Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Thomas Sun, Middlebury College, October 8, 1927

Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Thomas Sun, Middlebury College, October 8, 1927

Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Thomas Sun, Middlebury College, October 8, 1927

Dear Tom:

I have read with great interest your letter of October 6 and congratulate you on being able to express yourself so clearly and so well. You write a good letter.

As to your courses, I don’t know just what to say, though it seems to me that you have sized up the situation pretty well for yourself and that the plans you have outlined are sensible and sound. I share your feelings about the value of shorthand, unless, after your return to China, you are to deal wholly or largely with English speaking people. I don’t suppose that the shorthand you would learn in this country would be applicable to the Chinese language. If you can master type-writing, however, you are sure to find that of real value, I think, all through life.

When it comes to Physics, I am confident that you will find the subject of real value, no matter what you choose for a life work later. It is in the realm of Physics and Chemistry that the great discoveries and advances in science are being largely made today, and no one can afford to be without at least an elementary knowledge of these subjects.

Frankly, I don’t believe that you will gain enough by emphasizing music, except in so far as you can train and develop your own voice, where I judge there are real possibilities. Whatever you accomplish in that line is likely to be for your own pleasure and that of your friends but not of commercial value, at least. Personally, I can’t believe that your father would desire you to spend as much as $3.00 an hour for the doubtful results to be secured in this line.

I had a most interesting letter from Quincey several days ago. He tells me that conditions in China are worse than they were before the fighting and writes in a most discouraging vein. He also adds that he finds little, if any, of the reported hatred of foreigners but quite the reverse.

When he wrote he was

Alfred E. Stearns

Phillips Academy

October 8, 1927

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