Write the explanations of the essay entitled "The Student". (Part-2)

Write the explanations of the essay entitled “The Student”. (Part-2)

Ans.

Explanations

(7) Literature is to them a subject. not a delight. They regard Aristophanes not as amusing, but as a collection of answers to examination questions. Eeschylus is not a poet, but a huge pudding of variant readings.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay “The Student’ written by Robert Lynd. The writer asserts that some students who study any subject for getting money in return are totally wrong.

Explanation: According to the writer there are students who follow any subject forgetting its harmful effects. They do not get the approval of some good teachers and others. Its reason is that they try to get knowledge with the purpose of getting more and more money. The writer is also strongly in opposition to such students. Its simple reason is that the writer does not wish them to earn any amount of money neglecting the value of knowledge. He does not like that the holy knowledge should not be made dirty by such students. If they like to shine in the field of knowledge, they are wrong to get any name and fame in this way.

According to the writer such students like to become famous in their respective professions like service in a church, or as a lawyer and serving in any department of Civil Service. The writer makes it clear that such students do not get any real pleasure from the study of literature. They wander this way and that way in the study of different subjects. When they appear in the examination they know only the answers of some set questions. Its reason is that they are not perfect in getting true knowledge of any one subject. For them the total process of education becomes only: the daily dull routine, nothing more than that. In this way, they are robbed of the real joy of real knowledge because they are no more the true seekers of knowledge.

(8) His success did involve certain necessary virtues-obedience, thoroughness, self-discipline, the cultivation of the organizing faculty. On the other hand, it implied such an economy of curiosity and imagination that these were frequently atrophied from disuse He was more likely to achieve a successful career than a successful life.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay, ‘The Student’ written by Robert Lynd, a famous essayist of the modern age. The writer says that some students think of their career, not of knowledge.

Explanation: According to the writer some students have a great thirst to get more and more knowledge. Some other students are conscious of their career. The students who are knowledge thirsty want to store knowledge in their mind. For this they read many books of different subjects and enjoy such reading.

On the other hand, there are some other students who are career conscious who have a fixed aim in their life to get name and fame in their future life. They study only their course-books preparing for their examinations in order to pass with honour and distinction. For this, they may practise with full discipline in their student life.

Their success depends on some qualities like the virtues of obedience to their teachers, self-discipline along with the organizing power. They also remain conscious of their good ideas, they take their examinations seriously to secure good marks. It is stated by the writer that they do not make any use of curiosity and imagination because their thinking is limited. If they do not make a proper use of the great virtues of curiosity and imagination, their faculties are wasted uselessly. They may get success in their career as their aim of life but they fail in the real drama of life.

(9) The truth is, education should be neither all formalism and routine, nor all an affair of desultory impulses. Here, as elsewhere. discipline and indiscipline must balance one another, and the result will be better than a monopoly of either.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay ‘The Student’ written by Robert Lynd. He shows the need of balanced education.

Explanation: In these lines the writer describes two types of students some students are concerned only with their prescribed course. Others feel free to do anything in the name of originality. The writer makes it clear that both types of students do not try to become ideal students by getting useful and practical knowledge in ideal education system.

According to the writer an ideal education system should not be only formal as their routine, nor it should be too much freedom oriented because such education is not delightful. In the first case students feel bored and in the second they become indisciplined. Both such situations are wrong and unbearable.

The writer asserts that in an ideal education system, both discipline and indiscipline must be balanced. The writer as an ideal student should have freedom on his impulses in order to make natural growth Discipline is very necessary for an ideal student. Discipline is very necessary for work by an ideal student. It shall be better and useful for education. Such student will be saved from the formal development of character. Then he should try his most for self discipline for his full development.

(10) I remember how, for myself, I studied as an Epicurean. But I always regarded the ideal student as an ascetic, and I never luxuriated more blissfully in Epicureanism than when I was dreaming I was an ascetic myself.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay, “The Student’ written by Robert Lynd. He advised the student to live a strict and holy life.

Explanation: The writer gives the example of an ideal student like himself because he studies in a very easy manner like the lover of luxury and he had also all means of recreation supplied to him by his goodluck. In this way, he studied like an Epicurean who used to get happiness and pleasure in all fields.

Though he tried to become an ideal student in the heart of hearts but he did not get the needed comforts. He regarded that young man as an ideal student who lives like an ascetic and he studies under strict discipline. According to him, no student living in the style of an epicurean can be ideal student. On the other hand, an ideal student must live like an ascetic and he makes a study like an ascetic for the development of his personality and knowledge. With this reason the writer as a student could not become as an ascetic. He spent most of his time in studies without any desire for pleasure and comfort.

(11) Thus, as a student, one had two dreams, One had the dream of getting knowledge, and one had the dream of getting character. The night-watches were pleasant with the thought of making oneself a master of both. One went to sleep in a cloud of ambition. But in the morning Epicurus prevailed again. There would be someone in the porch of the college who would meet me in an idle mood and insist on a walk along the tow-path of a canal or who had been reading a book and wanted to argue that no one existed except himself, or who believed that Thoreau was a better writer than Emerson, or that The Shop Girl was a better musical comedy than The Geisha.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay The Student’ written by a great prose writer and essayist Robert Lynd about the student.

Explanation: According to the writer a student has two dreams; one dream was related to getting knowledge and the second dream was related to developing character. The night-watchers were happy with the thought of making himself a master of both types of dream. One of them went to sleep under the dim atmosphere of ambition but in the morning Epicurus dominated once again.

The writer further said that someone would be standing in the porch of the college. He would meet him is an idle-mood. There they would go out walking together on the path of a canal. He would have been reading a book with the idea of discussing that no one existed there except the writer himself. He believed that Thoreau was a better writer than Emerson. He would regard the ‘Shop Girl’ was really a better musical comedy than “The Geisha’.

(12) Thus does every man attempt to find arguments in favour of the education he himself has had. The man who has had a University education believes it is the only education worth having. The man who is self-educated believes in self-education as the secret of success. The man who idled at college explains what a blessing his idleness has been to him. The man who has read his eyes out praises God for his labours.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay. ‘The Student’ written by Robert Lynd. The writer gives his own views about right education, or self education for success.

Explanation: According to the writer every man tries to find out his arguments in support of right education as the writer himself had. The man who had received his university education believes that it is the best education. The other student who has received his university education considers it the ideal education. The other man who has been a believer of self education, he believes that self education is the secret of real success. On the other hand the man who had wasted his time at college in a lazy manner regarded that his idleness has been a blessing for him. The man who has read. his eyes admires God for giving reward for his hard work for receiving self-education regarding it as the most useful education.