August 19, 2002
ANOTHER VIEW:
A father's loving advice to son stands test of decades
___My dear son,
___I hope this letter will reach you on the first day of your college experience, for that day marks your step upon the threshold of your manhood. I am more proud of you than it is possible for me to convey--proud of your fine humility, your clean life, and especially proud that by your own accomplishments you are enabled to enroll in the college which has been your choice since you were 7 years old.
___I wish every father might have the same feeling of confidence in his son that I hold for you at this minute--the confidence that your record so far is but an indication of nobler and more honorable accomplishments to follow.
___There are a number of things of which I wish to write at this time. I do not do this with any thought of admonishing you, but rather as a counselor of older and more mature judgment.
___Respect and revere the fine men and women who compose the faculty.
___Extend to them the same splendid cooperation you have given each of your teachers in the past. Learn to distinguish between the fundamentals of their subjects and the teachers' personal opinions about them. Therefore, accept and reject, but avoid becoming opinionated, argumentative. Above all things, do not develop the attitude that college training marks the end of learning.
___
___Avoid snobs--rich or poor ones--and do not be snobbish yourself. The classification of a man is not his posessions or lack of them, but his character. Leadership is never possible truly to a man who has no sympathetic understanding of his fellows. Be generous but not foolish. Remember, there is an adage that the best charity is to help one to be free from the need of charity. Do not be a prude or a pig.
___
___Enter freely into the social life that is offered to you, but prove your mental strength by refusing any temptation of over-indulgence.
___I hope your social life will give you contact with many of the fine men and women in the student body. Your own natural friendliness and modesty will bring you the right companionship. Treat every woman with the utmost respect and courtesy; that is the hallmark of a gentleman. Accord to each woman the same respect you would ask for your sisters.
___
___Do not become mesmerized by their pretentions of advanced thought. Do not be swallowed by the stream or become influnced by mass- or mob-psychology. When you do, you surrender your capacity for clear thinking.
___Stand on the sidelines and study the stream. Keep your perspective. Think for yourself.
___When you have arrived at a more mature manhood, your conclusions regarding many things may differ from mine. If they do, I shall be just as happy as if they agreed, if I am sure you have accepted them as a result of your own analysis and inquiry.
___I hope you will preserve this letter and occasionally read it. It is written only after careful consideration and thought. I wrote it because of the great love I have for you and out of the great hope I have in you.
___May all that we do--each of us--tend to strengthen the tie that binds us together.
___A.H. Golden of Seymour wrote this letter in 1922 to his son, Joe Bob Golden, during the young man's first year at the University of Texas. Joe Bob Golden later graduated from Hardin-Simmons University, served as superintendent of schools in Bonham and Vernon, and retired from the Texas Department of Education, where he was head of the textbook division.
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