the report of this commission. After five years of study they presented the cardinal principles, which in their judgment should guide the reorganization and development of secondary education in the United States. A brief summary of these principles follow: 1. "There is a need for reorganization of secondary education, because, (a) the economic order is more complex, (b) the problems of community *This bulletin may be obtained by application to Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C, 5 cents per copy. Give the above title. 70 IMPROVEMENT ERA life are more pressing, and, (c) provision must be made for the leisure time of the worker. II. "The purpose of democracy is so to organize society that each member may develop his personality, primarily through activities designed for the well being of his fellow members and of society as a whole; con- sequently, education in a democracy, both within and without the school, should develop in each individual and knowledge, interests, ideals, habits, and powers whereby he will find his place and use that place to shape both himself and society toward ever nobler ends." III. "This commission therefore, regards the following as the main objectives of education: (1) Health; (2) Command of Fundamental Pro- cesses; (3) Worthy Home Membership; (4) Vocation; (5) Citizenship; (6) Ethical Character.' IV. "The role of secondary education is achieving these objectives.' (1) Health needs cannot be neglected during the period of secondary edu- cation without serious danger to the individual and the race. The second- ary school should therefore provide health instruction, inculcate health habits, organize an effective program of physical activities, regard health needs in planning work and play, and cooperate with home and commun- ity in safe-guarding and promoting health interests. (3) "Worthy home membership as an objective calls for the develop- ment of those qualities that make the individual a worthy member of a family, both contributing to, and deriving benefit from, that membership. As an objective this should not be thought of solely with reference to future studies. These are better guaranteed if the school helps the pupils to take the right attitude towards present home responsibilities and inter- pret to them the contribution of the home to their development.* (5) "Civic education should develop in the individual those qualities whereby he will act well his part as a member of neighborhood, town or city, state and nation, and give him a basis for understanding interna- tional problems. "For such citizenship the following are essential: A many-sided inter- est in the welfare of the communities to which one belongs; loyalt} to ideals of civic righteousness; practical knowledge of social agencies and institutions; good judgment as to means and methods that will promote one social end without defeating others; and as putting all these into effect, habits of cordial cooperation in social undertakings." (7) "Ethical character — In a democratic ethical society character becomes paramount among the objectives of the secondary schools." It is heartening to Mutual Improvement workers, and to school men and women who cooperate freely with them, that the latest and best word in educational theory, as expressed by this national committee, coincides with the aims and objectives of the Mutual Improvement Association. School workers are coming to recognize more and more that the objectives for which they stand can be worked out best by close cooperation between the school and community organizations that make for all that true citizenship includes.