Extract from letter of December 18, 1925 written by Dr. Stearns to Mr. C.Y. Sun

Extract from letter of December 18, 1925 written by Dr. Stearns to Mr. C.Y. Sun

Extract from letter of December 18, 1925 written by Dr. Stearns to Mr. C.Y. Sun

Extract of a typed letter sent from Dr. Stearns to Mr. C.Y. Sun about Mary Sun's future education. States Mr. Sun's desire to attend college drastically changes Mary's current education plans. Explains current course isn't accepted by American colleges. States a change in courses and a year of preparation is required if Mary is to attend college. Asks for definite confirmation from Sun before making any changes. Hopes to see Arthur in a few days to get more information.

"Mary furnishes the real problem Just now. Following what I understood, to be your personal wishes, Mary has been taking the general course at Abbot Academy, with the chief aim that of securing a degree, and on the supposition that this would round out her education in America. During recent months I have been hearing muffled comments from Arthur and Mary, and I think, too, from her other brothers, to the effect that you had now decided that Mary was to go to college. Mary had hoped to study nursing or something of this kind a little later, though she had always intimated that she expected to teach when she got back to China. The college proposition, if it actually represents your views, throws the present machinery all out of joint, for the course which Mary is now taking does not admit to our American colleges, and, if college is to be the next goal, there must be an immediate and complete readjustment and very probably another year of preparation. Before attempting anything so radical as this, I am very anxious to have your personal and definite authorization. Please write me fully and frankly just what you desire me to do under the circumstances, for I don’t feel justified in undertaking anything quite so radical without full authority from you. If I can discover from Arthur or Mary before receiving a reply to this letter sufficient evidence to assure me that this is really your last and definite purpose, I shall be tempted to make an immediate readjustment which can go into effect at the opening of the next term, some two weeks hence. This would involve a change of school and courses, a pretty radical step, but seemingly necessary under the circumstances. I hope to see Arthur within the next few days and shall ask him to place at my disposal all the information he has received from you that bears upon the problem in this new and somewhat unexpected phase. "

Dr. Stearns

Phillips Academy

December 18, 1925

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English

Correspondence