Through the next 14 years, when I worked on the various blocks, I had a lot of ideas. I discarded some. I put something in their place. I moved the position within the structure some, but I never changed the cornerstones. They still remained constant, and I still believe that they are the cornerstones for success. The foundation, I had three blocks and they include others and had to add strength. Then we work up to the very top, of being competitive greatness. That’s the last block. How do you become that? By being industrious and enthusiastic and being conditioned and having the skills and being imbued with consideration for others and so on. So they lead up. These things lead up. Below the top block, I have poise and confidence. How do you gain poise? By being prepared. How do you get prepared? By being industrious, by being enthusiastic, and so these others. It all leads up, to my way of thinking. Perhaps it wouldn’t to somebody else, but it does to me. In trying to use that in helping me become a better teacher, then I can now help those under my supervision be better. In the mid-’30s, about the time I coined my definition and was working on this, I ran across a couple of things that have stayed with me always. One was a verse that said:
No written word, no spoken plea,
Can teach our youth what they should be,
Nor all the books on all the shelves.
It’s what the teachers are themselves.