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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18234-8.txt b/18234-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b3f626 --- /dev/null +++ b/18234-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2559 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Girl's Student Days and After, by Jeannette Marks + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Girl's Student Days and After + +Author: Jeannette Marks + +Commentator: Mary Emma Woolley + +Release Date: April 23, 2006 [EBook #18234] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GIRL'S STUDENT DAYS AND AFTER *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project) + + + + + + + + + + + +A Girl's Student Days and After + +By + +JEANNETTE MARKS, M. A. + +(_Wellesley_) + +_With an Introduction by_ +_MARY EMMA WOOLLEY, LL. D._ +_President of Mt. Holyoke College_ + +_New York Chicago Toronto_ +_Fleming H. Revell Company_ +_London and Edinburgh_ + +Copyright, 1911, by +FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY + +New York: 158 Fifth Avenue +Chicago: 125 North Wabash Ave. +Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. +London: 21 Paternoster Square +Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street + +_Inscribed +to +MARY EMMA WOOLLEY, LL. D._ + + + + +_Introduction_ + + +The school and college girl is an important factor in our life to-day. +Around her revolve all manner of educational schemes, to her are open +all kinds of educational opportunities. There was never an age in which +so much thought was expended upon her, or so much interest felt in her +development. + +There are many articles written and many speeches delivered on the +responsibility of parents and teachers--it may not be amiss occasionally +to turn the shield and show that some of the responsibility rests upon +the girl herself. After all, she is the determining factor, for +buildings and equipment, courses and teachers accomplish little without +her coöperation. + +It is difficult for the "new girl," whether in school or college, to +realize the extent to which the success of her school life depends upon +herself. In a new environment, surrounded by what seem to her +"multitudes" of new faces, obliged to meet larger demands under strange +and untried conditions, she is quite likely to go to the other extreme +and exaggerate her own insignificance. Sometimes she is fortunate enough +to have an older sister or friend to help her steer her bark through +these untried waters, but generally she must find her own bearings. + +To such a girl, the wise hints in the chapters which follow this +introduction are invaluable, giving an insight into the meaning of +fair-play in the classroom as well as on the athletic field; the +relation between physical well-being and academic success; the +difference between the social life that is _re_-creative and that which +is "_nerves_-creative"; the significance of loyalty to the school and to +the home; the way in which school days determine to a large degree the +days that come after. These, and many other suggestions, wise and +forceful, I commend not only to the new girl, but also to the "old +girl" who would make her school and college days count for more both +while they last and as preparation for the work that is to follow. + + MARY E. WOOLLEY. + + _Mt. Holyoke College_, + _South Hadley, Massachusetts._ + + + + +_CONTENTS_ + + +A WORD TO THE WISE 13 + +I. THE IDEAL FRESHMAN 17 + +II. THE GIRL AND THE SCHOOL 25 + +III. FRIENDSHIPS 33 + +IV. THE STUDENT'S ROOM 41 + +V. THE TOOLS OF STUDY AND THEIR USE 54 + +VI. THE JOY OF WORK 61 + +VII. FAIR-PLAY 70 + +VIII. THE RIGHT SORT OF LEISURE 78 + +IX. THE OUTDOOR RUNWAY 88 + +X. A GIRL'S SUMMER 99 + +XI. FROM THE SCHOOL TO THE GIRL 107 + +XII. THE WORK TO BE 115 + + + + +_A Word to the Wise_ + + +We train for basket-ball, golf, tennis or for whatever sport we have the +most liking. Is there any reason why we should not use the same +intelligence in the approach to our general school life? Is there any +reason why we should make an obstacle race, however good and amusing +exercise that may be, out of _all_ our school life? We don't expect to +win a game with a sprained wrist or ankle, and there really is no reason +why we should plan to sprain the back of school or college life by +avoidable mistakes. + +The writer believes in the girl who has the capacity for making +mistakes,--that headlong, energetic spirit which blunders all too +easily. But the writer knows how much those mistakes hurt and how much +energy might be saved for a life that, with just a pinch less of +blunder, might be none the less savoury. School and college are no place +for vocal soloists, and after some of us have sung so sweetly and so +long at home, with every one saying, "Just hear Mary sing, isn't it +wonderful!" it is rather trying, you know, to go to a place where vocal +solos are not popular. And we wish some one--at least I did--had told us +all about this fact as well as other facts of school life. Anyway it +should be a comfort to have a book lying on the table in our school or +college room, or at home, which will tell us why Mary, after having been +a famous soloist at home made a failure or a great success in chorus +work at school. Such a book is something like having a loaded gun in +readiness for the robber. We may never use the shotgun or the book but +they are there, with the reassuring sense of shot in the locker. + +It is something, is it not, to have a little book which will tell you +how to get into school and how to get out (for at times there seem to be +difficulties in both these directions)--in short, to tell you something +of many things: your first year at school or college, your part in the +school life, the friendships you will make, your study and how to work +in it, the pleasure and right kind of spirit involved in work, the quiet +times, as well as the jolly times, out-of-doors, your summers and how to +spend them, what the school has tried to do for you; and, as you go out +into the world, some of the aspects, whether you are to be wife, +secretary or teacher, of the work which you will do. Of one thing you +may be certain; that behind every sentence of this little book is +experience, that here are only those opinions of which experience has +made a good, wholesome zwieback. + +I wish to take this opportunity to thank my friend, Mrs. Belle Kellogg +Towne, editor of _The Girls' Companion_ and _Young People's Weekly_, +Chicago, for her coöperation in allowing me to use half the material in +this little book; also Dr. C. R. Blackall, of Philadelphia. + +_Camp Runway._ J. M. + + + + +I + +THE IDEAL FRESHMAN + + +Freshman year, the beginning year, the year of new experiences, new +delights, new work, new friends, new surroundings; the year that may +mean much to a girl, that may answer some of the questions that have +lain long in heart and mind, that will surely reveal her more clearly to +herself, that may make her understand others better and help her to +guess something of the riddle of the years to come! + +What has the student done to get ready for this year? If she were going +camping she would know that certain things were necessary to make the +expedition a success. With what excitement and pleasure, what thoughts +of jolly camp-fires, deep, sweet-smelling forests, and long days afoot, +she would prepare everything. She would not let any one else do this for +her, for that would mean losing too much of the fun. But the _freshman +year_, what about the thinking and planning for that, also an expedition +into a new world, and a veritable adventure of a vast deal more +importance than a few days or weeks of camping? Would she enter forests +upon whose trees the camp-fires throw many shadows, follow the stream +that cleaves its way through the woods, go along the runway of deer or +caribou or moose, with a mind to all intents and purposes a blank? No, +her mind would be vivid with thoughts and interests. + +With the same keen attention should she enter the new year at school or +college, and as she passes through it, thinking about all that comes to +her, she will find it growing less and less difficult and more and more +friendly. She will consider what the freshman year is to be like, think +of what sorts of girls she is to meet and make friends with, what the +work will be, what she may expect in good times from this new adventure, +and, thoughtful about it all, make the minimum of mistakes and get the +maximum of benefit. + +Here come some of the girls who are entering school and college with +her--bright-haired, dark-haired, rosy or pale, tall and thin, fat and +short, clever and average, desirable and undesirable,--in fact, all +sorts and conditions of girls. Who is to be the leader of them all? She +is the _ideal freshman_, a nice, well-set-up girl who does not think too +much of herself, who is not self-conscious, and who does not forget for +what she is sent to school. Despite the temptations of school life she +uses her days wisely and well. She does not isolate herself, for she +sees the plan and value of the recreative side of school-days. She is +already laying the foundations for a successful, useful, normal +existence, establishing confidence at the outset and not handicapping +herself through her whole course by making people lose their faith in +her. Our _ideal freshman_ may be the girl who is to do distinguished +work; she may be the student who does her best; and because it is her +best, the work, though not brilliant, is distinguished by virtue of her +effort. She may be the girl who is to make a happy home life through her +poise and earnestness and common sense. Whoever she is, in any event in +learning to do her best she is winning nine-tenths of the battle of a +successful career. It is she, attractive, able, earnest, with the +"fair-play" or team-play spirit in all she does, true to herself and to +others, whom every school wants, whose unconscious influence is so great +in building up the morale of any school. Mark this girl and follow her, +for she is worthy of your hero worship. + +This is the girl who goes into school in much the same spirit that she +would enter upon a larger life. She is not a prig and she is not a dig, +but she knows there are responsibilities to be met and she meets them. +She expects to have to think about the new conditions in which she finds +herself and to adjust herself to them, and she does it. She knows the +meaning of the team-play spirit and she takes her place quietly on the +team, one among many, and both works and plays with respect for the +rights and positions of others. It is in the temper of the words +sometimes stamped upon the coins of our country--_E Pluribus Unum_--that +she makes a success of her school life. She knows that not only is our +country bigger than any one of its states, but also that every school is +bigger than any one of its members whether teacher or student. In a +small family at home conditions have been more or less made for her, +just as they are for other girls. Yet she knows that the school life is +complicated and complex, and it is impossible for her to feel neglected +where a more self-centred or spoiled girl fails to see that in this new +life she is called upon to play a minor part but nevertheless a part +upon which the school must rely for its _esprit de corps_. She goes with +ease from the somewhat unmethodical life of the home to the highly +organized routine of the school because she understands the meaning of +the word "team-play." She has the coöperative spirit. + +Yet there are other girls, too, in this school which the freshman is +entering. There is the student who errs on the side of leading too +workaday a life, and in so doing has lost something of the buoyancy and +breadth and "snap" which would make her associations and her work +fresher and more vigorous. "The Grind," she has been called, and if she +recognize herself in this sketch, let her take care to reach out for a +bigger and fuller life than she is leading. And there is, too, the +selfish student whose "class-spirit" is self-spirit; and the girl who is +not selfish but who uses herself up in too many interests, dramatic, +athletic, society, philanthropic and in a dozen others. She is probably +over-conscientious, a good girl in every way, but in doing too much she +loses sight of the real aim of her school life. To these must be added +another student,--the freshman who skims the surface, and is, when she +gets out, where she was when she entered--no, not quite so far along, +for she has slipped back. She is selfish, relying upon the patience and +burden-bearing capacity of her father and mother, as well as the school. + +No doubt every girl would meet her obligations squarely if she realized +what was the underlying significance of the freshman year; the school +life would surely be approached with a conscientious purpose. What a +girl gets in school will much depend upon what she has to give. No girl +is there simply to have a good time or merely to learn things out of +books. Nor is she there to fill in the interim between childhood and +young womanhood, when one will go into society, another marry, and a +third take up some wage-earning career. No, she is there to carry life +forward in the deepest, truest sense; and the longer she can have to get +an education and to make the best of the opportunities of school and +college life, the richer and fuller her after-years will be. Both middle +life and old age will be deeper and stronger. Let us think about these +girls, let us think about what it means to be a freshman, and so lessen +our difficulties and increase our pleasures; let us have a big +conception,--a large ideal always at heart--of what the _first year_ +should be, and beginning well we shall be the more likely to end well. + + + + +II + +THE GIRL AND THE SCHOOL + + +Inside school or college the girl is in several ways responsible for the +atmosphere. Merely in her conversation she can be of service or +dis-service. It may be simply a good joke which she is telling, but if +the joke misrepresents the school she will, perhaps, do lasting harm. If +she is hypercritical--and there is nothing so contagious as +criticism--she influences people in the direction of her thought; she +sets a current of criticism in motion. A student frequently gives vent +to an opinion that is only half-baked--it is well, by the way, to make +zwieback of all our opinions before we pass them around as edible--about +courses and instructors. She does not realize that some opinions to be +worth anything must be the result of a long process of baking, that a +nibble from the corner of a four months' or nine months' course will +not, however understandingly it may be Fletcherized, tell you whether +the course is going to be fruit cake, meringue or common soda crackers. +She may think that she herself is so unimportant that what she says +can't matter, or she may not mean what she says and be merely letting +off steam. Nevertheless her influence is exerted. Some one showed an old +lady, who had never been known to say anything in the least critical of +any human being, the picture of a very fat man prominent in public life. +She looked at it a moment, and then said sweetly: "My, isn't he plump!" +If only there were more old and young ladies like that dear soul! + +There is another kind of conversation which may not be ill-natured and +yet does harm. Idle gossiping, talking about things that are not worth +while or speculating about affairs which are not our business and of +which we know little or nothing. Akin to this is fashionably slangy +conversation concerning the latest thing in books, magazine articles, +trivial plays. For even the "tone" of school or college conversation a +student is responsible. She can make her school seem cheap or +cultivated. The remarks which visitors overhear as they go from room to +room or from building to building are likely to indicate the "tone" of +an institution. A catalogue may say all it pleases about a school but in +the end the school is judged by the women it educates and sends out, +even as a tree is known by its fruit. Cultivated, strong women are worth +more in advertisement than all the printed material in the world, +however laudatory. + +When a girl has received everything her Alma Mater has to give, she has +no right to be untrue to its fundamental aims and ideals, or to +misrepresent it in any way, either by what she says or by her own +behaviour. Every student in a large institution is in a sense a +pensioner. No student can pay for what is given to her. Is it not a poor +return for her to be reflecting dishonour rather than honour upon her +school? + +There is a certain social selfishness in the way some students take +their opportunities for granted without realizing that there are +thousands and hundreds of thousands of girls who would give all that +they possess for a tithe of such riches. Also, because of the sacrifice +which is being made for them at home girls are selfish in taking their +school or college life carelessly. The school has to bear much of the +responsibility for the individual failure. But of this the student who +is failing rarely thinks. Parents hold an institution to blame if it +does not do for their child what they expect it to do, when it may be +the girl who is at fault. + +In the use she makes of her portion of inheritance, in the gift the +school bestows on the student, there is a large social question +involved. The school gives her of its wealth, the result of the +accumulation of years and of the civic or philanthropic spirit of many +men and women. This, if the girl's sense of responsibility is what it +should be, she feels bound to increase and hand on. It is the old +_noblesse oblige_ under new conditions of privilege. + +While she is still in school the girl discharges part of this obligation +by realizing what is best for her school as an institution. A college or +a big school is no place for vocal soloists. Its life is the life of an +orchestra, of many instruments playing together. The student's sense of +responsibility is shown by her attitude towards the corporate government +and administration of the school. Instead of regarding the laws of her +school as natural enemies, chafing against them, making fun of them or +evading them if possible, she has a duty in fulfilling them. The +consciousness of this responsibility is the very heart and soul of the +student self-government movement, for it recognizes not only the +obligation placed upon its members by an institution, but also the wide +influence one girl may have on others. Student government knows that +upper class girls can determine the spirit of the under classes. Even +looking at the matter from the lightest point of view, respectful and +law-abiding ways are always well-bred ways. + +When a student becomes an alumna she can discharge a large part of her +great responsibility by realizing that it is not any longer so much a +question of what her school can give her as of what she can give to her +school. One thing she can always give it--that is, kindly judgment. And +she can acknowledge that her ideas of what her Alma Mater is after her +own school-days may not be correct. The school, sad to say, is sometimes +placed in the position of the kindly old farmer who, hearing others call +a certain man a liar, said: "Waal now, I wouldn't say he wuz a _liar_. +That's a bit harsh. I'd say he handled the truth mighty careless-like." +Schools find that some of their alumnæ handle the truth mighty +careless-like. + +While she is still a student a girl's service to her school lies largely +in her daily work, the mental muscle she puts into all that she does in +the classroom and studies out of it. If because of her and a multiple of +many girls like her, the college does not possess that _sine qua non_ of +all the higher mental life, an intellectual atmosphere, it is the +student's and her multiple's fault. "You may lead a horse to water but +you cannot make it drink," may be an old adage, but it would be hard to +improve upon it. You may set before students a veritable Thanksgiving +feast of things intellectual, but if they have no eagerness, no appetite +for them, the feast remains untouched. Energy and hunger of the mind, +not the anxious hosts, will in the end decide whether that feast is or +is not to be eaten. + +The school considers not only scholarship but also the sum of all that +it is, its culture, its attainment, its moral force, as these elements +are expressed in its living members, its students and its teachers--in +short, its idealism. Idealism is having one's life governed by ideals, +and an ideal is a perfect conception of that which is good, beautiful +and true. If the girl's life is not governed by ideals, how, then, can +the school hope to have its idealism live or grow? Frequently students +think of the ideals of college or school as of something outside +themselves, more or less intangible, with which they may or may not be +concerned. Students cannot do their institution a greater injury than by +harbouring such a thought, for if their sense of responsibility will +only make the idea of the school personal, then indeed will the school +be like that house upon which the rains descended and the winds blew but +it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. + + + + +III + +FRIENDSHIPS + + +Homesickness and friendships, how much and how vivid a part they play in +the first year, or years, of school life! An old coloured physician was +asked about a certain patient who was very ill. "I'll tell you de truf," +was the reply. "Widout any perception, Phoebe Pamela may die and she may +get well; dere's considerable danger bofe ways." I will tell you one +truth about the first year of school life: friends there will surely be, +and homesickness there is likely to be,--there is "considerable danger +both ways." + +Even if a girl has never been away from home before, it is possible that +she will not suffer from homesickness. It is probable, however, that the +new surroundings in which the girl finds herself, and the separation +from those who are the centre of her personal life, will bring on an +attack of this most painful malady. It takes time to fit comfortably +into the new surroundings, and meanwhile everything is strange. +Homesickness is not to be laughed at, but it must be less deadly, less +fatal than some people think it, or there would not be so many +recoveries. Girls often weep when they enter school, and then after the +long dreary years are really over, lived through, and the poor forlorn +freshman is metamorphosed into the senior, they weep again. Is it not +strange that these seniors who wept on entering school should weep also +when leaving it? It looks in the end as if Phoebe Pamela were sure to +get well. Yet the effort to get well requires a fine effort at +self-control,--an effort every girl is the better for making, although +it may take everything plucky in a girl to "back up" her intention to +remain in school. The earlier the student considers this question of +homesickness the better. Let her face its possibilities before she goes +away from home, and make up her mind, if she is attacked, resolutely to +overcome it. If it comes, let her never give up the struggle, for, by +giving in, she will only lose ground in every way, morally, socially, +intellectually. By her cowardice she will part with what she can never +recover later. + +Many temptations follow in the wake of homesickness, and the most +serious of all is to make friends too rapidly. It may be laid down as a +rule that a friendship formed on this stop-gap principle, and too +rapidly, is not likely to endure. Such a friendship is not a sane or a +wise relation, for friendship is like scholarship: if it is worth +anything at all it comes slowly. Impulsive, quickly forced friendships +are not wise investments; the very fact that they come so quickly +implies an unbalanced state of idealizing, or lack of self-control. This +does not mean that one is not to form pleasant acquaintances from the +very beginning of the school life. Acquaintanceship always holds +something in reserve and is the safest prelude to a deeper and more +vital friendship. + +There is no denying that there is great temptation to violent +admirations and attractions in school. In the first place, in school or +college the girl is brought into contact with a large circle of people +who are immensely interesting to her. The whole atmosphere is full of +novelty, of the unusual. Some of the students and teachers whom she +meets for the first time represent a broader experience, it may be, than +her own home life has given her. They are often new types and new types +are always interesting. + +I shall say nothing of the idealism of friendship--it plays its part in +other books. It would seem sometimes as if almost too much emphasis had +been placed upon the making of friendships in school,--friendship which +is, after all, but a by-product, the most valuable it is true, +nevertheless a by-product of the life. Wholly practical are the tests of +friendship which I shall give. In the first place a friend is too +absorbing who takes all of one's interest to the exclusion of +everything else: there should be interest in other people, other +activities as well as in one's work. Such a friendship can only make a +girl forget for what she has come to school. The new relation which +disposes one to look with less respect and affection upon one's own +people and home--and they, be it remembered, have stood the most +valuable test of all, the test of time--cannot be a good influence. It +may be said in general that an association which is developing the less +fine traits in one's character, giving emphasis to the less worthy +sides, should be relinquished immediately, even at the cost of much +heartache. The heartache will be only temporary; the bad influence might +become permanent. On the other hand, since friendship is giving as well +as taking, one does well to consider the fact that if one's own part in +it does not tell for good, there is just as much reason for stopping the +friendship where it is. Some of these associations--and this is a hard +saying, I know--which seem everything at the time are nothing, as the +years will prove. A girl idealizes, and idealizes those who are not +worthy. Inevitably the day comes when she laughs at herself,--if she +does not do worse and pity herself for having been such a goose. + +Only a few of the friendships made in school are destined to endure. One +of the foremost of those that last is founded on similarity of interest. +Perhaps it is the girl with whom one has worked side by side in the +laboratory,--a relation formed slowly and on a permanent basis. Many of +the best of friends have come together through community of interests, +and this is a type of friendship for which men have a greater gift than +women. + +There is still another type which develops because of some conspicuously +noble or fine quality which proves attractive. Hero worship, this, which +enlarges one's self through the admiration given to another. Then there +is the friendship based on a purely personal attraction, with mutual +respect and self-respect as its dedicated corner-stone. This does not +mean that one cannot see any faults in the friend, or know that one's +own are seen, without losing affection. There is always something flimsy +and insecure about a friendship that simply idealizes. Any relation +should be all the stronger for a frank acknowledgment of its +imperfections. If a girl cares enough she will be willing to admit her +own faults and wish to make herself more worthy to be a friend. + +And, finally, there is what might be called the lend-a-hand +friendship,--the relation that springs into existence because of the +need which is seen in another. It is not fair to make a packhorse of +one's friend or to turn one's self into the leaning variety of plant, +but it is fair and wise and right, if one is strong enough to accomplish +the end in view, to lend a hand to another girl who is not making the +best of herself. + +Have a good time but do not swear eternal allegiance in this first year +to anybody, however wonderful she may seem. Hold yourself in reserve, if +for no other reason, then on account of the old friends at home, whether +they be kin or no-kin, for they have been true. And remember, as I have +said before, friendship is like scholarship and must by its nature come +slowly. + + + + +IV + +THE STUDENT'S ROOM + + +There has been a general improvement in student rooms, yet many rooms +to-day have altogether too much in them: too many pictures, too many +banners, too much furniture, too many hangings. The great fault of most +rooms is this overcrowding. If we were only heroic enough to make a +bonfire of nine-tenths of all they contain we should see suddenly +revealed possibilities for something like the ideal room. + +One serious and obvious objection to the overcrowding of rooms is the +hygienic. I am tempted to say that this is the most important objection: +indeed, since health is more important than wealth, I will say so. A +girl has neither the time nor the ability to keep so many articles in a +room clean: and while she is busy attending to her studies, some +cherished ornaments are not only laying up dust for the future, as a +more regenerate life will lay up treasures, but also breeding germs, +perhaps collecting the very germs which will take this girl away from +school or college. Besides, bric-à-brac not only gathers dust and breeds +germs but also wearies the nerves. It makes one tired to see so many +things about, and tired to be held responsible for them. Without +realizing it, we resist the amount of space they occupy and in their +place want the air and sunshine. Subconsciously, most of us long to get +rid of our bric-à-brac and then pull down the draperies that keep out +the sunlight. The simpler the window draperies in a room, the more +easily washed, the better and more attractive. For wholesome +attractiveness there is no fabric that can excel a flood of warm +sunshine. Any girl or woman who has curtains which she must protect from +strong light by drawing down the shades is guilty of a household sin +whose greatness she cannot know. That same sunshine, freely admitted, +will do more to cleanse a house than all the soap, all the brooms, and +even all the vacuum cleaners ever invented. + +The so-called beauty of a room should always give way before the hygiene +of a room. Not only should the room be sensibly furnished so that it may +have plenty of air and light, but closets should not contain articles of +furniture which belong where the air can reach them. There is a +difference between a room that is not orderly and one that is not clean. +A room that contains unclean articles in drawers or closets, unclean +floors, unclean rugs and hangings and unclean walls, should not be +tolerated for an instant. If a girl turns a combination bedroom and +study in school or college into a kitchen, if an ice-cream freezer +occupies all the foreground of this place she calls home, and +chafing-dishes with cream bottles, sardine tins, cracker boxes, paper +bags full of stale biscuits, fruit skins, dish-cloths and +grease-spotted walls, all the background, it is impossible to have a +clean room to live in. + +The Golden Rule applies to rooms as well as to human beings and should +read, "Do unto a room as you would it should do unto you." And not only +for the sake of health should this Golden Rule for Rooms be observed but +also for the sake of the college or school. The room that belongs to us +only for a time should be as thoughtfully cared for as if it were our +own personal property. There is something inconsistent, isn't there, in +educating a girl in high thinking and fine ideals, if she is willing to +live in a room that for uncleanliness many a woman in some crowded +quarter of a city would consider a disgrace? Such contradiction in mind +and surrounding is out of harmony with all one's ideal for a +gentlewoman. + +Not only beauty is restful, peace-giving and peace-bringing, but so, +also, are neatness and order. Orderliness helps to fit one for work. +There is undoubtedly some connection between surroundings and one's +mental state. In themselves disorder and confusion are irritating. The +sight of a dirty child crying in the doorway of an untidy house suggests +some connection between the wretchedness of the child and the squalor of +the home. I often think of William Morris, the great craftsman and +charming poet, who had much at heart the happiness of all people, +especially the poor, and his exclamation, "My eye, how I do love +tidiness!" To him, to the artist, it was, as it is, beautiful. George +Eliot had to put even the pins in her cushion into some neat arrangement +before she could sit down to write. Disorder wastes not only one's +feelings and health, it also wastes one's time, for a lot of this +commodity may be lost in looking for books, wraps, gloves and other +things which are not put away properly. + +School ought to be a training for the life afterwards. That is why we go +to school, isn't it? Why should a girl indulge herself in habits which +will make against her usefulness in the life of the home or in whatever +circumstance she may be? There is a certain disciplinary value in order. +Every great military school has recognized this. Laxness in the care of +one's room may mean the habit of laxness in other and more important +ways. Disorderliness indicates a certain tendency in character, and if a +girl allows that sort of thing to go on she is very likely to show it in +other ways. Untidiness in any of one's personal habits--and what could +be more personal than a room?--should be taken up and corrected even as +one attempts to correct any weak point in one's character. + +Do you know what is always--that is, if it is in it at all--the most +beautiful thing in a room? It is something which the Creator meant all +mankind should have, rich and poor, old and young alike; it is something +beyond the buying price of any wealth. It is the sunshine, more +beautiful, more valuable than expensive hangings that shut it out. +Perhaps it is partly because it is inexpensive, God-given to all people, +that housewives frequently draw their curtains against it. If they had +to pay more for it than for carpets and hangings, you may be very sure +that a great many husbands and fathers would be overworking in order +that their families might buy a whole display of sunshine instead of +tapestries. + +Do you know what is the most helpful thing you can have in your room, +the article without which you cannot live in it at all, no matter how +fine the rugs and bric-à-brac may be? _Air!_ Air is the one thing which +is almost instantly and absolutely indispensable to human life, for we +breathe it in not only through our noses but also all over our skin. +Every hundredth fraction of an inch of our bodies is feeding upon air, +and the purer that air and the cooler the better and more invigorating +food it provides for the skin surface as well as for the lungs. The +mind, for it is housed in the body and its tenant, must depend for its +vigour or tone upon the fresh air in school or college study. Even a +very good head cannot work well set upon an anæmic body which is +suffocating for want of good clean air. If you wish to do your best work +and keep well, the first thing to do is not to open your books but to +open your windows. After that the books and a reasonable number of hours +of continuous study. American audience halls, pullmans, ordinary coaches +and public buildings of all sorts, especially libraries, are notoriously +overheated and unventilated. It is the intelligent American girl and +woman who, beginning with the home, will correct this evil. The schools +are, on the whole, in the forefront of the fresh air movement, +especially the public schools. As every one knows, the public schools +are establishing open air rooms for their children who need them. +Although there is much to be said about what a room should contain to +make it attractive, it should never be forgotten that sunshine and +fresh air are more beautiful and more priceless than anything else which +it can hold. + +The first object in furnishing a bare room is to make it +habitable,--that is useful. Take the kitchen, for example, and +usefulness is practically the sole object in fitting it up. And the +curious thing about it all is that it cannot help being beautiful in a +homely, motherly way, for it exemplifies one of the strongest elements +of all beauty and that is _service_. The kitchen may be a very humble +place but if more women would make a study of their kitchens and then +take thought, it is likely that the rest of their houses would be in +much better taste. A thing that is useful, even as with some well-worn +homely old woman who has led a good and helpful life, always acquires a +beauty of its own. It may be hard for girls to see this but it is there, +and in time it will be seen. Just as it is essentially more beautiful to +have a clean, strong body rather than a pretty face and a body that is +not what it ought to be, so is it more truly beautiful to have articles +of furnishing in our rooms, in study or kitchen, that are of +indispensable genuine use. + +Take the gaudy ambitious study one girl has made for herself. It is +defaced by the presence of articles of no value at all in the world of +needs; there is nothing in it that is genuinely beautiful and nothing +that is substantially useful. The furniture is almost too cheap to stand +on its own legs, and the colours would certainly never wash and not even +wear. This room is a junk-shop of new, useless, unattractive objects of +no virtue,--in short, a most unpleasant place in which to live. Have you +ever considered what gives even the simplest clothes for distinctive +occasions a beauty of their own? It is fitness. And it is this same +fitness which tells so much in furnishing a room. It might be said of +certain dresses that they "go together," that is, they are harmonious, +they belong together, they have, like some people, the beauty of +agreeing with themselves, and a very desirable sort of beauty it is. +Just as clothes are an expression of the people who wear them, so are +rooms an expression of the people who live in them. No well-bred girl +cares for tawdry, cheap, over-ornamented clothes. She is made +uncomfortable even at the very thought of having to wear such things. +She should suffer just as much discomfort on the score of a cheaply +furnished (and by "cheap" here I do not mean inexpensive--whitewash and +deal intelligently used may create a beautiful room), overcrowded and +over-ornamented study. + +What is the meaning of the room which is your school centre for the time +being? It is an intimate place where a girl may have her friends and +good times; it is a retreat and it is a workshop. It is the girl's home +centre away from home, the place from which she will lead her life, in +its expression attractive or unattractive, like her or unlike her. To +intend that this room in beauty, in cleanliness, in order, shall be the +best expression possible of the girl's best self is the ideal to set for +the school study. + +Get good materials and good colours. They need not be expensive. +Remember that colours have to go together just as furniture has to do +so. To have styles of furniture that clash or colours that do not +harmonize will negative any care which the student may have taken in the +selection of individual pieces or materials. To have too much with which +to fill the room is a good deal worse than not to have enough. Much +better it is to have a few things which are just what they should be +than to have too many and those undesirable. To get a desk, if a girl +can afford to do so, that she will be glad to keep her life long is a +good beginning, and a comfortable chair that will be made doubly +precious by all the school associations woven about it. And let her be +careful about pictures for her walls and not crowd them with cheap and +"fashionable" trash. Above all, let her remember that good taste, +simplicity, careful selection, will do more to assure her the possession +of an attractive room than all the money in the world can do. + + + + +V + +THE TOOLS OF STUDY AND THEIR USE + + +A girl ought to take up her study with the same sense of pleasure as +that with which a strong workman enters his shop, knowing his tools and +able to use them. Having good tools and knowing them is certainly part +of the joy of work. And what are the tools the student must use? Well, +for the average student, the one that is first and most important is +_Good Health_. The mind is not as clear if the body is not in good +health, clean within and without. + +The second set of tools consists of a different sort of equipment and +apparatus, tools with which a girl must become familiar and which she +must know how to use--_Books_, _Library_, _Laboratory_ and _Classroom_. +Why shouldn't a student be just as able to use her books as a carpenter +his plane or saw? One couldn't expect a fumbling carpenter or a clumsy +seamstress to accomplish much work or good work. There are times when a +girl need not claim to know anything but she must, at least, know where +to find what she wants to know. This is the first lesson in the use of +books; without knowledge of them or love for them, the student can't get +along at all. And beyond this somewhat mechanical use of books there is +a deeper and larger lesson to learn; to know that a book is not merely a +page of print where information may be sought but that it is a mirror in +which one finds the world, its wisdom, its joy, its sorrow, its divine +adventures. Robert Southey, the friend of the poet Coleridge, has +written beautifully on the subject in a little poem called "His Books." + +Another tool in the student's workshop is _Previously Acquired +Knowledge_: that is, what one has in one's mind. Some people's minds are +junk-shops. But a junk-shop is better than an empty shop. This +previously acquired knowledge, if used rightly, becomes the tool of +later courses, the servant of later years. Our stored-up facts--many of +them--have not been an end in themselves. How could they be? For +example, such things as paradigms and formulæ and long lists of names +and dates, are tools pure and simple; but the student in the workshop +must have them or she will be like a carpenter who had much to do but on +coming to his bench found no tools there and so was idle all day. + +A fourth tool for the girl in her study--one that cannot be deliberately +acquired, as information or apparatus or even health can be--is +_Experience_. This is the most valuable tool of all--one's experience of +travel, with people, in responsibility, in love, in joy, in sorrow, in +any kind of work. The girls who are the most interesting in the +classroom are the girls who are not contenting themselves with apparatus +alone but whose minds are flexible with experience, who bring all of +themselves, their life, to bear upon the work. A certain well-known +minister had prepared a sermon for his usual Sunday engagement, but +half an hour before service another text came into his mind. He could +not forget it, so he jotted down notes and preached the new sermon +instead of the one that had been prepared. This sermon made a great +impression on all who heard it, and the minister himself said of it that +some people would declare that it had been thought out in half an hour, +but that really he had put fifty years of his life into it. The sharper +and better the tools, the finer the character of the work. If experience +has been observed and retained, and previously acquired knowledge is +ready for service, and hand and mind know how to use books, and the +student is in good condition physically, then the excellence of that +girl's work in the class and out can be guaranteed. + +And now what are the uses of the work which these tools can accomplish +for us? Coleridge wrote in his poem, "Work Without Hope," + + "Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, + And Hope without an object cannot live." + +The only hope that can last is hope that is not wholly centred in +ourselves, but has some thought for others and our service to them. Work +devoid of inspiration and ideals, work done merely for one's self, study +pursued with only a degree as an end or for the sake of "pay" as a +teacher, turns school and college into a market-place, a place of +barter, where in exchange for so much energy and so much money we may +acquire a certain position and livelihood. Only that work in which one +has the consciousness of being, or becoming, useful to others, brings +joy that will endure. What do we think of the minister who is without a +sense of consecration? The responsibility of the student or the teacher +is quite as large, the opportunity for service quite as wonderful. One +of our greatest English poets, William Wordsworth, exclaimed: "I wish to +be considered as a teacher, or as nothing!" The calling of the teacher, +of the student, has through all time been thought a high one,--one that +has drawn to itself fine and unselfish spirits. The life of the student, +no matter how necessary to the world its market-places are, never has +been and never can be a life of barter, of trade. + +The wealth that comes to the student should not be an exclusive +possession. It may be bought at a large price but it can never be sold. +It must be given away, or shared, for it is wealth which carries with it +a sense of social responsibility. It is enjoyed for a double purpose, +not only for the sake of the happiness it brings to us but also for the +sake of the joy or help it may bring to others. Millions of girls covet +the opportunities that come to a few in school and college, many of them +who far more greatly deserve this privilege than we. Indeed, what have +most of us done to merit the right to all that we have? The only way in +which we can show our sense of justice is by taking our privileges as +something to share with others. The girl who has health, pleasant +surroundings and work worth doing, has all a human being has a right to +expect. She ought always to be happy, always rejoicing in her work and +always eager to divide her wealth with others. + +The redeeming feature of royalties has been their sense of +responsibility for their subjects! In great disasters, or calamities, +their first thought has been to go to the relief of the people. The King +and Queen of Italy are noble examples of this courage and unselfishness. +In America the only "privileged" class is the highly educated. It is +they from whom _noblesse oblige_ must be expected, who will show in all +emergencies their sense of responsibility, who will share all that they +have with others. A girl will be happy, she will grow, she will be a +leverage power for good with those among whom she lives, only in so far +as she uses her tools of knowledge in the service of others, and shapes +all that she does towards some humanly useful end. + + + + +VI + +THE JOY OF WORK + + +If one is in good condition, the exercise of any physical power is a +pleasure. It is a pleasure to run, to sing, to dance, to climb +mountains, to row, to swim; it is a pleasure to shout for nothing else +than for the pure joy of letting off surplus energy. In the world of +animals, the horse and dog, to take only two illustrations, abound in +this enjoyment of physical energy. The horse paws the ground and snorts +and whinnies and loves the fastest road pace you will let him take. The +dog leaps in the air, jumps fences, barks, and races around madly, +sometimes after nothing at all. + +But the highest power of which human beings are possessed is not the +power of the body. It is the power of the mind. Yet many of us +throughout our school and college life not only do not wish to use this +power but even rebel against it. "What," some girls are saying to +themselves, "enjoy the work of a classroom? Who ever heard of such a +thing!" Yes, just that. And if we don't enjoy the work of a classroom, +even an indifferently good one, there is something the matter with us, +or the subject should not have a place on any curriculum. Every mental +exercise should be full of the keenest pleasure, of intellectual +pleasure. + +Our schools and colleges to-day are very much richer in the joy of +everything else--in beautiful surroundings, in freer and fuller athletic +and outdoor life, in a more varied and delightful social life--than they +were fifty or even twenty-five years ago. But it is a question whether +the joy of intellectual work has kept pace with this joy of life in its +other aspects. Sometimes it almost seems as if intellectual eagerness +were in inverse ratio to the ease and fullness of the opportunities we +have. At least many fair-minded girls have seen the predicament in +which the teacher is placed. The man who makes a vase for the use and +pleasure of others may rejoice not only in his own workmanship but also +in the thought of the service and delight he is giving to others. That +is, his pleasure is twofold. The teacher who is deprived of some +response of joy in the work he is doing is a workman deprived of his +rights. To those girls who are thinking of becoming teachers this should +be a sobering thought. + +Missionary teachers, with their students eager to get anything they have +to give, are not to be pitied. Our schools and their groups of teachers +in isolated and uncultivated parts of the West and South are not to be +pitied. Even if education is with them shorn of much that gives it +charm, the opportunities that come are prized. Students and teachers +have intellectual joy in the work they do, and without that the greatest +university in the world might as well, or better, be a district school, +for then the work done would be truly useful. It is the teacher who has +to put much of her time and energy into making a subject superficially +attractive enough for a student to elect it, who is to be pitied. A +classroom full of blasé girls whose minds need to be tickled before +there is the least expression of intellectual mirth upon their faces, is +an ordeal not lightly to be met except by the professional joker or +academic tumbler. + +Girls often become impatient with themselves, and that is one reason why +there is so little joy in work for them. Think of Helen Keller as a +famous example of this joy in work under the most adverse circumstances. +What could be greater than her handicap? Shut away from the world by +deaf ears and blind eyes and, for a while, by inability to speak, she +has nevertheless shown a keenness of pleasure and intellectual +acquisition that shames us who have all our senses in their fullness. +Think of her patient, unremitting delving, of the digging up, up, up to +get to the light which most human beings are privileged to enjoy with +no effort at all! The mind that accepts this wealth with no thought, no +sense of responsibility, is a trifler with riches that are about us for +God-given purposes. Think of the way in which Stevenson and John Richard +Green and George Eliot rose above their ill-health and did their work in +despite of it! Perhaps some of us have superb health and have never made +any conscious effort to use that gift for a high end. + +Girls grow impatient with themselves when they wouldn't be impatient +with a little child. Yet the mind has to be trained even as we train a +child; it has to be brought back and back, again and again to the thing +to be done. After the asking of a simple question, oftentimes a whole +class will look confounded, because they have some strange notion that +thinking means getting hold of something very far away and difficult to +grasp. All that the first effort in thought denotes is taking a hold of +that which is nearest and following it up. It is the old story of +Theseus following his clue of thread, the slender thing in his hand, by +which he was guided out of the labyrinth and to the broad sea of +adventure. + +There are difficulties in the doing of any work that is worth while. It +would be a poor adviser who painted the student's way as a path of +roses. First and foremost, one's own inertia interferes with the joy of +work. Some one has defined the lazy man as one who doesn't want to do +anything at all, and the indolent man as one who doesn't want to do +anything that he doesn't want to do. Then, too, there are certain +allurements and distractions in school life which are a hindrance to our +joy in an intellectual task. And there is the very natural +disinclination to the drudgery involved in all hard labour. No work that +is worth while is without drudgery. Lack of encouragement from older +people is one serious difficulty some girls have to meet. There is a +type of older person who is sure that using the mind will harm that +precious article. And, finally, there is our inexperience, our own lack +of comprehension, our own purposeless and formless lives. + +Joy in work should not be altogether conditional upon one's sense of +ease or upon what is called success. Seeming success is not always +success. Often the most valuable lessons come from failures. Robert +Browning, the poet, speaks again and again of the noble uses of failure. +Let me quote one stanza from one of his greatest poems, "Rabbi Ben +Ezra": + + "Then, welcome each rebuff + That turns earth's smoothness rough, + Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go! + Be our joys three-parts pain! + Strive and hold cheap the strain; + Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!" + +You can't learn to walk if you haven't tumbled down a good deal in doing +it. It is often failure that means ultimate success. Of course if a +girl keeps on saying: "Oh, what's the use?" about everything she does +and all her failures, there isn't any use. In weak moments that sort of +thing can be said of every great and worth-while experience, of love, of +joy, of sorrow, of work. But a girl who allows herself to take this +attitude is a "quitter," and doesn't know the first principles of +playing the game. + +Part of the joy of work consists in the mere delight of intellectual +exercise, delight in thinking a thing out. That is the way we develop +ourselves mentally, just as we develop ourselves physically through +sports. The mind that thinks is capable of deeper and broader thinking. +Thinking begets thought. A muscle that is left without exercise softens +and finally atrophies. The same is true of mental muscle. If this +strength is left unused it is gradually lost and cannot be recovered. +Mental concentration, the thought that is so strenuous that everything +else is shut out, strengthens the mind. In this wonderful old world no +new land has been discovered without physical effort. There is no +country of the mind which can be entered without a similar effort. + +And there is another and very important joy in work--the sense that one +is being equipped for the work of the world, for usefulness. The mere +feeling that one's powers are being developed brings joy with it. There +is still another joy which every one of us must covet--the sense of +entering into the intellectual riches of the world, its wonders of +science and art and letters, with the feeling that we have a part in a +great treasure, a treasure which, unlike gold and precious stones, men +have never been able to gauge or to exhaust. Such gold and silver as we +take from that adventure cannot be lost or stolen from us. It remains +with us to the very last, and with it no life can ever become really +poor, or dull, or old. + + + + +VII + +FAIR-PLAY + + +Few students realize how closely a classroom resembles a commonwealth. +To most of us it seems a place into which we go to have a certain amount +got out of us, or put into us. This conception of the classroom is +unworthy the modern girl who has, otherwise, a fine understanding of the +meaning of team-play, of playing all together for a common end, a game +or a republic united by a tacit compact. + +Does the average student feel responsibility for the game of basket-ball +or lawn hockey which she is playing? The first thought of the girl in +answering this is that it was a foolish question even to ask. Of course +she does. But for her classroom? No, that is a different sort of game, +in which the responsibility lies all on the shoulders of the instructor. +It is a one-woman or a one-man game, and very often the students are +but spectators, cheering or indifferent, approving or disapproving. The +pupil does not hold herself accountable for this game; it is the teacher +who makes the class "go," who extracts from each student the information +bottled up in her, together, often, with a good deal of carbon +dioxide,--a process difficult and hard as drawing a swollen cork out of +a soda-water bottle. Finally, with a sort of noble rebound of effort, +the exhausted instructor is to put a vast deal of information back into +the girl before the student claps her book together and rushes pell-mell +to the next classroom, there to be similarly uncorked, if the teacher +has learned the art and her mental muscle is sufficient. + +Such a conception of a classroom is not fair-play. The teacher, like the +coxswain of a college crew, may have rowed over the same course and she +may know it well enough to cover it in the dark; she may have won +distinction upon it, may be the fittest person in all the states of the +Union to cover it again, but if she has not a good or a winning crew to +coach, she will never win any race, even the shortest. No instructor has +shoulders equal to such a multiple burden as coaching, steering and +doing all the rowing, too. To play any classroom game in this spirit is +to be dead weight for every one else embarked upon the same adventure. +It is not fair-play. + +By such an attitude on the part of merely one student in the class, +every other student associated with her loses, for the girl who will not +lift her own weight the others must carry. If that student were playing +in that spirit on the basket-ball team, do you suppose that the coach, +or the captain, would let her stay on? Not for a moment; off she would +go and very much humiliated, too. If it is a discussion, the touch and +go of the whole recitation will depend upon the presence of the +team-play, or fair-play, spirit in the course. The instructor may do her +best but if there is no play-the-game in that classroom, she might just +as well fold up her tent, like the proverbial Arab, "and silently steal +away." It is not that any recitation need be a brilliant affair--if most +of them depended upon that for existence they would scarcely exist at +all--but there must be an honest, earnest, responsible effort to make +the best of the hour. Good will inevitably come from the clarifying +effort to express thought, and the leading from thought to thought as +the work goes forward. + +The basket-ball team cannot win, or even play, unless all the members +are playing together. Each one is needed despite the fact that she may +not be one of the chief or best players. Just so does the class need all +its students. If a girl is only average, it is not fair-play for her to +sit back and do nothing; neither is it fair-play for her to monopolize +the attention if she happens to be more than commonly able. It is not +fair-play to laugh at the girl who is at a disadvantage, or to appear +bored. It is unfair to the individual, to the classroom in general and +to the instructor. The least she can do in this class game is to give +her whole and her courteous attention. + +Think of all the practice games in which the average athletic team takes +part. What can be said for the student who comes into the classroom +unprepared to lift her own weight, unprepared to help others? When one +comes to think about it from the fair-play point of view there is +nothing to be said for her. Nor is it fair-play for a girl to allow +herself to get into such a state physically that she is unable to study. +How often and often have fudge-heads--due to an application to too much +sugar and not to books--sitting row after row killed a school or even a +whole college! Before a class tempered by fudge and not by wholesome +outdoor living and conscientious devotion to work, the teacher might +better put away her notes and close her book. Nothing can happen through +or over that barricade of fudge-heads. + +And it is not fair-play to cram because of time lost, or for any other +cause. The only end of cramming is that the student soon forgets all +that has been learned. Alone by normal, slow acquisition and all the +associations formed in such learning can information come to us to stay. +It may not be particularly wicked to cram if one has plenty of time to +waste, but it is foolish unless one has. + +There is a kind of gossip in which a girl takes part, made up of +snap-shot judgments of the classroom, idle carping about some little +unimportant point, expression of wounded vanity and unfair talk, which +may mean a tremendous loss of prestige for a really admirable course; it +may mean that girls, who would naturally go into it because of their +liking or gift for the work, do not go or go in a critical and +unsympathetic attitude. If there is a complaint to be made about any +course it should be made to the responsible person concerned, and that +is usually the teacher. Anything else is not fair-play. In the +classroom the instructor is the "coach" of the game and she is the +person with whom to talk. It is needless to say that if a girl is +putting nothing into a course she cannot expect to get anything out of +it, or to complain because things do not "go." If she wants them to "go" +why does she not help, and have the profit of taking something away from +the work as interest on her effort? A girl gets dividends only from work +into which she has put some brain-capital. + +And the people at home? Is it fair-play to them, when they are making +sacrifices of money or of happiness to keep the daughter at school, for +her not to put good work into her study and play her part faithfully in +the classroom game? So many things have to be taken into consideration +of which we are not likely to think. There is the girl herself, the +other girls with whom she is working, the instructor, the people at +home, the institution that is providing an expensive equipment or plant +through the philanthropic efforts of others or the taxation of the +public. If the girl does not play her part fairly, there is a rather big +reckoning against her, is there not? + + + + +VIII + +THE RIGHT SORT OF LEISURE + + +The right sort of leisure ought to help as much in the development of +the girl as the right sort of work. If it is leisure worthy the name, it +will bring refreshment; it will not leave one physically and mentally +jaded. Neither mind nor body should ever be exhausted because of the way +in which freedom has been used. Leisure is as important to work as work +is to leisure. A person who has not worked cannot appreciate freedom, +while the one who has had no leisure is not best fitted for work. "All +work and no play makes Jack a dull boy;" it is just as true that it +makes Jill a dull girl. The girl who works all the time, not realizing +the importance of free moments, becomes fagged in body and mind. She is +a tool that is dull, and would do well to remember that even a machine +is better for an occasional rest. + +Some mistaken ideas about leisure have grown up, making it difficult to +say anything on this subject without being misunderstood. Stories--whole +books of them--about "spreads" and more or less lawless escapades in +school and college, have given girls and other people, too, the +impression that this is the sort of thing school leisure is. Nothing +could be farther from the truth. Midnight feasts may occur in school, +and most of us, unless we are too good to be average girls, have taken +part in them. But such stories are vicious, for they misrepresent the +life by suggesting that eating inferior and unwholesome food is the real +freedom most girls desire. There is something repulsive in the very +thought. Feasts that leave a girl with a coated tongue and a dull head +and Monday "blues" do not fairly represent school or college leisure. +Good times that interfere with good work have no place in ideally free +hours. But, indeed, the odours from the chafing-dishes do suggest that +some of the girls are trying to put into literal execution the wish of +a great German professor in Oxford. The professor, eager to try a dish +he saw on the hotel bill of fare, but with his English and German verbs +not quite disentangled, said to the waiter, "Hereafter I vish to become +a Velsh Rabbit." Perhaps becoming a Welsh rarebit represents the height +of some girls' ideals, but this is hard to believe. + +The possession of leisure depends to a great extent upon the will power. +The girl who has never learned to say "No," who has no power of +selection, cannot expect to have any hours for her own use. She is +quarry for every idle suggestion, every social engagement, every +executive "job" which pursues her. The girl who engages all her time +socially cannot have a sense of leisure, for she turns her playtime into +but another schedule, to be met as inexorably as her academic courses. +Her days become a formidable array of "dates," often stretching ahead +for weeks. Even if girls are not determined to have it for themselves, +they should give to others some opportunity for freedom, and should +respect their possible desire for solitude. The girl who engages or +annexes every particle of time, her own or that of some one else with +whom she comes in contact, is making leisure an impossibility. The girl +who leaves no margin cannot hope for even the spirit of freedom. + +Many students excuse themselves for much executive work in school and +college on the ground that it is done in their leisure. That girl is a +goose who allows herself through any sense of self-importance, or +irreplaceable usefulness, to be so involved in executive work that all +other aspects of her school life are slighted. If she refuses to be +swamped by such "jobs" she can have the happiness of reflecting that +probably some girls who need the training far more than she does are +doing the work. To every girl will come the opportunity right along for +"managing"; club and social work will bring it, and a good-sized family +will bring it as nothing else can. But school leisure she will not have +again. The whole aim of the school is to enrich the lives of its +students, and it knows all too well that that student who does not keep +for herself the leisure upon which body and mind and soul must feed is +indeed poor. + +There is one way in which leisure is very generally misspent in +school--and alas, outside, too!--not in managing one's own affairs, but +in managing and discussing the affairs of others. At such times the +remarks may be superlatively pleasant, but they are more often +superlatively disagreeable. It may be said with truthfulness that they +are almost never moderate or just. Everything is all black or all white, +with no gray. It makes one think of the little girl with a curl in the +middle of her forehead: + + "When she was good, she was very, very good, + And when she was bad, she was horrid." + +But, alas! the poor wretches discussed are not allowed even the natural +and somewhat happy human alternation between badness and goodness. No, +indeed, they are monsters of a desperate character--they may at the +moment be broken-heartedly conscious of their own faults--or they are +shining six-winged angels. And, woe! this sort of thing comes almost as +hard upon the angels. They can't endure it; so much goodness breaks down +their wing arches, and the glorious ones crumple together like +tissue-paper. + +And upon the girls busily engaged in creating angels of loveliness and +gargoyles of ugliness, this sort of conversation works havoc. It does +not invigorate them, it does not inspire them. It belittles their +minds--thank fortune, that making kindling wood of the characters of +other people does do this!--and stunts their finer feelings. This sin, +that they "do by two and two," they pay for one by one. Gentle and +considerate feelings are lost, time is wasted, a vicious habit,--almost +no habit is more vicious,--is acquired. Such gossip can never become a +pure enjoyment; it remains at the best an ignoble, discreditable +excitement. Rolling these sweet morsels under their tongues, a taste for +ill-natured or exaggerated comment fixes itself in their mouths. Even if +they have consciences that, like good mothers, will occasionally wash +their mouths out with soap, they retain the disturbing memory of unkind, +coarse, or foolish words. + +Yet school should be the last place in which to indulge in idle talk. +Such indulgence is against all the idealism of student life. Idle or +meddlesome talk never helps any one, either the one who talks or the one +who is discussed. If you have anything to say about other people, and if +going to them will help you, the only friendly thing to do--it is not an +easy thing--is to speak to the people concerned. If we really knew how +to put ourselves in other people's places, no unkind, unfriendly words +would ever be spoken again. There would be things hard to bear +said--rebuke or reproof are never easy to receive--but nothing +unfriendly. Think how idle, ill-natured talk flows around the world, and +then think what a different world it would be if there were none of it! +It is to human life what the blights, the scales, the insect pests are +to tree and flower. Fortunately, as people grow older they come to think +themselves less infallible, and as they grow wiser they become more +tender and more lenient in their judgments. + +In companionship whose leisure interests are good there is a sense of +freedom filled full and running over, of minds and hearts doubly rich, +of good times doubly jolly. But on the whole, girls have too little +absolute solitude; there is scarcely a girl in twenty, except the "dig," +who is alone at all. One trouble with dormitory school life is that it +fosters leisure-wasting and time-wasting "gang" habits. A girl so +surrounded never wants to be alone a moment, either indoors or out. With +such, the blessing and blessedness of solitude should be learned, for +solitude rightly used makes strong men and women. + +The woman who has leisure has a grasp upon time, is master of it instead +of being mastered by it. It is the girl whirled around in a squirrel +cage of pointless weekly and Sunday engagements who is oppressed and +mastered by her lack of freedom. And then there is the hard-pressed +future; we must lay up some leisure for that. The time when one is most +hurried is the time when one most needs the sense of freedom. The story +of the old Quaker lady who had so much to do she didn't know where to +begin, and so took a nap, is profoundly full of wisdom. When the old +lady woke up she found she had plenty of time after all, not because she +had done anything but because she had come again into a leisurely frame +of mind. + +Leisure means neither a blank mind nor an empty hand. It means a holiday +taken with an eager mind, with eyes keen in their delight and knowledge, +with hands capable of some beauty or some use. All of us have leisure +to think, but not all of us think. Some of us, if friends come in +unexpectedly, will quickly pick up something and pretend to be busy. +When Watt sat by the fire watching the steam from the teakettle lift the +lid, he was not precisely idle. The powerful, indispensable steam-engine +was the result. One reason, aside from all religious considerations, why +we need a quiet Sunday, is that we may have that sense of freedom which +feeds mind and body, and even the crumbs of whose profitableness have +made the world rich in great inventions, in great pictures, in wonderful +books. + + + + +IX + +THE OUTDOOR RUNWAY + + +After Nebuchadnezzar came in from eating grass there had taken place in +that potentate a great change for the good. One of the factors in this +betterment may have been the grass itself. The grass-cure has always +been popular and always will be, for it is just as good for the tired +mind as it is for the tired body. Nowadays every big school and every +college provide a grass-cure for students who are out at elbows with +their nerve sleeves, or who have not sufficient muscle to make them fit, +or who are overworking or need toning up in any way. There is more and +more recognition of the fact that a school course which is taken at the +expense of health is not worth having. And side by side with this +wholesome admission has come a great awakening in the last fifteen years +to the curative value of the _outdoor runway_, whether that runway be a +field track, energetic walking in a park or campus, or a cross country +run. + +Some girls--and there are more girls of this type than there are +boys--put in their outdoor life as a stop-gap. It is inconceivable that +this should be true, yet it is true. Apathetically the students have +exercised sixty minutes, considering this minimum quite sufficient. Not +a particle of zest do they reveal in the exercise taken. They do not +seem to know or they do not care that the fields and woods should be +full, not only of health and all that goes with it, including success, +but also of the best of friends who all have their good points worthy of +notice and imitation, in quick leap, cheerful voice and blithe song. +What are sixty minutes in this great outdoor runway? Not a tithe of the +twenty-four hours and at best only half of what the minimum should be. +Exercise should be taken even if nothing else in the school life is. +And I say this advisedly, for health is the basis on which not only the +future of the woman's life must depend but also that of the race. Good +health, the inheritance of it, its maintenance and increase, neither the +girl nor her parents can ever hold as too sacred a trust. That it is a +sacred trust the schools are recognizing more and more, and provisions +are being made, especially in the public schools, for the defective in +health as well as for the strong. The outdoor school, at first an object +that attracted universal attention, is now being taken quite for +granted. Foolish the girl who does not learn to take the outdoor runway +for granted, too, and go out to it in high spirits to learn its wisdom, +to take part in its joys and to receive its health. + +It may be accepted as a new axiom--the more exercise the less fool. +Strong, able muscles, steady nerves (and let us remember that nerves +depend for their tone on the muscular condition), a clean skin open at +all its pores and doing its eliminative work thoroughly, and clean +strong vitals make up the kind of beauty within the reach of all +womanhood, and the physical beauty which she should most desire. The day +is coming when our ideal of what is physically perfect--not spiritually, +for Christianity has carried us beyond anything that Greece ever +knew--will be more like the Greek in its entirety, its emphasis upon the +harmony of the whole body. The body is a mechanism to be exquisitely +cared for--self-running, it is true, and yet in need of intelligent +attention. Think of the care an engineer gives his engine, and it is by +no manner of means so wonderfully and so intricately fashioned as these +bodies of ours on which our happiness, our working ability, even our +very goodness depend. Health as a safeguard to one's whole moral being +is coming into more and more recognition, and not only as a safeguard +but also as a cultivator of all that is best in us spiritually. There +are people very ill, or permanent invalids, whose great victory it is +to be among the saints of the earth, but that it is easier to be good +when one is well no one will deny. Every big school has now its class or +classes in corrective or medical gymnastics, in which stooping +shoulders, ewe necks, curved spines, flat insteps, small waists and +narrow chests are rectified as far as possible in the limited hours of +the school days. + +The time is coming when parents will consider it a disgrace to allow +their children to be physically undeveloped. The physician, always in +advance of the community for which he cares, sees how grave in moral or +intellectual import physical defects may be. The educational world, +alive to new messages for the reconstruction of its educational ideal, +begins also to place more and more emphasis upon the physical care and +development of its students--and not by any manner of means for physical +reasons only but because the whole girl or the whole boy is better +spiritually and mentally for having a body that is strong and well. The +whole being keeps better time, just as a watch does, for having clean +works. No one has the right to shut out the fresh air or the sunshine; +no girl should remain undeveloped physically through lack of exercise +when she could, through exercise, make herself strong. Even to abuse her +feet, the important centre of many important nerves, by tight shoes, is +wrong; so is it to rack her spine and upset or throw out of position all +the delicate and wonderfully fashioned organs of the abdominal cavity by +the wearing of high French heels. Undoubtedly, however, American +motherhood and girlhood represent something more and more intelligent; +indeed, in physical culture women are beginning to keep step with men, +and it is upon this fact that school and college depend in their +splendid efforts to make the sum of feminine vitality, despite the +pressure of modern civilization, plus rather than minus. + +_The more exercise the less fool_; and it is worth remembering that the +daily exercise, the plunge into cool or clean air, as well as the plunge +into water, is a wit sharpener, and will do more for a student in the +long run than "digging" possibly can. _Mens sana in corpore sano_ may be +an old saying but it is still new enough to be repeated with vigour to +certain people. Let us get out-of-doors and have our wits sharpened and +see more, and do more, and be more! No one can permanently starve her +whole body for the want of fresh air and exercise, which are the body's +birthright, and expect to have a clear head or do well-balanced and +helpful work in the home, or in school, or in some wage-earning career. +If the girl attempt this impossibility she will be like the frog which +jumped up one foot and fell back two. She will get to the bottom soon +enough, the bottom of the class or the bottom of her health account, but +she will never get to the top of anything. Any success, if by chance it +should come to her, resting on a basis of ill health or indifference to +her physical fitness for living and working, will be like the house +built upon the sands. Before the girl is twenty, before she is +twenty-five--the earlier the better--she should recognize this fact and +begin to establish her life on the bed rock of health. + +It is true, too, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, that the country +boy and the country girl are more resourceful than their city cousins. +Out-of-doors they have had to use their wits and have not been spoiled +by all the appliances of city life. Out-of-doors, too, they have made +invaluable friendships with bird and squirrel and rabbit and deer, +friendships whose intelligent wood-life has taught them much. +Self-reliance is one of the lessons of the outdoor runway; and wisdom +and inspiration come from it when they are needed. About this truth the +work of the poet Wordsworth is one long poem. Again and again he writes +of the perfect woman shaped by the influences of nature. Of her he +says: + + "Three years she grew in sun and shower; + Then Nature said, 'A lovelier flower + On earth was never sown; + This child I to myself will take; + She shall be mine, and I will make + A lady of my own. + + "'Myself will to my darling be + Both law and impulse: and with me + The girl in rock and plain, + In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, + Shall feel an overseeing power + To kindle and restrain. + + "'She shall be sportive as the fawn + That wild with glee across the lawn + Or up the mountain springs; + And hers shall be the breathing balm, + And hers the silence and the calm + Of mute, insensate things. + + "'The floating clouds their state shall lend + To her; for her the willow bend; + Nor shall she fail to see + Even in the motions of the storm + Grace that shall mould the maiden's form + By silent sympathy. + + "'The stars of midnight shall be dear + To her; and she shall lean her ear + In many a secret place + Where rivulets dance their wayward round, + And beauty born of murmuring sound + Shall pass into her face!'" + +No one can afford to neglect all the spiritual influence of nature, and +the only way to receive it is to go to nature. Purity of mind, a clean +conception of God's creative plan, a more active intellectual life are +all there for the girl who will seek them. She cannot afford _not_ to go +back to nature for these helps, for every woman is in some sense a +burden bearer, and she must needs know all she can of what life means in +order to bear these burdens well. + +There are various kinds of outdoor life, some one of which is within +reach of every human being, even if they are cripples. Probably most +girls when the outdoor life of school and college is spoken of think +that athletics is meant. That is one part of the outdoor runway, and +since it is provided in every school, and insisted upon, but little +about it need be said. It is doing its work with more and more +inspiration, as the response to its ideals comes in. And it does +something more in every well-equipped school than merely make a girl use +her legs and arms: it gives her a large, sane ideal of health and +provides her with the means of keeping well. There is no more useful +profession for the woman seeking one that is useful as well as +remunerative than physical culture. + +There is another aspect of the outdoor runway of which less is said. I +mean gardening, or the care of live stock of some kind, or bee culture. +This is practical remunerative work which for the girl living at home +and going to school should serve famously as a grass-cure; it would keep +her out-of-doors with profit to both her health and her purse. And then +there is another kind of grass-cure: the outdoor life out-of-doors, to +be taken in long country walks, in fishing expeditions, in picnics, in +camping or wherever roads, hills, meadows and brooks lead. Finally, +there is the outdoor life indoors. This life insists upon windows open +to the air and open to the sunshine, and this life every one of us may +have all the time. + + + + +X + +A GIRL'S SUMMER + + +Any girl who settles down to a summer with the idea of doing nothing, or +in an aimless, not-knowing-what-to-do-next fashion, lessens her +opportunities for pleasure. Pleasure is not idleness, although in the +minds of a great many people who have not thought very much it is. The +right sort of leisure is full of opportunities for doing interesting +things. + +There are some girls who look upon their summers as an escape from the +slavery of their school year. There are others who think of their +summers as something to be endured until they can go back to the more or +less selfish freedom of the school. Neither is the right way. The summer +ought not to be an entirely frivolous season, neither ought it to be too +workaday. If a girl has work to do, everything should be so arranged as +not to deprive the vacation of its recreative side. On the other hand +the summer should be all the happier because of a definite object to be +accomplished. Something is wrong with a girl unless she finds both +summer and winter full of opportunity and pleasure. + +No one can possibly do all the delightful or useful things which may be +done in a single summer. In these months there is opportunity for growth +just as in the winter--perhaps more opportunity physically. And +intellectually there is much to be seen and observed. For the girl who +can, it is well to plan to be out-of-doors as much as possible. For +some, there are opportunities for camping, for long walks, for +gardening, to learn how to do certain physically useful things, to row, +swim and ride. Only an extraordinary emergency would deprive a girl of +all the out-of-door exercise which she needs. If she isn't able to be by +the sea or in the mountains, in almost all cities there is opportunity +for exercise and games. With a short car ride she can go to golf links, +to tennis courts, into the country. In many semi-citified homes there +is space for a girl to do some gardening, one of the most profitable of +pleasures, good for the girl and good for the home. Many homes would be +much more attractive if there were more of the garden spirit in them. +But if there is no chance for this, there can always be physical +culture, an opportunity to build one's self up in health, to live sanely +and wisely, to get plenty of sleep, and to take corrective exercise. In +physical culture a girl should find out what she most needs--almost any +gymnastic instructor in school or college would be glad to outline +work--and then in ten or fifteen minute exercises develop herself along +those lines. + +For the girl with means there is the chance for travel, a splendid +opportunity to cultivate many virtues of which the young traveller +seldom thinks: patience, adaptability, seeing the bright side of things. +Travelling may be made a very important part of education. It is too bad +that some people of limited horizon take it simply as a chance to +aggrandize themselves, something to boast about and with which to bore +their friends by repeated accounts of what they did "abroad." The great +Doctor Samuel Johnson, the compiler of the famous dictionary and author +of "Rasselas," heartily disliked young travellers, for, he said, "They +go too raw to make any great remarks." Travelling, if it is what it +should be, is an educational opening. In this way can be gained a +background for history, for literature, for sociology, and a vivid and +living knowledge of geography. Merely running about with a guide-book +will not achieve these ends, although a guide-book is a very important +asset: sympathy, trying to understand what one sees, will. Travelling +takes away provincialism because it broadens the outlook. In a very real +sense the world becomes one's home. + +The girl who is not able to move about or actually travel may travel in +books. She should be ashamed to read what is harmful or merely cheap, +but further than that it may not much matter. Let her read the Little +Books, if she wishes, and the Great Little Books. As surely as the +magnet swings towards the pole will the Great Little Books take her to +the Great Big Books. She will be drawn on and up in her reading, and +will have cultivated a love for reading which is far more important than +perfunctory knowledge of the classics. + +Just as any books that are good point towards books that are better, so +should the good work of a girl's school year be turning her mind towards +the future and her work as a mature woman. In the summer she has time to +assimilate all she has done, to get her bearings, and to plan wisely for +the year, or years, to come. For a girl of strong physique the summer +vacation gives an opportunity to add towards what she is going to do +eventually; to specialize in some line of work, to take a library, or +scientific, course. Many girls, however, who wish to spend their summer +in this fashion ought not to consider it, for they are not strong +enough. It is well for them to remember that it is the quality of work +that counts rather than the quantity. Often the quality of a girl's work +for an ensuing school year depends upon her freedom from study during +the summer. Students should be very sure, if they undertake work in the +summer, that it is not done simply from a nervous desire to go on +regardless of the quality of the work done. But for those in perfect +health this is an opportunity to try their powers in different ways in +order to discover what it is they really wish to do. A summer so spent +may keep many a girl from slipping into teaching just because it seems +the only thing she can do. Such a salvation will be twofold, for it will +save not only the girl, but also a profession overcrowded with loveless +followers. There are so many needs to be filled by a woman's work that +it is her duty to look for some vocation for which she is truly adapted, +to get out of the ruts of those professions into which women flock +because they have no initiative. + +Often a girl thinks only of what she will do with her own summer without +thinking of what she will do with her mother's or her father's summer. +For nine or ten months they have been thinking of what they could do for +her. Sometimes girls do not realize the actual need of help and of +companionship which those at home feel, and the older people are too +unselfish to force this need upon their juniors. Between the +unselfishness of those who are older and the self-centredness of those +who are younger, there is often sad havoc made in a home. A girl who, +after a year's absence and all that has been done for her, can't adjust +herself to those who need her, has still something to learn. + +If older people cannot do without the buoyancy of the young, the young +cannot very well afford to forget the mother and father who have much, +although no word may be didactically spoken, to teach them. Let the +girl take her summer not only as an opportunity to grow closer to her +family but also as a chance to learn home-making, to train herself in +the practical things of the home. This practical training is often a +very valuable supplement to the school work. The time is passed when the +learned woman who is unable to do anything for herself is the ideal--if +she ever has been that. The inability to make a home for herself, to do +all the necessary things daintily, detracts from a woman's power. In +practical ways a woman should be both dainty and capable. Parents, as +well as girls, sometimes forget or do not clearly recognize the fact +that no school, no college, can take the place of the home, that schools +are not primarily schools in home-making, but rather schools of general +education. The summer is a good time for the girl to find her place +again in the home life, and for both parents and children to rejoice in +the pleasures of the home--pleasures and opportunities which no +institutional life can give. + + + + +XI + +FROM THE SCHOOL TO THE GIRL + + +What the school is able to do for the girl depends very largely upon the +girl herself. The majority of people with whom she comes in contact do +not take that into consideration, and the school is held unfairly +responsible for the girl. All any school can do is to use the material +it finds. Some one has said, with harsh but true emphasis, that a +college does not make a fool, it simply helps in the development of one. +As an illustration of its limitations, a school sends out two girls from +the same class; one girl it is proud to have taken as a type, the other +it is sorry to have represent it. Yet both have been under exactly the +same influence. Students do not realize how fearfully at their mercy a +school is, or that, so far as reputation is concerned, it is they who +make or mar its credit. + +If the school training is worth anything at all, it makes the most of +unpromising material. Its really discouraging experience is not with the +girl of limited ability who gives her best and so in some sense gets the +best, but with the student who doesn't give her best and who, because of +her own indifference, is always misrepresenting the training she is +receiving. No school ever wishes to have its ideals confused by a vulgar +display of wealth or by loud or conspicuous behaviour. Yet many a +school, with ideals all that they should be, is misjudged in public +places because of some thoughtless or unreliable girls. This doesn't +seem like fair-play or team-play, does it? The fineness of life ought to +be felt and expressed in student behaviour. Yet how often it is not! + +Another way in which the ideals of a school or college are +misrepresented is by lack of intellectual integrity. Any school informed +with a large spirit wishes to meet its students on a platform of +absolute trust,--a platform which makes precautions against dishonesty +unnecessary. Just so long as a school must be vigilant in order to keep +a few students from unfair behaviour, just so long is it prevented from +meeting them all on a basis of absolute trust. Why should girls excuse +themselves for classroom dishonesty? What would they think of a girl who +cheated in basket-ball? Would they condone that? Until student +government has recognized absolute intellectual integrity as a part of +its ideas, it will not have achieved its end. The rock on which all +scholarship is founded is honour. Lack of honour is fatal to its ideal. +"Cribbing," often excused by people who do not stop to think, is the +small beginning of a big evil. + +Many a large institution is like an anxious mother, not always +infallible in wisdom, but personally interested in and eager for the +success of the individual. A successful girl brings credit to her +school, for she demonstrates, as nothing else can, the fact that the +school is achieving its purpose in service to the community. How much +this encouragement is needed, girls do not realize, for they do not know +all the difficulties which institutions, especially technical and +collegiate, have to meet in sending their students out into the world. +In finding a position for a student, the school has to consider the +whole girl. It may care greatly for an attractive personality and yet +see that its possessor is lacking in qualities of faithfulness and +accuracy, and that with its utmost endeavour it has never been able to +correct these faults. On the other hand, the school may have those +students whose manners, whose dress, whose personality, whose spelling, +whose awkwardly expressed notes, whose lack of promptness, make against +success in any capacity. + +Another point for which the school looks in recommending its students is +physical fitness, which shows itself in many different ways: in voice, +in carriage, in attractiveness, in staying power. One teacher who had +an excellent record as a student and was, besides, a fine girl, had so +unpleasant and absurd a voice that her students were in a continual +state of amusement and would learn nothing from her. A great many +teachers have lost in power because of a poor voice, strident, or +lifeless, or husky, or falsetto. A poor enunciation, or words that do +not carry, are ineffectual means by which to reach a class, to hold a +customer, or to introduce one's self favourably to the interest of +others. For a girl who is going to have any part in public life--and +most girls do nowadays--a good voice is an absolute essential. And it is +well for us to remember that the voice is not something superficial, but +that it is the expression of that which is within. + +Another way in which physical fitness shows itself is in the carriage. A +girl who carries herself with erectness and energy brings a certain +conviction with her of fitness for many things, of self-respect, of +ability, and reveals in her bearing something of her mind as well as of +her body. We are always tempted to think a person who "slumps" +physically may slump in other ways. A good carriage, good voice, and +strong, clean, digestive system are far more important than beauty of +features. + +There is another matter at which the school in placing its students must +look. To be a desirable candidate for a good position a girl need not be +expensively gowned, but she must be daintily and freshly dressed. +Immaculate shirt waist, a plain, well-made skirt, with good shoes, +stockings and gloves and a quiet, pretty hat, are all any woman needs in +meeting her business obligations. And that daintiness which she shows in +her dress she must show in her person too, in clean skin and +finger-nails, good teeth, and smooth, attractively arranged hair. + +It is very important for the interests of a school, as well as for the +individual, to place its students advantageously. To have them succeed +widens its sphere of usefulness and influence and opens new channels of +service. Every college puts itself to considerable expense in looking +out for the interests of its students, for the glory of a great school +lies not only in the people whom it collects into its midst, but even +more in those whom it sends out. A girl has no right to go so lightly +through her school life that she fails to see in it all the +self-sacrifice and effort and ambitions that have gone into the building +up of what is her privilege and opportunity. In so far as she does this +she fails in the team-play spirit. Why should a girl think that she can +spend her father's money, or the means of her school, thoughtlessly? +What would happen to her if she did this with the funds of her +basket-ball team? Yet girls waste the resources of their school by +carelessness with its property, a carelessness that collectively mounts +up into thousands of dollars, and never once stop to think how +difficult every big school finds it to make ends meet. + +Before it is too late, at least now that she is leaving school, let her +stop to realize that a great deal of the work for an institution is +along the line of self-sacrifice, in the gifts given, in the work of its +administrators and teachers. This unselfishness means a financial loss, +for business ability might be invested in more lucrative ways; it means +a social sacrifice, for there is a certain kind of impersonality which +is demanded in work that deals with a continually changing community; it +means risk in the great strain put upon physical and nervous strength; +it means forgetting one's self; for the true teacher is willing to be +forgotten when she has served others. What a school may accomplish for +its students is its only compensation for all this self-sacrifice. + + + + +XII + +THE WORK TO BE + + +One of the qualities a girl who has completed her school or college life +needs to show for a few months more than anything else is the quality of +adjustment, for she will find that she must continually adjust herself +to new conditions whether they be of the home or elsewhere. All the time +through school she has been in some sense a centre of interest. Her +class has been an important factor in the academic life. When she has +gone home it has been as a school or college girl, and she has been of +interest because she brought that life into the home. But now the +attitude of others towards her is different. She ceases to be the centre +of attention, and for her a day of serious readjustment is at hand. +Perhaps in her own estimate she has seemed even more important than she +really was. She is likely now to swing from a sense of self-importance +to an injured feeling of insignificance, and to a conviction that people +can get along quite as well without her. Up to this time when she has +gone home she has been an honoured visitor. But now that she is at home +to stay, instead of becoming the centre she is merely part of the family +circle with its obligation of doing for others. Her presence in the +household is no longer a novelty. + +The swift change from a highly-organized, methodical life to the life of +the home where there is not so much method, is hard for a girl. One +reason it is difficult is that while she may be accomplishing a great +deal that is useful, she seems to be doing nothing and to get nowhere. +She feels as if she were in the midst of a conflict of duties. In school +she has had implanted in her the idea that she must accomplish some +definite thing, and between this objective and the irregular demands of +the home there appears to be more or less clashing. She is confronted by +a problem not easy for any one to solve: how to keep her definiteness +of aim and work, and yet not be self-centred. + +Oftentimes when a girl fails to adjust herself to the home life, her +family and friends feel that she is rather selfish in her desire to +carry out her own aims rather than to give them up for new demands. +Frequently the family is as much to blame for not realizing that the +girl needs to be helped back into the old life as the girl is for not +being able to help herself. In the home the spirit of team-play is much +needed. Quite as much as the girl, the family has a lesson to learn in +the art of adjustment and in remembering that this grown-up child isn't +just the same individual she was when she went away several years ago. +They need to realize that the girl may be able to give more to the home +life than she ever did before, but that it will be given in a somewhat +different way. + +While she is learning the difficult art of finding her place again, a +great deal depends upon the individual girl, not only in the home but +in the community at large. Sometimes she needs to be reminded that +although she may have had more advantages than those left at home, that +doesn't necessarily make her a superior person. A girl who is inclined +either to pity or to admire herself too greatly should give herself a +vigorous shaking. In the long run she will find it easier to do that on +her own account than to have others do it for her. The friends at home, +or in the church, or in the town, with education of a different kind +coming to them, may have quite as much and more to give her than she to +give them. One indicator of a really cultivated woman is her power to +adapt herself to the circumstances in which she is placed. A gentlewoman +never calls attention to the difference between herself and somebody +else. The woman of broad culture is the one who makes everybody feel at +home with her. If a girl's education has been worth anything at all, it +should give her not a superior, set-aside feeling, but a desire to be +more friendly and useful wherever she may be, and, not placing too much +stress on externals, to look for essentials, to get the full value from +every person and from every experience with which she comes in contact. + +Girls go to so many different kinds of homes that it is unlikely that +they will meet the same sorts of difficulties. There is the girl who +goes into the society home, where it is impossible for her to carry out +her ideals without conflict with its social standards. On the other +hand, there is the girl who goes into the very simple home where all the +stress is upon the domestic side of life. And there is the girl who has +to provide part of the family income. Very likely she has the hardest +problem of all. She enters upon some new work, and nine times out of ten +the way is not made easy for her; she is a novice with all the hardships +that come to the novice. Perhaps in the beginning she has met a very +real perplexity in hardly knowing what line of work to take up. She has +no particular interest, no especial talent, no brilliant record, no +powerful friends, no money with which to establish herself. With her it +must be as it is with thinking: she must seize hold of the thing nearest +her. What seems to her a temporary and unsatisfactory expedient will in +many cases open out a path leading to something much broader. At least +she may remember this as consolation: that even that experience of +uncertainty, of indecision, is a part of education, and out of it, +rightly and bravely met, will come some richness for her future life. + +The beginning of a work, teaching or anything else, may have to be +rather irksome, indeed, may be exceedingly difficult,--an experience +that will perhaps test staying power to the utmost. When it is too late +to give due appreciation we realize that the work in school which was +planned for us and arranged with our physical and mental well-being in +view was, after all, not so hard as we thought it at the time. We wish +that we had enjoyed our leisure more and complained less. + +From the point of view of fatigue, as a secretary, a clerk, a trained +nurse, a teacher, a social worker, the burden may be so great that the +girl is disheartened. She is all the more disheartened because, knowing +that a useful life is a strong, steady pull, the way before her seems +interminable. If she carries her whip inside her--this counsel is not +for those of us who are lazy--she does well to remember that there is a +point beyond which fatigue should not be borne, that is, when it +overdraws her capital of health and nervous energy. Raising pigs is +preferable to a so-called high profession when pig-raising is happily +joined with a reasonable amount of health and security. The pigs and +health together can always pay mortgages and buy necessities for those +dependent upon us and for ourselves. The high calling without health is +like a wet paper-bag: it will hold nothing. + +The girl meets with another difficulty in finding out that in almost any +line of work a great deal of time is needed for the mastery of what seem +the simplest principles. No one wants the girl who hasn't had +experience, and nobody seems disposed to take her and give her that +experience. However, we all find some one who is hardy enough or kind +enough to try us; and as every year now there is more effort put into +finding the work girls are most suited to do, there is no excuse for +slipping into teaching as a last resort. Not unnaturally we sometimes +distrust ourselves, especially in taking up an occupation to which we +are not accustomed. And in her new work the girl, uncertain of her +ability to master what she has undertaken, is placed in a position in +which she has the encouragement of neither the school nor the home. +Before, she has put much of the responsibility for her work and life +upon parents and instructors. Now she has to be her own judge and pass +judgment on herself and her work. She has, too, not only to lift her +own weight but the weight of others as well. As she longs for +coöperation, good will and encouragement the value of the team-play +spirit has never seemed so great before. + + * * * * * + +We do not need to be told to remember the happy and easy experiences of +life. No girl forgets them. What we do need is some one to tell us where +the hard places will be, to warn us, to stiffen our courage and to point +clearly to the uses of hard work and adversity. And although this may +seem like placing another straw on the poor camel's back, it is now time +to say that in her life-work, whether it be in her home or outside, a +girl should be very clear in her mind what her aims and purposes are. If +she is working solely for the praise and commendation of others, she +will often be grievously disappointed. Not in recognition does real +reward lie, but in the work itself. If she wins great popularity she is +likely to find that there is nothing that shifts so quickly and is such +a quicksand. If material wealth is her sole object she will harden into +the thing she seeks and add but another joyless barbarian to a modern +world congratulating itself that barbarism is a thing of the past, and +yet presenting the spectacle of a mammon worship such as has never been +seen before. If gold is her end, and not the means to a nobler end, then +she will find herself constantly sacrificing higher issues to that, and +lowering her one-time ideals. Truly the woman who marries solely for the +comforts of a home, the woman who teaches, or nurses for "pay" alone, +has her reward, and that is in self-destruction. She is a carrier of +barbarism, not of culture; of disease, not of health; of tribulation, +not of joy. The only real reward there can be lies in the idealism, the +joy, the strength of the work done and in a mind and heart conscious of +having done their best. + + +THE END + + + + +_JOHN T. FARIS_ Author "_Winning Their Way_." + +"Making Good" Pointers for the Man of To-morrow 12mo, cloth, net +$1.25. + + _Dr. J. R. Miller_ says: "Sixty intimate messages to young men + and boys on the things that make for success or failure. Bright + and short and full of illustrations from actual life, they are + just the sort that will help young men in the home, in school, + among associates and in business. Everywhere is the suggestion + of the necessity for Christ if men would build up fine + character and make life worth while." + + +_JEANETTE MARKS, M. A._ + +A Girl's School Days and After + +Introduction by Mary K. Woolley, President of Mt. Holyoke College. 12mo, +cloth, net 75c. + + In twelve most readable and suggestive chapters ranging from + "The Freshman Year" through "School Friendships," "The Students + Room," "Tools of Study and Their Use," "The Joy of Work," "The + Right Sort of leisure," "The Girls Outdoor Life," to "The Work + to Be," the author writes in a practical yet interesting way of + wellnigh every phase of the girl and her school. + + +_FREDERICK LYNCH Director of N. Y. Peace Society._ + +The Peace Problem The Task of the Twentieth Century + +Introduction by Andrew Carnegie. Cloth, net 75c. + + Andrew Carnegie commends this book in no stinted terms. "I have + read this book from beginning to end with interest and profit. + I hope large editions will be circulated by our peace + organizations among those we can interest in the noblest of all + causes." + + +_JAMES M. CAMPBELL, D. D._ + +Grow Old Along With Me + +12mo, cloth, gilt top, net $1.25. + + "Shows in most helpful fashion things one should strive for and + guard against, things he should leave off doing, as well as + others he should put on. It is a pleasant thing to read and it + should be a potent factor in leading one to an appreciation of + the real beauty and opportunity that lies 'west of fifty + years.'"--_Chicago Tribune_. + + +_MRS. NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS_ + +The American Woman and Her Home + +12mo, cloth, net $1.25. + + The author shares with her gifted husband the power of both + entertaining and influencing people with the pen. The + remarkable interest awakened lately by Mrs. Hillis' articles in + "The Outlook" has inspired this helpful book. + + + + +FICTION + + +_WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M. D._ + +Down North on The Labrador + +Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. + +A new collection of Labrador yarns by the man who has succeeded in +making isolated Labrador a part of the known world. Like its predecessor +the new volume, while confined exclusively to facts in Dr. Grenfell's +daily life, is full of romance, adventure and excitement. The _N. Y. +Sun_ recently said: "Admirable as is the work that Dr. Grenfell is doing +on the Labrador coast, the books he has written, make his readers almost +wish he would give up some of it to write more." + + +_CLARA E. LAUGHLIN_ + +The Gleaners + +A Novellette. Illustrated, decorated boards, net 75c. + +Again Miss Laughlin has given us a master-piece in this story of present +day life. Millet's picture, "The Gleaners," is the moving spirit of this +little romance and, incidentally, one catches the inspiration the artist +portrays in his immortal canvas. "The Gleaners" is issued in similar +style to "Everybody's Lonesome," of which the _Toronto Globe_ said: "One +of the successful writers of 'Good Cheer' stories for old and young is +Miss Laughlin, and whoever reads one of her cheery little volumes +desires more." + + +_PROF. EDWARD A. STEINER_ + +_Author of "The Immigrant Tide," etc._ + +The Broken Wall + +Stories of the Mingling Folk. Illustrated, net $1.00. + +Professor Steiner has the story-teller's knack and uses his art with +consummate skill in this collection, where will be found dramatic +tragedy and profound pathos in strong contrast with keen humor and +brilliant wit, all permeated by an uncompromising optimism. No man has +probed the heart of the immigrant more deeply, and his interpretation of +these Americans of tomorrow is at once a revelation and an inspiration: +a liberal education in brotherhood. + + +_A. D. STEWART_ + +Heather and Peat + +12mo, cloth, net $1.20. + +"This is a very delightful story, told in the broadest and most +fascinating Scotch language. The author belongs of right to that class +of modern Scotch writers who bring out matters of vital human interest, +with religious and tender touches, and this story is one that any writer +might be proud of and any reader of feeling and vitality must delight +in."--_Journal and Messenger_. + + +_YANG PING YU_ + +The Love Story of a Maiden of Cathay + +Told in Letters from Yang Ping Yu. Finely decorated boards, net 50c. + +Written in English picturesquely colored with Chinese, at once naive and +yet full of worldly wisdom, frank and yet discreetly reserved. The story +as told in the letters is real, vivid, convincing. It is a human +document that will compel the attention of the reader from beginning to +end, and verify again the saying that "truth is stranger than fiction." + + +_MARION BLYTHE_ + +An American Bride in Porto Rico + +Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. + +"The story is very pleasant and very human. In her bravery and courage, +in her wit and merriment, the bride reminds one somewhat of the "Lady of +the Decoration." This similarity adds, however, rather than detracts +from the charm of the book. She is thoroughly good-natured and clever +and companionable, with a whimsical and ever-present sense of +humor."--_Chicago Evening Post_. + + +_ISLA MAY MULLINS_ + +The Boy from Hollow Hut + +Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. + +Readers of John Fox, Jr.'s stories will recognize the location of this +story at once. The author and her husband, President of the great +Theological Seminary of Louisville, have taken a large interest in these +descendants of _some of the best American stock_. Through the tender +humanness of her narrative Mrs. Mullins bids fair to gain a large +audience for this intensely interesting work. + + +_DR. OLIVIA A. BALDWIN_ + +Sita, A Story of Child-Marriage Fetters. + +12mo, cloth, net $1.25. + +A realistic story of native and mission life in India; a story dealing +with the stress of famine and the pathetic condition of India's +child-widows. + + +_MRS. MAUD JOHNSON ELMORE_ + +The Revolt of Sundaramma + +With an introduction by Helen B. Montgomery. Illustrated by Gertrude H. +B. Hooker. Net $1.00. + +Sundaramma, a Hindu maiden, is the heroine of this story which relates +her revolt against child marriage and her flight from such slavery. + + +_NORMAN DUNCAN Author of "Dr. Luke," etc._ + +The Measure of a Man + +A Tale of the Big Woods. Illustrated, net $1.25. + +"The Measure of a Man" is Mr. Duncan's first full-sized novel having a +distinct motif and purpose since "Doctor Luke of The Labrador." The tale +of the big woods has for its hero, John Fairmeadow--every inch a man +whom the Lumber Jacks of his parish in the pines looked up to as their +Sky Pilot. Human nature in the rough is here portrayed with a +faithfulness that is convincing. + + +_ROBERT E. KNOWLES Author of "St. Cuthberts," etc._ + +The Singer of the Kootenay + +A Tale of To-day. 12mo, cloth, net $1.20. + +The scene of action for Mr. Knowles' latest novel is in the Crow's Nest +Pass of the Kootenay Mountains of British Columbia. To this dramatic +field he has gone for local color and has taken every advantage of his +wide knowledge, picturing life of every phase in his most artistic +style. + + +_HAROLD BEGBIE Author of "Twice-Born Men_" + +The Shadow + +12mo, cloth, net $1.25. + +A new story by the novelist whose study of regeneration, "Twice-Born +Men" has made the religious world fairly gasp at its startling +revelations of the almost overlooked proofs of the power of conversion +to be found among the lowest humanity. His latest work is a brilliant +study of modern life which will maintain the author's reputation. + + +_RUPERT HUGHES_ + +Miss 318 + +A Story in Season and out of Season. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net 75c. + +"Is there any excuse for one more Christmas story?" "Surely nothing has +been left unsaid." "The truth, perhaps." "The truth?--about Christmas! +Would anybody care to read it?" "Perhaps." "But would anybody dare to +publish it?" "Probably not." "That sounds interesting! What nobody would +care to read and nobody would dare to publish, ought to be well worth +writing." + + +_J. J. BELL Author of "Oh! Christina!" etc._ + +The Indiscretions of Maister Redhorn + +Illustrated, 16mo, cloth, net 60c. + +The thousands who have read _Wullie McWattie's Master_ will need no +introduction to this Scottish "penter" and his "pint o' view." The same +dry Scottish humor, winning philosophy and human nature fairly overflow +these pages. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Girl's Student Days and After, by Jeannette Marks + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GIRL'S STUDENT DAYS AND AFTER *** + +***** This file should be named 18234-8.txt or 18234-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/2/3/18234/ + +Produced by David Edwards, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Girl's Student Days and After + +Author: Jeannette Marks + +Commentator: Mary Emma Woolley + +Release Date: April 23, 2006 [EBook #18234] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GIRL'S STUDENT DAYS AND AFTER *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + + +<h1><i>A Girl's Student Days and After</i></h1> + +<h3><i>By</i></h3> + +<h2><i>JEANNETTE MARKS, M. A.</i></h2> + +<h3>(<i>Wellesley</i>)</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<i>With an Introduction by</i><br /> +<i>MARY EMMA WOOLLEY, LL. D.</i><br /> +<i>President of Mt. Holyoke College</i><br /> +<br /> +<i>New York Chicago Toronto</i><br /> +<i>Fleming H. Revell Company</i><br /> +<i>London and Edinburgh</i><br /> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +Copyright, 1911, by<br /> +FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY<br /> +<br /> +New York: 158 Fifth Avenue<br /> +Chicago: 125 North Wabash Ave.<br /> +Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.<br /> +London: 21 Paternoster Square<br /> +Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street<br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><i>Inscribed</i></h4> +<h4><i>to</i></h4> +<h2><i>MARY EMMA WOOLLEY, LL. D.</i></h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Introduction" id="Introduction"></a><i>Introduction</i></h2> + + +<p>The school and college girl is an important factor in our life to-day. +Around her revolve all manner of educational schemes, to her are open +all kinds of educational opportunities. There was never an age in which +so much thought was expended upon her, or so much interest felt in her +development.</p> + +<p>There are many articles written and many speeches delivered on the +responsibility of parents and teachers—it may not be amiss occasionally +to turn the shield and show that some of the responsibility rests upon +the girl herself. After all, she is the determining factor, for +buildings and equipment, courses and teachers accomplish little without +her coöperation.</p> + +<p>It is difficult for the "new girl," whether in school or college, to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>realize the extent to which the success of her school life depends upon +herself. In a new environment, surrounded by what seem to her +"multitudes" of new faces, obliged to meet larger demands under strange +and untried conditions, she is quite likely to go to the other extreme +and exaggerate her own insignificance. Sometimes she is fortunate enough +to have an older sister or friend to help her steer her bark through +these untried waters, but generally she must find her own bearings.</p> + +<p>To such a girl, the wise hints in the chapters which follow this +introduction are invaluable, giving an insight into the meaning of +fair-play in the classroom as well as on the athletic field; the +relation between physical well-being and academic success; the +difference between the social life that is <i>re</i>-creative and that which +is "<i>nerves</i>-creative"; the significance of loyalty to the school and to +the home; the way in which school days determine to a large degree the +days that come after. These, and many other suggestions, wise and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>forceful, I commend not only to the new girl, but also to the "old +girl" who would make her school and college days count for more both +while they last and as preparation for the work that is to follow.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i22"><span class="smcap">Mary</span> E. <span class="smcap">Woolley</span>.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6"><i>Mt. Holyoke College,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>South Hadley, Massachusetts.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a><i>CONTENTS</i></h2> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>A Word to the Wise</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>I. The Ideal Freshman</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>II. The Girl and the School</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>III. Friendships</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>IV. The Student's Room</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>V. The Tools of Study and Their Use</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VI. The Joy of Work</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VII. Fair-Play</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VIII. The Right Sort of Leisure</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>IX. The Outdoor Runway</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>X. A Girl's Summer</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XI. From the School to the Girl</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XII. The Work to Be</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="A_Word_to_the_Wise" id="A_Word_to_the_Wise"></a><i>A Word to the Wise</i></h2> + + +<p>We train for basket-ball, golf, tennis or for whatever sport we have the +most liking. Is there any reason why we should not use the same +intelligence in the approach to our general school life? Is there any +reason why we should make an obstacle race, however good and amusing +exercise that may be, out of <i>all</i> our school life? We don't expect to +win a game with a sprained wrist or ankle, and there really is no reason +why we should plan to sprain the back of school or college life by +avoidable mistakes.</p> + +<p>The writer believes in the girl who has the capacity for making +mistakes,—that headlong, energetic spirit which blunders all too +easily. But the writer knows how much those mistakes hurt and how much +energy might be saved for a life that, with just a pinch less of +blunder, might be none the less savoury. School and college are no place +for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> vocal soloists, and after some of us have sung so sweetly and so +long at home, with every one saying, "Just hear Mary sing, isn't it +wonderful!" it is rather trying, you know, to go to a place where vocal +solos are not popular. And we wish some one—at least I did—had told us +all about this fact as well as other facts of school life. Anyway it +should be a comfort to have a book lying on the table in our school or +college room, or at home, which will tell us why Mary, after having been +a famous soloist at home made a failure or a great success in chorus +work at school. Such a book is something like having a loaded gun in +readiness for the robber. We may never use the shotgun or the book but +they are there, with the reassuring sense of shot in the locker.</p> + +<p>It is something, is it not, to have a little book which will tell you +how to get into school and how to get out (for at times there seem to be +difficulties in both these directions)—in short, to tell you something +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> many things: your first year at school or college, your part in the +school life, the friendships you will make, your study and how to work +in it, the pleasure and right kind of spirit involved in work, the quiet +times, as well as the jolly times, out-of-doors, your summers and how to +spend them, what the school has tried to do for you; and, as you go out +into the world, some of the aspects, whether you are to be wife, +secretary or teacher, of the work which you will do. Of one thing you +may be certain; that behind every sentence of this little book is +experience, that here are only those opinions of which experience has +made a good, wholesome zwieback.</p> + +<p>I wish to take this opportunity to thank my friend, Mrs. Belle Kellogg +Towne, editor of <i>The Girls' Companion</i> and <i>Young People's Weekly</i>, +Chicago, for her coöperation in allowing me to use half the material in +this little book; also Dr. C. R. Blackall, of Philadelphia.</p> + +<p><i>Camp Runway.</i> J. M.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<h3>THE IDEAL FRESHMAN</h3> + + +<p>Freshman year, the beginning year, the year of new experiences, new +delights, new work, new friends, new surroundings; the year that may +mean much to a girl, that may answer some of the questions that have +lain long in heart and mind, that will surely reveal her more clearly to +herself, that may make her understand others better and help her to +guess something of the riddle of the years to come!</p> + +<p>What has the student done to get ready for this year? If she were going +camping she would know that certain things were necessary to make the +expedition a success. With what excitement and pleasure, what thoughts +of jolly camp-fires, deep, sweet-smelling forests, and long days afoot, +she would prepare everything. She would not let any one else do this for +her, for that would mean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> losing too much of the fun. But the <i>freshman +year</i>, what about the thinking and planning for that, also an expedition +into a new world, and a veritable adventure of a vast deal more +importance than a few days or weeks of camping? Would she enter forests +upon whose trees the camp-fires throw many shadows, follow the stream +that cleaves its way through the woods, go along the runway of deer or +caribou or moose, with a mind to all intents and purposes a blank? No, +her mind would be vivid with thoughts and interests.</p> + +<p>With the same keen attention should she enter the new year at school or +college, and as she passes through it, thinking about all that comes to +her, she will find it growing less and less difficult and more and more +friendly. She will consider what the freshman year is to be like, think +of what sorts of girls she is to meet and make friends with, what the +work will be, what she may expect in good times from this new adventure, +and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> thoughtful about it all, make the minimum of mistakes and get the +maximum of benefit.</p> + +<p>Here come some of the girls who are entering school and college with +her—bright-haired, dark-haired, rosy or pale, tall and thin, fat and +short, clever and average, desirable and undesirable,—in fact, all +sorts and conditions of girls. Who is to be the leader of them all? She +is the <i>ideal freshman</i>, a nice, well-set-up girl who does not think too +much of herself, who is not self-conscious, and who does not forget for +what she is sent to school. Despite the temptations of school life she +uses her days wisely and well. She does not isolate herself, for she +sees the plan and value of the recreative side of school-days. She is +already laying the foundations for a successful, useful, normal +existence, establishing confidence at the outset and not handicapping +herself through her whole course by making people lose their faith in +her. Our <i>ideal freshman</i> may be the girl who is to do distinguished +work; she may be the student<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> who does her best; and because it is her +best, the work, though not brilliant, is distinguished by virtue of her +effort. She may be the girl who is to make a happy home life through her +poise and earnestness and common sense. Whoever she is, in any event in +learning to do her best she is winning nine-tenths of the battle of a +successful career. It is she, attractive, able, earnest, with the +"fair-play" or team-play spirit in all she does, true to herself and to +others, whom every school wants, whose unconscious influence is so great +in building up the morale of any school. Mark this girl and follow her, +for she is worthy of your hero worship.</p> + +<p>This is the girl who goes into school in much the same spirit that she +would enter upon a larger life. She is not a prig and she is not a dig, +but she knows there are responsibilities to be met and she meets them. +She expects to have to think about the new conditions in which she finds +herself and to adjust herself to them, and she does it. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> knows the +meaning of the team-play spirit and she takes her place quietly on the +team, one among many, and both works and plays with respect for the +rights and positions of others. It is in the temper of the words +sometimes stamped upon the coins of our country—<i>E Pluribus Unum</i>—that +she makes a success of her school life. She knows that not only is our +country bigger than any one of its states, but also that every school is +bigger than any one of its members whether teacher or student. In a +small family at home conditions have been more or less made for her, +just as they are for other girls. Yet she knows that the school life is +complicated and complex, and it is impossible for her to feel neglected +where a more self-centred or spoiled girl fails to see that in this new +life she is called upon to play a minor part but nevertheless a part +upon which the school must rely for its <i>esprit de corps</i>. She goes with +ease from the somewhat unmethodical life of the home to the highly +organized routine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> of the school because she understands the meaning of +the word "team-play." She has the coöperative spirit.</p> + +<p>Yet there are other girls, too, in this school which the freshman is +entering. There is the student who errs on the side of leading too +workaday a life, and in so doing has lost something of the buoyancy and +breadth and "snap" which would make her associations and her work +fresher and more vigorous. "The Grind," she has been called, and if she +recognize herself in this sketch, let her take care to reach out for a +bigger and fuller life than she is leading. And there is, too, the +selfish student whose "class-spirit" is self-spirit; and the girl who is +not selfish but who uses herself up in too many interests, dramatic, +athletic, society, philanthropic and in a dozen others. She is probably +over-conscientious, a good girl in every way, but in doing too much she +loses sight of the real aim of her school life. To these must be added +another student,—the freshman who skims the surface, and is,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> when she +gets out, where she was when she entered—no, not quite so far along, +for she has slipped back. She is selfish, relying upon the patience and +burden-bearing capacity of her father and mother, as well as the school.</p> + +<p>No doubt every girl would meet her obligations squarely if she realized +what was the underlying significance of the freshman year; the school +life would surely be approached with a conscientious purpose. What a +girl gets in school will much depend upon what she has to give. No girl +is there simply to have a good time or merely to learn things out of +books. Nor is she there to fill in the interim between childhood and +young womanhood, when one will go into society, another marry, and a +third take up some wage-earning career. No, she is there to carry life +forward in the deepest, truest sense; and the longer she can have to get +an education and to make the best of the opportunities of school and +college life, the richer and fuller her after-years will be. Both middle +life and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> old age will be deeper and stronger. Let us think about these +girls, let us think about what it means to be a freshman, and so lessen +our difficulties and increase our pleasures; let us have a big +conception,—a large ideal always at heart—of what the <i>first year</i> +should be, and beginning well we shall be the more likely to end well.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<h3>THE GIRL AND THE SCHOOL</h3> + + +<p>Inside school or college the girl is in several ways responsible for the +atmosphere. Merely in her conversation she can be of service or +dis-service. It may be simply a good joke which she is telling, but if +the joke misrepresents the school she will, perhaps, do lasting harm. If +she is hypercritical—and there is nothing so contagious as +criticism—she influences people in the direction of her thought; she +sets a current of criticism in motion. A student frequently gives vent +to an opinion that is only half-baked—it is well, by the way, to make +zwieback of all our opinions before we pass them around as edible—about +courses and instructors. She does not realize that some opinions to be +worth anything must be the result of a long process of baking, that a +nibble from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> the corner of a four months' or nine months' course will +not, however understandingly it may be Fletcherized, tell you whether +the course is going to be fruit cake, meringue or common soda crackers. +She may think that she herself is so unimportant that what she says +can't matter, or she may not mean what she says and be merely letting +off steam. Nevertheless her influence is exerted. Some one showed an old +lady, who had never been known to say anything in the least critical of +any human being, the picture of a very fat man prominent in public life. +She looked at it a moment, and then said sweetly: "My, isn't he plump!" +If only there were more old and young ladies like that dear soul!</p> + +<p>There is another kind of conversation which may not be ill-natured and +yet does harm. Idle gossiping, talking about things that are not worth +while or speculating about affairs which are not our business and of +which we know little or nothing. Akin to this is fashionably slangy +conversation concerning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> the latest thing in books, magazine articles, +trivial plays. For even the "tone" of school or college conversation a +student is responsible. She can make her school seem cheap or +cultivated. The remarks which visitors overhear as they go from room to +room or from building to building are likely to indicate the "tone" of +an institution. A catalogue may say all it pleases about a school but in +the end the school is judged by the women it educates and sends out, +even as a tree is known by its fruit. Cultivated, strong women are worth +more in advertisement than all the printed material in the world, +however laudatory.</p> + +<p>When a girl has received everything her Alma Mater has to give, she has +no right to be untrue to its fundamental aims and ideals, or to +misrepresent it in any way, either by what she says or by her own +behaviour. Every student in a large institution is in a sense a +pensioner. No student can pay for what is given to her. Is it not a poor +return<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> for her to be reflecting dishonour rather than honour upon her +school?</p> + +<p>There is a certain social selfishness in the way some students take +their opportunities for granted without realizing that there are +thousands and hundreds of thousands of girls who would give all that +they possess for a tithe of such riches. Also, because of the sacrifice +which is being made for them at home girls are selfish in taking their +school or college life carelessly. The school has to bear much of the +responsibility for the individual failure. But of this the student who +is failing rarely thinks. Parents hold an institution to blame if it +does not do for their child what they expect it to do, when it may be +the girl who is at fault.</p> + +<p>In the use she makes of her portion of inheritance, in the gift the +school bestows on the student, there is a large social question +involved. The school gives her of its wealth, the result of the +accumulation of years and of the civic or philanthropic spirit of many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +men and women. This, if the girl's sense of responsibility is what it +should be, she feels bound to increase and hand on. It is the old +<i>noblesse oblige</i> under new conditions of privilege.</p> + +<p>While she is still in school the girl discharges part of this obligation +by realizing what is best for her school as an institution. A college or +a big school is no place for vocal soloists. Its life is the life of an +orchestra, of many instruments playing together. The student's sense of +responsibility is shown by her attitude towards the corporate government +and administration of the school. Instead of regarding the laws of her +school as natural enemies, chafing against them, making fun of them or +evading them if possible, she has a duty in fulfilling them. The +consciousness of this responsibility is the very heart and soul of the +student self-government movement, for it recognizes not only the +obligation placed upon its members by an institution, but also the wide +influence one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> girl may have on others. Student government knows that +upper class girls can determine the spirit of the under classes. Even +looking at the matter from the lightest point of view, respectful and +law-abiding ways are always well-bred ways.</p> + +<p>When a student becomes an alumna she can discharge a large part of her +great responsibility by realizing that it is not any longer so much a +question of what her school can give her as of what she can give to her +school. One thing she can always give it—that is, kindly judgment. And +she can acknowledge that her ideas of what her Alma Mater is after her +own school-days may not be correct. The school, sad to say, is sometimes +placed in the position of the kindly old farmer who, hearing others call +a certain man a liar, said: "Waal now, I wouldn't say he wuz a <i>liar</i>. +That's a bit harsh. I'd say he handled the truth mighty careless-like." +Schools find that some of their alumnæ handle the truth mighty +careless-like.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>While she is still a student a girl's service to her school lies largely +in her daily work, the mental muscle she puts into all that she does in +the classroom and studies out of it. If because of her and a multiple of +many girls like her, the college does not possess that <i>sine qua non</i> of +all the higher mental life, an intellectual atmosphere, it is the +student's and her multiple's fault. "You may lead a horse to water but +you cannot make it drink," may be an old adage, but it would be hard to +improve upon it. You may set before students a veritable Thanksgiving +feast of things intellectual, but if they have no eagerness, no appetite +for them, the feast remains untouched. Energy and hunger of the mind, +not the anxious hosts, will in the end decide whether that feast is or +is not to be eaten.</p> + +<p>The school considers not only scholarship but also the sum of all that +it is, its culture, its attainment, its moral force, as these elements +are expressed in its living members, its students and its teachers—in +short, its idealism.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> Idealism is having one's life governed by ideals, +and an ideal is a perfect conception of that which is good, beautiful +and true. If the girl's life is not governed by ideals, how, then, can +the school hope to have its idealism live or grow? Frequently students +think of the ideals of college or school as of something outside +themselves, more or less intangible, with which they may or may not be +concerned. Students cannot do their institution a greater injury than by +harbouring such a thought, for if their sense of responsibility will +only make the idea of the school personal, then indeed will the school +be like that house upon which the rains descended and the winds blew but +it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h3>FRIENDSHIPS</h3> + + +<p>Homesickness and friendships, how much and how vivid a part they play in +the first year, or years, of school life! An old coloured physician was +asked about a certain patient who was very ill. "I'll tell you de truf," +was the reply. "Widout any perception, Phoebe Pamela may die and she may +get well; dere's considerable danger bofe ways." I will tell you one +truth about the first year of school life: friends there will surely be, +and homesickness there is likely to be,—there is "considerable danger +both ways."</p> + +<p>Even if a girl has never been away from home before, it is possible that +she will not suffer from homesickness. It is probable, however, that the +new surroundings in which the girl finds herself, and the separation +from those who are the centre of her personal life, will bring on an +attack of this most painful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> malady. It takes time to fit comfortably +into the new surroundings, and meanwhile everything is strange. +Homesickness is not to be laughed at, but it must be less deadly, less +fatal than some people think it, or there would not be so many +recoveries. Girls often weep when they enter school, and then after the +long dreary years are really over, lived through, and the poor forlorn +freshman is metamorphosed into the senior, they weep again. Is it not +strange that these seniors who wept on entering school should weep also +when leaving it? It looks in the end as if Phoebe Pamela were sure to +get well. Yet the effort to get well requires a fine effort at +self-control,—an effort every girl is the better for making, although +it may take everything plucky in a girl to "back up" her intention to +remain in school. The earlier the student considers this question of +homesickness the better. Let her face its possibilities before she goes +away from home, and make up her mind, if she is attacked, resolutely to +overcome<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> it. If it comes, let her never give up the struggle, for, by +giving in, she will only lose ground in every way, morally, socially, +intellectually. By her cowardice she will part with what she can never +recover later.</p> + +<p>Many temptations follow in the wake of homesickness, and the most +serious of all is to make friends too rapidly. It may be laid down as a +rule that a friendship formed on this stop-gap principle, and too +rapidly, is not likely to endure. Such a friendship is not a sane or a +wise relation, for friendship is like scholarship: if it is worth +anything at all it comes slowly. Impulsive, quickly forced friendships +are not wise investments; the very fact that they come so quickly +implies an unbalanced state of idealizing, or lack of self-control. This +does not mean that one is not to form pleasant acquaintances from the +very beginning of the school life. Acquaintanceship always holds +something in reserve and is the safest prelude to a deeper and more +vital friendship.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>There is no denying that there is great temptation to violent +admirations and attractions in school. In the first place, in school or +college the girl is brought into contact with a large circle of people +who are immensely interesting to her. The whole atmosphere is full of +novelty, of the unusual. Some of the students and teachers whom she +meets for the first time represent a broader experience, it may be, than +her own home life has given her. They are often new types and new types +are always interesting.</p> + +<p>I shall say nothing of the idealism of friendship—it plays its part in +other books. It would seem sometimes as if almost too much emphasis had +been placed upon the making of friendships in school,—friendship which +is, after all, but a by-product, the most valuable it is true, +nevertheless a by-product of the life. Wholly practical are the tests of +friendship which I shall give. In the first place a friend is too +absorbing who takes all of one's interest to the exclusion of +everything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> else: there should be interest in other people, other +activities as well as in one's work. Such a friendship can only make a +girl forget for what she has come to school. The new relation which +disposes one to look with less respect and affection upon one's own +people and home—and they, be it remembered, have stood the most +valuable test of all, the test of time—cannot be a good influence. It +may be said in general that an association which is developing the less +fine traits in one's character, giving emphasis to the less worthy +sides, should be relinquished immediately, even at the cost of much +heartache. The heartache will be only temporary; the bad influence might +become permanent. On the other hand, since friendship is giving as well +as taking, one does well to consider the fact that if one's own part in +it does not tell for good, there is just as much reason for stopping the +friendship where it is. Some of these associations—and this is a hard +saying, I know—which seem everything at the time are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> nothing, as the +years will prove. A girl idealizes, and idealizes those who are not +worthy. Inevitably the day comes when she laughs at herself,—if she +does not do worse and pity herself for having been such a goose.</p> + +<p>Only a few of the friendships made in school are destined to endure. One +of the foremost of those that last is founded on similarity of interest. +Perhaps it is the girl with whom one has worked side by side in the +laboratory,—a relation formed slowly and on a permanent basis. Many of +the best of friends have come together through community of interests, +and this is a type of friendship for which men have a greater gift than +women.</p> + +<p>There is still another type which develops because of some conspicuously +noble or fine quality which proves attractive. Hero worship, this, which +enlarges one's self through the admiration given to another. Then there +is the friendship based on a purely personal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> attraction, with mutual +respect and self-respect as its dedicated corner-stone. This does not +mean that one cannot see any faults in the friend, or know that one's +own are seen, without losing affection. There is always something flimsy +and insecure about a friendship that simply idealizes. Any relation +should be all the stronger for a frank acknowledgment of its +imperfections. If a girl cares enough she will be willing to admit her +own faults and wish to make herself more worthy to be a friend.</p> + +<p>And, finally, there is what might be called the lend-a-hand +friendship,—the relation that springs into existence because of the +need which is seen in another. It is not fair to make a packhorse of +one's friend or to turn one's self into the leaning variety of plant, +but it is fair and wise and right, if one is strong enough to accomplish +the end in view, to lend a hand to another girl who is not making the +best of herself.</p> + +<p>Have a good time but do not swear eternal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> allegiance in this first year +to anybody, however wonderful she may seem. Hold yourself in reserve, if +for no other reason, then on account of the old friends at home, whether +they be kin or no-kin, for they have been true. And remember, as I have +said before, friendship is like scholarship and must by its nature come +slowly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h3>THE STUDENT'S ROOM</h3> + + +<p>There has been a general improvement in student rooms, yet many rooms +to-day have altogether too much in them: too many pictures, too many +banners, too much furniture, too many hangings. The great fault of most +rooms is this overcrowding. If we were only heroic enough to make a +bonfire of nine-tenths of all they contain we should see suddenly +revealed possibilities for something like the ideal room.</p> + +<p>One serious and obvious objection to the overcrowding of rooms is the +hygienic. I am tempted to say that this is the most important objection: +indeed, since health is more important than wealth, I will say so. A +girl has neither the time nor the ability to keep so many articles in a +room clean: and while she is busy attending to her studies, some +cherished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> ornaments are not only laying up dust for the future, as a +more regenerate life will lay up treasures, but also breeding germs, +perhaps collecting the very germs which will take this girl away from +school or college. Besides, bric-à-brac not only gathers dust and breeds +germs but also wearies the nerves. It makes one tired to see so many +things about, and tired to be held responsible for them. Without +realizing it, we resist the amount of space they occupy and in their +place want the air and sunshine. Subconsciously, most of us long to get +rid of our bric-à-brac and then pull down the draperies that keep out +the sunlight. The simpler the window draperies in a room, the more +easily washed, the better and more attractive. For wholesome +attractiveness there is no fabric that can excel a flood of warm +sunshine. Any girl or woman who has curtains which she must protect from +strong light by drawing down the shades is guilty of a household sin +whose greatness she cannot know. That<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> same sunshine, freely admitted, +will do more to cleanse a house than all the soap, all the brooms, and +even all the vacuum cleaners ever invented.</p> + +<p>The so-called beauty of a room should always give way before the hygiene +of a room. Not only should the room be sensibly furnished so that it may +have plenty of air and light, but closets should not contain articles of +furniture which belong where the air can reach them. There is a +difference between a room that is not orderly and one that is not clean. +A room that contains unclean articles in drawers or closets, unclean +floors, unclean rugs and hangings and unclean walls, should not be +tolerated for an instant. If a girl turns a combination bedroom and +study in school or college into a kitchen, if an ice-cream freezer +occupies all the foreground of this place she calls home, and +chafing-dishes with cream bottles, sardine tins, cracker boxes, paper +bags full of stale biscuits, fruit skins, dish-cloths<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> and +grease-spotted walls, all the background, it is impossible to have a +clean room to live in.</p> + +<p>The Golden Rule applies to rooms as well as to human beings and should +read, "Do unto a room as you would it should do unto you." And not only +for the sake of health should this Golden Rule for Rooms be observed but +also for the sake of the college or school. The room that belongs to us +only for a time should be as thoughtfully cared for as if it were our +own personal property. There is something inconsistent, isn't there, in +educating a girl in high thinking and fine ideals, if she is willing to +live in a room that for uncleanliness many a woman in some crowded +quarter of a city would consider a disgrace? Such contradiction in mind +and surrounding is out of harmony with all one's ideal for a +gentlewoman.</p> + +<p>Not only beauty is restful, peace-giving and peace-bringing, but so, +also, are neatness and order. Orderliness helps to fit one for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> work. +There is undoubtedly some connection between surroundings and one's +mental state. In themselves disorder and confusion are irritating. The +sight of a dirty child crying in the doorway of an untidy house suggests +some connection between the wretchedness of the child and the squalor of +the home. I often think of William Morris, the great craftsman and +charming poet, who had much at heart the happiness of all people, +especially the poor, and his exclamation, "My eye, how I do love +tidiness!" To him, to the artist, it was, as it is, beautiful. George +Eliot had to put even the pins in her cushion into some neat arrangement +before she could sit down to write. Disorder wastes not only one's +feelings and health, it also wastes one's time, for a lot of this +commodity may be lost in looking for books, wraps, gloves and other +things which are not put away properly.</p> + +<p>School ought to be a training for the life afterwards. That is why we go +to school,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> isn't it? Why should a girl indulge herself in habits which +will make against her usefulness in the life of the home or in whatever +circumstance she may be? There is a certain disciplinary value in order. +Every great military school has recognized this. Laxness in the care of +one's room may mean the habit of laxness in other and more important +ways. Disorderliness indicates a certain tendency in character, and if a +girl allows that sort of thing to go on she is very likely to show it in +other ways. Untidiness in any of one's personal habits—and what could +be more personal than a room?—should be taken up and corrected even as +one attempts to correct any weak point in one's character.</p> + +<p>Do you know what is always—that is, if it is in it at all—the most +beautiful thing in a room? It is something which the Creator meant all +mankind should have, rich and poor, old and young alike; it is something +beyond the buying price of any wealth. It is the sunshine, more +beautiful, more valuable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> than expensive hangings that shut it out. +Perhaps it is partly because it is inexpensive, God-given to all people, +that housewives frequently draw their curtains against it. If they had +to pay more for it than for carpets and hangings, you may be very sure +that a great many husbands and fathers would be overworking in order +that their families might buy a whole display of sunshine instead of +tapestries.</p> + +<p>Do you know what is the most helpful thing you can have in your room, +the article without which you cannot live in it at all, no matter how +fine the rugs and bric-à-brac may be? <i>Air!</i> Air is the one thing which +is almost instantly and absolutely indispensable to human life, for we +breathe it in not only through our noses but also all over our skin. +Every hundredth fraction of an inch of our bodies is feeding upon air, +and the purer that air and the cooler the better and more invigorating +food it provides for the skin surface as well as for the lungs. The +mind, for it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> housed in the body and its tenant, must depend for its +vigour or tone upon the fresh air in school or college study. Even a +very good head cannot work well set upon an anæmic body which is +suffocating for want of good clean air. If you wish to do your best work +and keep well, the first thing to do is not to open your books but to +open your windows. After that the books and a reasonable number of hours +of continuous study. American audience halls, pullmans, ordinary coaches +and public buildings of all sorts, especially libraries, are notoriously +overheated and unventilated. It is the intelligent American girl and +woman who, beginning with the home, will correct this evil. The schools +are, on the whole, in the forefront of the fresh air movement, +especially the public schools. As every one knows, the public schools +are establishing open air rooms for their children who need them. +Although there is much to be said about what a room should contain to +make it attractive, it should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> never be forgotten that sunshine and +fresh air are more beautiful and more priceless than anything else which +it can hold.</p> + +<p>The first object in furnishing a bare room is to make it +habitable,—that is useful. Take the kitchen, for example, and +usefulness is practically the sole object in fitting it up. And the +curious thing about it all is that it cannot help being beautiful in a +homely, motherly way, for it exemplifies one of the strongest elements +of all beauty and that is <i>service</i>. The kitchen may be a very humble +place but if more women would make a study of their kitchens and then +take thought, it is likely that the rest of their houses would be in +much better taste. A thing that is useful, even as with some well-worn +homely old woman who has led a good and helpful life, always acquires a +beauty of its own. It may be hard for girls to see this but it is there, +and in time it will be seen. Just as it is essentially more beautiful to +have a clean, strong body rather than a pretty face and a body<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> that is +not what it ought to be, so is it more truly beautiful to have articles +of furnishing in our rooms, in study or kitchen, that are of +indispensable genuine use.</p> + +<p>Take the gaudy ambitious study one girl has made for herself. It is +defaced by the presence of articles of no value at all in the world of +needs; there is nothing in it that is genuinely beautiful and nothing +that is substantially useful. The furniture is almost too cheap to stand +on its own legs, and the colours would certainly never wash and not even +wear. This room is a junk-shop of new, useless, unattractive objects of +no virtue,—in short, a most unpleasant place in which to live. Have you +ever considered what gives even the simplest clothes for distinctive +occasions a beauty of their own? It is fitness. And it is this same +fitness which tells so much in furnishing a room. It might be said of +certain dresses that they "go together," that is, they are harmonious, +they belong together, they have, like some people,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> the beauty of +agreeing with themselves, and a very desirable sort of beauty it is. +Just as clothes are an expression of the people who wear them, so are +rooms an expression of the people who live in them. No well-bred girl +cares for tawdry, cheap, over-ornamented clothes. She is made +uncomfortable even at the very thought of having to wear such things. +She should suffer just as much discomfort on the score of a cheaply +furnished (and by "cheap" here I do not mean inexpensive—whitewash and +deal intelligently used may create a beautiful room), overcrowded and +over-ornamented study.</p> + +<p>What is the meaning of the room which is your school centre for the time +being? It is an intimate place where a girl may have her friends and +good times; it is a retreat and it is a workshop. It is the girl's home +centre away from home, the place from which she will lead her life, in +its expression attractive or unattractive, like her or unlike her. To +intend that this room in beauty, in cleanliness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> in order, shall be the +best expression possible of the girl's best self is the ideal to set for +the school study.</p> + +<p>Get good materials and good colours. They need not be expensive. +Remember that colours have to go together just as furniture has to do +so. To have styles of furniture that clash or colours that do not +harmonize will negative any care which the student may have taken in the +selection of individual pieces or materials. To have too much with which +to fill the room is a good deal worse than not to have enough. Much +better it is to have a few things which are just what they should be +than to have too many and those undesirable. To get a desk, if a girl +can afford to do so, that she will be glad to keep her life long is a +good beginning, and a comfortable chair that will be made doubly +precious by all the school associations woven about it. And let her be +careful about pictures for her walls and not crowd them with cheap and +"fashionable"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> trash. Above all, let her remember that good taste, +simplicity, careful selection, will do more to assure her the possession +of an attractive room than all the money in the world can do.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h3>THE TOOLS OF STUDY AND THEIR USE</h3> + + +<p>A girl ought to take up her study with the same sense of pleasure as +that with which a strong workman enters his shop, knowing his tools and +able to use them. Having good tools and knowing them is certainly part +of the joy of work. And what are the tools the student must use? Well, +for the average student, the one that is first and most important is +<i>Good Health</i>. The mind is not as clear if the body is not in good +health, clean within and without.</p> + +<p>The second set of tools consists of a different sort of equipment and +apparatus, tools with which a girl must become familiar and which she +must know how to use—<i>Books</i>, <i>Library</i>, <i>Laboratory</i> and <i>Classroom</i>. +Why shouldn't a student be just as able to use her books as a carpenter +his plane or saw? One couldn't expect a fumbling carpenter or a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> clumsy +seamstress to accomplish much work or good work. There are times when a +girl need not claim to know anything but she must, at least, know where +to find what she wants to know. This is the first lesson in the use of +books; without knowledge of them or love for them, the student can't get +along at all. And beyond this somewhat mechanical use of books there is +a deeper and larger lesson to learn; to know that a book is not merely a +page of print where information may be sought but that it is a mirror in +which one finds the world, its wisdom, its joy, its sorrow, its divine +adventures. Robert Southey, the friend of the poet Coleridge, has +written beautifully on the subject in a little poem called "His Books."</p> + +<p>Another tool in the student's workshop is <i>Previously Acquired +Knowledge</i>: that is, what one has in one's mind. Some people's minds are +junk-shops. But a junk-shop is better than an empty shop. This +previously acquired knowledge, if used rightly, becomes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> the tool of +later courses, the servant of later years. Our stored-up facts—many of +them—have not been an end in themselves. How could they be? For +example, such things as paradigms and formulæ and long lists of names +and dates, are tools pure and simple; but the student in the workshop +must have them or she will be like a carpenter who had much to do but on +coming to his bench found no tools there and so was idle all day.</p> + +<p>A fourth tool for the girl in her study—one that cannot be deliberately +acquired, as information or apparatus or even health can be—is +<i>Experience</i>. This is the most valuable tool of all—one's experience of +travel, with people, in responsibility, in love, in joy, in sorrow, in +any kind of work. The girls who are the most interesting in the +classroom are the girls who are not contenting themselves with apparatus +alone but whose minds are flexible with experience, who bring all of +themselves, their life, to bear upon the work. A certain well-known +minister had prepared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> a sermon for his usual Sunday engagement, but +half an hour before service another text came into his mind. He could +not forget it, so he jotted down notes and preached the new sermon +instead of the one that had been prepared. This sermon made a great +impression on all who heard it, and the minister himself said of it that +some people would declare that it had been thought out in half an hour, +but that really he had put fifty years of his life into it. The sharper +and better the tools, the finer the character of the work. If experience +has been observed and retained, and previously acquired knowledge is +ready for service, and hand and mind know how to use books, and the +student is in good condition physically, then the excellence of that +girl's work in the class and out can be guaranteed.</p> + +<p>And now what are the uses of the work which these tools can accomplish +for us? Coleridge wrote in his poem, "Work Without Hope,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Hope without an object cannot live."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The only hope that can last is hope that is not wholly centred in +ourselves, but has some thought for others and our service to them. Work +devoid of inspiration and ideals, work done merely for one's self, study +pursued with only a degree as an end or for the sake of "pay" as a +teacher, turns school and college into a market-place, a place of +barter, where in exchange for so much energy and so much money we may +acquire a certain position and livelihood. Only that work in which one +has the consciousness of being, or becoming, useful to others, brings +joy that will endure. What do we think of the minister who is without a +sense of consecration? The responsibility of the student or the teacher +is quite as large, the opportunity for service quite as wonderful. One +of our greatest English poets, William Wordsworth, exclaimed: "I wish to +be considered as a teacher, or as nothing!" The calling of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> teacher, +of the student, has through all time been thought a high one,—one that +has drawn to itself fine and unselfish spirits. The life of the student, +no matter how necessary to the world its market-places are, never has +been and never can be a life of barter, of trade.</p> + +<p>The wealth that comes to the student should not be an exclusive +possession. It may be bought at a large price but it can never be sold. +It must be given away, or shared, for it is wealth which carries with it +a sense of social responsibility. It is enjoyed for a double purpose, +not only for the sake of the happiness it brings to us but also for the +sake of the joy or help it may bring to others. Millions of girls covet +the opportunities that come to a few in school and college, many of them +who far more greatly deserve this privilege than we. Indeed, what have +most of us done to merit the right to all that we have? The only way in +which we can show our sense of justice is by taking our privileges as +something to share with others.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> The girl who has health, pleasant +surroundings and work worth doing, has all a human being has a right to +expect. She ought always to be happy, always rejoicing in her work and +always eager to divide her wealth with others.</p> + +<p>The redeeming feature of royalties has been their sense of +responsibility for their subjects! In great disasters, or calamities, +their first thought has been to go to the relief of the people. The King +and Queen of Italy are noble examples of this courage and unselfishness. +In America the only "privileged" class is the highly educated. It is +they from whom <i>noblesse oblige</i> must be expected, who will show in all +emergencies their sense of responsibility, who will share all that they +have with others. A girl will be happy, she will grow, she will be a +leverage power for good with those among whom she lives, only in so far +as she uses her tools of knowledge in the service of others, and shapes +all that she does towards some humanly useful end.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h3>THE JOY OF WORK</h3> + + +<p>If one is in good condition, the exercise of any physical power is a +pleasure. It is a pleasure to run, to sing, to dance, to climb +mountains, to row, to swim; it is a pleasure to shout for nothing else +than for the pure joy of letting off surplus energy. In the world of +animals, the horse and dog, to take only two illustrations, abound in +this enjoyment of physical energy. The horse paws the ground and snorts +and whinnies and loves the fastest road pace you will let him take. The +dog leaps in the air, jumps fences, barks, and races around madly, +sometimes after nothing at all.</p> + +<p>But the highest power of which human beings are possessed is not the +power of the body. It is the power of the mind. Yet many of us +throughout our school and college life not only do not wish to use this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +power but even rebel against it. "What," some girls are saying to +themselves, "enjoy the work of a classroom? Who ever heard of such a +thing!" Yes, just that. And if we don't enjoy the work of a classroom, +even an indifferently good one, there is something the matter with us, +or the subject should not have a place on any curriculum. Every mental +exercise should be full of the keenest pleasure, of intellectual +pleasure.</p> + +<p>Our schools and colleges to-day are very much richer in the joy of +everything else—in beautiful surroundings, in freer and fuller athletic +and outdoor life, in a more varied and delightful social life—than they +were fifty or even twenty-five years ago. But it is a question whether +the joy of intellectual work has kept pace with this joy of life in its +other aspects. Sometimes it almost seems as if intellectual eagerness +were in inverse ratio to the ease and fullness of the opportunities we +have. At least many fair-minded girls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> have seen the predicament in +which the teacher is placed. The man who makes a vase for the use and +pleasure of others may rejoice not only in his own workmanship but also +in the thought of the service and delight he is giving to others. That +is, his pleasure is twofold. The teacher who is deprived of some +response of joy in the work he is doing is a workman deprived of his +rights. To those girls who are thinking of becoming teachers this should +be a sobering thought.</p> + +<p>Missionary teachers, with their students eager to get anything they have +to give, are not to be pitied. Our schools and their groups of teachers +in isolated and uncultivated parts of the West and South are not to be +pitied. Even if education is with them shorn of much that gives it +charm, the opportunities that come are prized. Students and teachers +have intellectual joy in the work they do, and without that the greatest +university in the world might as well, or better, be a district school, +for then the work done<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> would be truly useful. It is the teacher who has +to put much of her time and energy into making a subject superficially +attractive enough for a student to elect it, who is to be pitied. A +classroom full of blasé girls whose minds need to be tickled before +there is the least expression of intellectual mirth upon their faces, is +an ordeal not lightly to be met except by the professional joker or +academic tumbler.</p> + +<p>Girls often become impatient with themselves, and that is one reason why +there is so little joy in work for them. Think of Helen Keller as a +famous example of this joy in work under the most adverse circumstances. +What could be greater than her handicap? Shut away from the world by +deaf ears and blind eyes and, for a while, by inability to speak, she +has nevertheless shown a keenness of pleasure and intellectual +acquisition that shames us who have all our senses in their fullness. +Think of her patient, unremitting delving, of the digging up, up, up to +get to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> the light which most human beings are privileged to enjoy with +no effort at all! The mind that accepts this wealth with no thought, no +sense of responsibility, is a trifler with riches that are about us for +God-given purposes. Think of the way in which Stevenson and John Richard +Green and George Eliot rose above their ill-health and did their work in +despite of it! Perhaps some of us have superb health and have never made +any conscious effort to use that gift for a high end.</p> + +<p>Girls grow impatient with themselves when they wouldn't be impatient +with a little child. Yet the mind has to be trained even as we train a +child; it has to be brought back and back, again and again to the thing +to be done. After the asking of a simple question, oftentimes a whole +class will look confounded, because they have some strange notion that +thinking means getting hold of something very far away and difficult to +grasp. All that the first effort in thought denotes is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> taking a hold of +that which is nearest and following it up. It is the old story of +Theseus following his clue of thread, the slender thing in his hand, by +which he was guided out of the labyrinth and to the broad sea of +adventure.</p> + +<p>There are difficulties in the doing of any work that is worth while. It +would be a poor adviser who painted the student's way as a path of +roses. First and foremost, one's own inertia interferes with the joy of +work. Some one has defined the lazy man as one who doesn't want to do +anything at all, and the indolent man as one who doesn't want to do +anything that he doesn't want to do. Then, too, there are certain +allurements and distractions in school life which are a hindrance to our +joy in an intellectual task. And there is the very natural +disinclination to the drudgery involved in all hard labour. No work that +is worth while is without drudgery. Lack of encouragement from older +people is one serious difficulty some girls have to meet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> There is a +type of older person who is sure that using the mind will harm that +precious article. And, finally, there is our inexperience, our own lack +of comprehension, our own purposeless and formless lives.</p> + +<p>Joy in work should not be altogether conditional upon one's sense of +ease or upon what is called success. Seeming success is not always +success. Often the most valuable lessons come from failures. Robert +Browning, the poet, speaks again and again of the noble uses of failure. +Let me quote one stanza from one of his greatest poems, "Rabbi Ben +Ezra":</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Then, welcome each rebuff<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That turns earth's smoothness rough,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be our joys three-parts pain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strive and hold cheap the strain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>You can't learn to walk if you haven't tumbled down a good deal in doing +it. It is often failure that means ultimate success. Of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> course if a +girl keeps on saying: "Oh, what's the use?" about everything she does +and all her failures, there isn't any use. In weak moments that sort of +thing can be said of every great and worth-while experience, of love, of +joy, of sorrow, of work. But a girl who allows herself to take this +attitude is a "quitter," and doesn't know the first principles of +playing the game.</p> + +<p>Part of the joy of work consists in the mere delight of intellectual +exercise, delight in thinking a thing out. That is the way we develop +ourselves mentally, just as we develop ourselves physically through +sports. The mind that thinks is capable of deeper and broader thinking. +Thinking begets thought. A muscle that is left without exercise softens +and finally atrophies. The same is true of mental muscle. If this +strength is left unused it is gradually lost and cannot be recovered. +Mental concentration, the thought that is so strenuous that everything +else is shut out, strengthens the mind. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> this wonderful old world no +new land has been discovered without physical effort. There is no +country of the mind which can be entered without a similar effort.</p> + +<p>And there is another and very important joy in work—the sense that one +is being equipped for the work of the world, for usefulness. The mere +feeling that one's powers are being developed brings joy with it. There +is still another joy which every one of us must covet—the sense of +entering into the intellectual riches of the world, its wonders of +science and art and letters, with the feeling that we have a part in a +great treasure, a treasure which, unlike gold and precious stones, men +have never been able to gauge or to exhaust. Such gold and silver as we +take from that adventure cannot be lost or stolen from us. It remains +with us to the very last, and with it no life can ever become really +poor, or dull, or old.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h3>FAIR-PLAY</h3> + + +<p>Few students realize how closely a classroom resembles a commonwealth. +To most of us it seems a place into which we go to have a certain amount +got out of us, or put into us. This conception of the classroom is +unworthy the modern girl who has, otherwise, a fine understanding of the +meaning of team-play, of playing all together for a common end, a game +or a republic united by a tacit compact.</p> + +<p>Does the average student feel responsibility for the game of basket-ball +or lawn hockey which she is playing? The first thought of the girl in +answering this is that it was a foolish question even to ask. Of course +she does. But for her classroom? No, that is a different sort of game, +in which the responsibility lies all on the shoulders of the instructor. +It is a one-woman or a one-man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> game, and very often the students are +but spectators, cheering or indifferent, approving or disapproving. The +pupil does not hold herself accountable for this game; it is the teacher +who makes the class "go," who extracts from each student the information +bottled up in her, together, often, with a good deal of carbon +dioxide,—a process difficult and hard as drawing a swollen cork out of +a soda-water bottle. Finally, with a sort of noble rebound of effort, +the exhausted instructor is to put a vast deal of information back into +the girl before the student claps her book together and rushes pell-mell +to the next classroom, there to be similarly uncorked, if the teacher +has learned the art and her mental muscle is sufficient.</p> + +<p>Such a conception of a classroom is not fair-play. The teacher, like the +coxswain of a college crew, may have rowed over the same course and she +may know it well enough to cover it in the dark; she may have won +distinction upon it, may be the fittest person in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> all the states of the +Union to cover it again, but if she has not a good or a winning crew to +coach, she will never win any race, even the shortest. No instructor has +shoulders equal to such a multiple burden as coaching, steering and +doing all the rowing, too. To play any classroom game in this spirit is +to be dead weight for every one else embarked upon the same adventure. +It is not fair-play.</p> + +<p>By such an attitude on the part of merely one student in the class, +every other student associated with her loses, for the girl who will not +lift her own weight the others must carry. If that student were playing +in that spirit on the basket-ball team, do you suppose that the coach, +or the captain, would let her stay on? Not for a moment; off she would +go and very much humiliated, too. If it is a discussion, the touch and +go of the whole recitation will depend upon the presence of the +team-play, or fair-play, spirit in the course. The instructor may do her +best but if there is no play-the-game in that classroom,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> she might just +as well fold up her tent, like the proverbial Arab, "and silently steal +away." It is not that any recitation need be a brilliant affair—if most +of them depended upon that for existence they would scarcely exist at +all—but there must be an honest, earnest, responsible effort to make +the best of the hour. Good will inevitably come from the clarifying +effort to express thought, and the leading from thought to thought as +the work goes forward.</p> + +<p>The basket-ball team cannot win, or even play, unless all the members +are playing together. Each one is needed despite the fact that she may +not be one of the chief or best players. Just so does the class need all +its students. If a girl is only average, it is not fair-play for her to +sit back and do nothing; neither is it fair-play for her to monopolize +the attention if she happens to be more than commonly able. It is not +fair-play to laugh at the girl who is at a disadvantage, or to appear +bored. It is unfair to the individual,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> to the classroom in general and +to the instructor. The least she can do in this class game is to give +her whole and her courteous attention.</p> + +<p>Think of all the practice games in which the average athletic team takes +part. What can be said for the student who comes into the classroom +unprepared to lift her own weight, unprepared to help others? When one +comes to think about it from the fair-play point of view there is +nothing to be said for her. Nor is it fair-play for a girl to allow +herself to get into such a state physically that she is unable to study. +How often and often have fudge-heads—due to an application to too much +sugar and not to books—sitting row after row killed a school or even a +whole college! Before a class tempered by fudge and not by wholesome +outdoor living and conscientious devotion to work, the teacher might +better put away her notes and close her book. Nothing can happen through +or over that barricade of fudge-heads.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<p>And it is not fair-play to cram because of time lost, or for any other +cause. The only end of cramming is that the student soon forgets all +that has been learned. Alone by normal, slow acquisition and all the +associations formed in such learning can information come to us to stay. +It may not be particularly wicked to cram if one has plenty of time to +waste, but it is foolish unless one has.</p> + +<p>There is a kind of gossip in which a girl takes part, made up of +snap-shot judgments of the classroom, idle carping about some little +unimportant point, expression of wounded vanity and unfair talk, which +may mean a tremendous loss of prestige for a really admirable course; it +may mean that girls, who would naturally go into it because of their +liking or gift for the work, do not go or go in a critical and +unsympathetic attitude. If there is a complaint to be made about any +course it should be made to the responsible person concerned, and that +is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> usually the teacher. Anything else is not fair-play. In the +classroom the instructor is the "coach" of the game and she is the +person with whom to talk. It is needless to say that if a girl is +putting nothing into a course she cannot expect to get anything out of +it, or to complain because things do not "go." If she wants them to "go" +why does she not help, and have the profit of taking something away from +the work as interest on her effort? A girl gets dividends only from work +into which she has put some brain-capital.</p> + +<p>And the people at home? Is it fair-play to them, when they are making +sacrifices of money or of happiness to keep the daughter at school, for +her not to put good work into her study and play her part faithfully in +the classroom game? So many things have to be taken into consideration +of which we are not likely to think. There is the girl herself, the +other girls with whom she is working, the instructor, the people at +home, the institution that is providing an expensive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> equipment or plant +through the philanthropic efforts of others or the taxation of the +public. If the girl does not play her part fairly, there is a rather big +reckoning against her, is there not?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE RIGHT SORT OF LEISURE</h3> + + +<p>The right sort of leisure ought to help as much in the development of +the girl as the right sort of work. If it is leisure worthy the name, it +will bring refreshment; it will not leave one physically and mentally +jaded. Neither mind nor body should ever be exhausted because of the way +in which freedom has been used. Leisure is as important to work as work +is to leisure. A person who has not worked cannot appreciate freedom, +while the one who has had no leisure is not best fitted for work. "All +work and no play makes Jack a dull boy;" it is just as true that it +makes Jill a dull girl. The girl who works all the time, not realizing +the importance of free moments, becomes fagged in body and mind. She is +a tool that is dull, and would do well to remember that even a machine +is better for an occasional rest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>Some mistaken ideas about leisure have grown up, making it difficult to +say anything on this subject without being misunderstood. Stories—whole +books of them—about "spreads" and more or less lawless escapades in +school and college, have given girls and other people, too, the +impression that this is the sort of thing school leisure is. Nothing +could be farther from the truth. Midnight feasts may occur in school, +and most of us, unless we are too good to be average girls, have taken +part in them. But such stories are vicious, for they misrepresent the +life by suggesting that eating inferior and unwholesome food is the real +freedom most girls desire. There is something repulsive in the very +thought. Feasts that leave a girl with a coated tongue and a dull head +and Monday "blues" do not fairly represent school or college leisure. +Good times that interfere with good work have no place in ideally free +hours. But, indeed, the odours from the chafing-dishes do suggest that +some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> of the girls are trying to put into literal execution the wish of +a great German professor in Oxford. The professor, eager to try a dish +he saw on the hotel bill of fare, but with his English and German verbs +not quite disentangled, said to the waiter, "Hereafter I vish to become +a Velsh Rabbit." Perhaps becoming a Welsh rarebit represents the height +of some girls' ideals, but this is hard to believe.</p> + +<p>The possession of leisure depends to a great extent upon the will power. +The girl who has never learned to say "No," who has no power of +selection, cannot expect to have any hours for her own use. She is +quarry for every idle suggestion, every social engagement, every +executive "job" which pursues her. The girl who engages all her time +socially cannot have a sense of leisure, for she turns her playtime into +but another schedule, to be met as inexorably as her academic courses. +Her days become a formidable array of "dates," often stretching<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> ahead +for weeks. Even if girls are not determined to have it for themselves, +they should give to others some opportunity for freedom, and should +respect their possible desire for solitude. The girl who engages or +annexes every particle of time, her own or that of some one else with +whom she comes in contact, is making leisure an impossibility. The girl +who leaves no margin cannot hope for even the spirit of freedom.</p> + +<p>Many students excuse themselves for much executive work in school and +college on the ground that it is done in their leisure. That girl is a +goose who allows herself through any sense of self-importance, or +irreplaceable usefulness, to be so involved in executive work that all +other aspects of her school life are slighted. If she refuses to be +swamped by such "jobs" she can have the happiness of reflecting that +probably some girls who need the training far more than she does are +doing the work. To every girl will come the opportunity right along for +"managing";<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> club and social work will bring it, and a good-sized family +will bring it as nothing else can. But school leisure she will not have +again. The whole aim of the school is to enrich the lives of its +students, and it knows all too well that that student who does not keep +for herself the leisure upon which body and mind and soul must feed is +indeed poor.</p> + +<p>There is one way in which leisure is very generally misspent in +school—and alas, outside, too!—not in managing one's own affairs, but +in managing and discussing the affairs of others. At such times the +remarks may be superlatively pleasant, but they are more often +superlatively disagreeable. It may be said with truthfulness that they +are almost never moderate or just. Everything is all black or all white, +with no gray. It makes one think of the little girl with a curl in the +middle of her forehead:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When she was good, she was very, very good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when she was bad, she was horrid."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But, alas! the poor wretches discussed are not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> allowed even the natural +and somewhat happy human alternation between badness and goodness. No, +indeed, they are monsters of a desperate character—they may at the +moment be broken-heartedly conscious of their own faults—or they are +shining six-winged angels. And, woe! this sort of thing comes almost as +hard upon the angels. They can't endure it; so much goodness breaks down +their wing arches, and the glorious ones crumple together like +tissue-paper.</p> + +<p>And upon the girls busily engaged in creating angels of loveliness and +gargoyles of ugliness, this sort of conversation works havoc. It does +not invigorate them, it does not inspire them. It belittles their +minds—thank fortune, that making kindling wood of the characters of +other people does do this!—and stunts their finer feelings. This sin, +that they "do by two and two," they pay for one by one. Gentle and +considerate feelings are lost, time is wasted, a vicious habit,—almost +no habit is more vicious,—is acquired.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> Such gossip can never become a +pure enjoyment; it remains at the best an ignoble, discreditable +excitement. Rolling these sweet morsels under their tongues, a taste for +ill-natured or exaggerated comment fixes itself in their mouths. Even if +they have consciences that, like good mothers, will occasionally wash +their mouths out with soap, they retain the disturbing memory of unkind, +coarse, or foolish words.</p> + +<p>Yet school should be the last place in which to indulge in idle talk. +Such indulgence is against all the idealism of student life. Idle or +meddlesome talk never helps any one, either the one who talks or the one +who is discussed. If you have anything to say about other people, and if +going to them will help you, the only friendly thing to do—it is not an +easy thing—is to speak to the people concerned. If we really knew how +to put ourselves in other people's places, no unkind, unfriendly words +would ever be spoken again. There would be things hard to bear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +said—rebuke or reproof are never easy to receive—but nothing +unfriendly. Think how idle, ill-natured talk flows around the world, and +then think what a different world it would be if there were none of it! +It is to human life what the blights, the scales, the insect pests are +to tree and flower. Fortunately, as people grow older they come to think +themselves less infallible, and as they grow wiser they become more +tender and more lenient in their judgments.</p> + +<p>In companionship whose leisure interests are good there is a sense of +freedom filled full and running over, of minds and hearts doubly rich, +of good times doubly jolly. But on the whole, girls have too little +absolute solitude; there is scarcely a girl in twenty, except the "dig," +who is alone at all. One trouble with dormitory school life is that it +fosters leisure-wasting and time-wasting "gang" habits. A girl so +surrounded never wants to be alone a moment, either indoors or out. With +such, the blessing and blessedness of solitude should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> be learned, for +solitude rightly used makes strong men and women.</p> + +<p>The woman who has leisure has a grasp upon time, is master of it instead +of being mastered by it. It is the girl whirled around in a squirrel +cage of pointless weekly and Sunday engagements who is oppressed and +mastered by her lack of freedom. And then there is the hard-pressed +future; we must lay up some leisure for that. The time when one is most +hurried is the time when one most needs the sense of freedom. The story +of the old Quaker lady who had so much to do she didn't know where to +begin, and so took a nap, is profoundly full of wisdom. When the old +lady woke up she found she had plenty of time after all, not because she +had done anything but because she had come again into a leisurely frame +of mind.</p> + +<p>Leisure means neither a blank mind nor an empty hand. It means a holiday +taken with an eager mind, with eyes keen in their delight and knowledge, +with hands capable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> of some beauty or some use. All of us have leisure +to think, but not all of us think. Some of us, if friends come in +unexpectedly, will quickly pick up something and pretend to be busy. +When Watt sat by the fire watching the steam from the teakettle lift the +lid, he was not precisely idle. The powerful, indispensable steam-engine +was the result. One reason, aside from all religious considerations, why +we need a quiet Sunday, is that we may have that sense of freedom which +feeds mind and body, and even the crumbs of whose profitableness have +made the world rich in great inventions, in great pictures, in wonderful +books.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h3>THE OUTDOOR RUNWAY</h3> + + +<p>After Nebuchadnezzar came in from eating grass there had taken place in +that potentate a great change for the good. One of the factors in this +betterment may have been the grass itself. The grass-cure has always +been popular and always will be, for it is just as good for the tired +mind as it is for the tired body. Nowadays every big school and every +college provide a grass-cure for students who are out at elbows with +their nerve sleeves, or who have not sufficient muscle to make them fit, +or who are overworking or need toning up in any way. There is more and +more recognition of the fact that a school course which is taken at the +expense of health is not worth having. And side by side with this +wholesome admission has come a great awakening in the last fifteen years +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> the curative value of the <i>outdoor runway</i>, whether that runway be a +field track, energetic walking in a park or campus, or a cross country +run.</p> + +<p>Some girls—and there are more girls of this type than there are +boys—put in their outdoor life as a stop-gap. It is inconceivable that +this should be true, yet it is true. Apathetically the students have +exercised sixty minutes, considering this minimum quite sufficient. Not +a particle of zest do they reveal in the exercise taken. They do not +seem to know or they do not care that the fields and woods should be +full, not only of health and all that goes with it, including success, +but also of the best of friends who all have their good points worthy of +notice and imitation, in quick leap, cheerful voice and blithe song. +What are sixty minutes in this great outdoor runway? Not a tithe of the +twenty-four hours and at best only half of what the minimum should be. +Exercise should be taken even if nothing else in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> school life is. +And I say this advisedly, for health is the basis on which not only the +future of the woman's life must depend but also that of the race. Good +health, the inheritance of it, its maintenance and increase, neither the +girl nor her parents can ever hold as too sacred a trust. That it is a +sacred trust the schools are recognizing more and more, and provisions +are being made, especially in the public schools, for the defective in +health as well as for the strong. The outdoor school, at first an object +that attracted universal attention, is now being taken quite for +granted. Foolish the girl who does not learn to take the outdoor runway +for granted, too, and go out to it in high spirits to learn its wisdom, +to take part in its joys and to receive its health.</p> + +<p>It may be accepted as a new axiom—the more exercise the less fool. +Strong, able muscles, steady nerves (and let us remember that nerves +depend for their tone on the muscular condition), a clean skin open at +all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> its pores and doing its eliminative work thoroughly, and clean +strong vitals make up the kind of beauty within the reach of all +womanhood, and the physical beauty which she should most desire. The day +is coming when our ideal of what is physically perfect—not spiritually, +for Christianity has carried us beyond anything that Greece ever +knew—will be more like the Greek in its entirety, its emphasis upon the +harmony of the whole body. The body is a mechanism to be exquisitely +cared for—self-running, it is true, and yet in need of intelligent +attention. Think of the care an engineer gives his engine, and it is by +no manner of means so wonderfully and so intricately fashioned as these +bodies of ours on which our happiness, our working ability, even our +very goodness depend. Health as a safeguard to one's whole moral being +is coming into more and more recognition, and not only as a safeguard +but also as a cultivator of all that is best in us spiritually. There +are people very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> ill, or permanent invalids, whose great victory it is +to be among the saints of the earth, but that it is easier to be good +when one is well no one will deny. Every big school has now its class or +classes in corrective or medical gymnastics, in which stooping +shoulders, ewe necks, curved spines, flat insteps, small waists and +narrow chests are rectified as far as possible in the limited hours of +the school days.</p> + +<p>The time is coming when parents will consider it a disgrace to allow +their children to be physically undeveloped. The physician, always in +advance of the community for which he cares, sees how grave in moral or +intellectual import physical defects may be. The educational world, +alive to new messages for the reconstruction of its educational ideal, +begins also to place more and more emphasis upon the physical care and +development of its students—and not by any manner of means for physical +reasons only but because the whole girl or the whole boy is better +spiritually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> and mentally for having a body that is strong and well. The +whole being keeps better time, just as a watch does, for having clean +works. No one has the right to shut out the fresh air or the sunshine; +no girl should remain undeveloped physically through lack of exercise +when she could, through exercise, make herself strong. Even to abuse her +feet, the important centre of many important nerves, by tight shoes, is +wrong; so is it to rack her spine and upset or throw out of position all +the delicate and wonderfully fashioned organs of the abdominal cavity by +the wearing of high French heels. Undoubtedly, however, American +motherhood and girlhood represent something more and more intelligent; +indeed, in physical culture women are beginning to keep step with men, +and it is upon this fact that school and college depend in their +splendid efforts to make the sum of feminine vitality, despite the +pressure of modern civilization, plus rather than minus.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>The more exercise the less fool</i>; and it is worth remembering that the +daily exercise, the plunge into cool or clean air, as well as the plunge +into water, is a wit sharpener, and will do more for a student in the +long run than "digging" possibly can. <i>Mens sana in corpore sano</i> may be +an old saying but it is still new enough to be repeated with vigour to +certain people. Let us get out-of-doors and have our wits sharpened and +see more, and do more, and be more! No one can permanently starve her +whole body for the want of fresh air and exercise, which are the body's +birthright, and expect to have a clear head or do well-balanced and +helpful work in the home, or in school, or in some wage-earning career. +If the girl attempt this impossibility she will be like the frog which +jumped up one foot and fell back two. She will get to the bottom soon +enough, the bottom of the class or the bottom of her health account, but +she will never get to the top of anything. Any success, if by chance it +should come to her, resting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> on a basis of ill health or indifference to +her physical fitness for living and working, will be like the house +built upon the sands. Before the girl is twenty, before she is +twenty-five—the earlier the better—she should recognize this fact and +begin to establish her life on the bed rock of health.</p> + +<p>It is true, too, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, that the country +boy and the country girl are more resourceful than their city cousins. +Out-of-doors they have had to use their wits and have not been spoiled +by all the appliances of city life. Out-of-doors, too, they have made +invaluable friendships with bird and squirrel and rabbit and deer, +friendships whose intelligent wood-life has taught them much. +Self-reliance is one of the lessons of the outdoor runway; and wisdom +and inspiration come from it when they are needed. About this truth the +work of the poet Wordsworth is one long poem. Again and again he writes +of the perfect woman shaped by the influences of nature. Of her he +says:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Three years she grew in sun and shower;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Nature said, 'A lovelier flower<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On earth was never sown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This child I to myself will take;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She shall be mine, and I will make<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A lady of my own.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Myself will to my darling be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both law and impulse: and with me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The girl in rock and plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In earth and heaven, in glade and bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall feel an overseeing power<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To kindle and restrain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'She shall be sportive as the fawn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That wild with glee across the lawn<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or up the mountain springs;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hers shall be the breathing balm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hers the silence and the calm<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of mute, insensate things.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'The floating clouds their state shall lend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To her; for her the willow bend;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor shall she fail to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even in the motions of the storm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grace that shall mould the maiden's form<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By silent sympathy.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'The stars of midnight shall be dear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To her; and she shall lean her ear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In many a secret place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where rivulets dance their wayward round,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And beauty born of murmuring sound<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall pass into her face!'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>No one can afford to neglect all the spiritual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> influence of nature, and +the only way to receive it is to go to nature. Purity of mind, a clean +conception of God's creative plan, a more active intellectual life are +all there for the girl who will seek them. She cannot afford <i>not</i> to go +back to nature for these helps, for every woman is in some sense a +burden bearer, and she must needs know all she can of what life means in +order to bear these burdens well.</p> + +<p>There are various kinds of outdoor life, some one of which is within +reach of every human being, even if they are cripples. Probably most +girls when the outdoor life of school and college is spoken of think +that athletics is meant. That is one part of the outdoor runway, and +since it is provided in every school, and insisted upon, but little +about it need be said. It is doing its work with more and more +inspiration, as the response to its ideals comes in. And it does +something more in every well-equipped school than merely make a girl use +her legs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> and arms: it gives her a large, sane ideal of health and +provides her with the means of keeping well. There is no more useful +profession for the woman seeking one that is useful as well as +remunerative than physical culture.</p> + +<p>There is another aspect of the outdoor runway of which less is said. I +mean gardening, or the care of live stock of some kind, or bee culture. +This is practical remunerative work which for the girl living at home +and going to school should serve famously as a grass-cure; it would keep +her out-of-doors with profit to both her health and her purse. And then +there is another kind of grass-cure: the outdoor life out-of-doors, to +be taken in long country walks, in fishing expeditions, in picnics, in +camping or wherever roads, hills, meadows and brooks lead. Finally, +there is the outdoor life indoors. This life insists upon windows open +to the air and open to the sunshine, and this life every one of us may +have all the time.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h3>A GIRL'S SUMMER</h3> + + +<p>Any girl who settles down to a summer with the idea of doing nothing, or +in an aimless, not-knowing-what-to-do-next fashion, lessens her +opportunities for pleasure. Pleasure is not idleness, although in the +minds of a great many people who have not thought very much it is. The +right sort of leisure is full of opportunities for doing interesting +things.</p> + +<p>There are some girls who look upon their summers as an escape from the +slavery of their school year. There are others who think of their +summers as something to be endured until they can go back to the more or +less selfish freedom of the school. Neither is the right way. The summer +ought not to be an entirely frivolous season, neither ought it to be too +workaday. If a girl has work to do, everything should be so arranged as +not to deprive the vacation of its recreative side.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> On the other hand +the summer should be all the happier because of a definite object to be +accomplished. Something is wrong with a girl unless she finds both +summer and winter full of opportunity and pleasure.</p> + +<p>No one can possibly do all the delightful or useful things which may be +done in a single summer. In these months there is opportunity for growth +just as in the winter—perhaps more opportunity physically. And +intellectually there is much to be seen and observed. For the girl who +can, it is well to plan to be out-of-doors as much as possible. For +some, there are opportunities for camping, for long walks, for +gardening, to learn how to do certain physically useful things, to row, +swim and ride. Only an extraordinary emergency would deprive a girl of +all the out-of-door exercise which she needs. If she isn't able to be by +the sea or in the mountains, in almost all cities there is opportunity +for exercise and games. With a short car ride she can go to golf links, +to tennis courts, into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> country. In many semi-citified homes there +is space for a girl to do some gardening, one of the most profitable of +pleasures, good for the girl and good for the home. Many homes would be +much more attractive if there were more of the garden spirit in them. +But if there is no chance for this, there can always be physical +culture, an opportunity to build one's self up in health, to live sanely +and wisely, to get plenty of sleep, and to take corrective exercise. In +physical culture a girl should find out what she most needs—almost any +gymnastic instructor in school or college would be glad to outline +work—and then in ten or fifteen minute exercises develop herself along +those lines.</p> + +<p>For the girl with means there is the chance for travel, a splendid +opportunity to cultivate many virtues of which the young traveller +seldom thinks: patience, adaptability, seeing the bright side of things. +Travelling may be made a very important part of education. It is too bad +that some people of limited horizon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> take it simply as a chance to +aggrandize themselves, something to boast about and with which to bore +their friends by repeated accounts of what they did "abroad." The great +Doctor Samuel Johnson, the compiler of the famous dictionary and author +of "Rasselas," heartily disliked young travellers, for, he said, "They +go too raw to make any great remarks." Travelling, if it is what it +should be, is an educational opening. In this way can be gained a +background for history, for literature, for sociology, and a vivid and +living knowledge of geography. Merely running about with a guide-book +will not achieve these ends, although a guide-book is a very important +asset: sympathy, trying to understand what one sees, will. Travelling +takes away provincialism because it broadens the outlook. In a very real +sense the world becomes one's home.</p> + +<p>The girl who is not able to move about or actually travel may travel in +books. She should be ashamed to read what is harmful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> or merely cheap, +but further than that it may not much matter. Let her read the Little +Books, if she wishes, and the Great Little Books. As surely as the +magnet swings towards the pole will the Great Little Books take her to +the Great Big Books. She will be drawn on and up in her reading, and +will have cultivated a love for reading which is far more important than +perfunctory knowledge of the classics.</p> + +<p>Just as any books that are good point towards books that are better, so +should the good work of a girl's school year be turning her mind towards +the future and her work as a mature woman. In the summer she has time to +assimilate all she has done, to get her bearings, and to plan wisely for +the year, or years, to come. For a girl of strong physique the summer +vacation gives an opportunity to add towards what she is going to do +eventually; to specialize in some line of work, to take a library, or +scientific, course. Many girls, however, who wish to spend their summer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +in this fashion ought not to consider it, for they are not strong +enough. It is well for them to remember that it is the quality of work +that counts rather than the quantity. Often the quality of a girl's work +for an ensuing school year depends upon her freedom from study during +the summer. Students should be very sure, if they undertake work in the +summer, that it is not done simply from a nervous desire to go on +regardless of the quality of the work done. But for those in perfect +health this is an opportunity to try their powers in different ways in +order to discover what it is they really wish to do. A summer so spent +may keep many a girl from slipping into teaching just because it seems +the only thing she can do. Such a salvation will be twofold, for it will +save not only the girl, but also a profession overcrowded with loveless +followers. There are so many needs to be filled by a woman's work that +it is her duty to look for some vocation for which she is truly adapted, +to get out of the ruts of those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> professions into which women flock +because they have no initiative.</p> + +<p>Often a girl thinks only of what she will do with her own summer without +thinking of what she will do with her mother's or her father's summer. +For nine or ten months they have been thinking of what they could do for +her. Sometimes girls do not realize the actual need of help and of +companionship which those at home feel, and the older people are too +unselfish to force this need upon their juniors. Between the +unselfishness of those who are older and the self-centredness of those +who are younger, there is often sad havoc made in a home. A girl who, +after a year's absence and all that has been done for her, can't adjust +herself to those who need her, has still something to learn.</p> + +<p>If older people cannot do without the buoyancy of the young, the young +cannot very well afford to forget the mother and father who have much, +although no word may be didactically spoken, to teach them. Let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> the +girl take her summer not only as an opportunity to grow closer to her +family but also as a chance to learn home-making, to train herself in +the practical things of the home. This practical training is often a +very valuable supplement to the school work. The time is passed when the +learned woman who is unable to do anything for herself is the ideal—if +she ever has been that. The inability to make a home for herself, to do +all the necessary things daintily, detracts from a woman's power. In +practical ways a woman should be both dainty and capable. Parents, as +well as girls, sometimes forget or do not clearly recognize the fact +that no school, no college, can take the place of the home, that schools +are not primarily schools in home-making, but rather schools of general +education. The summer is a good time for the girl to find her place +again in the home life, and for both parents and children to rejoice in +the pleasures of the home—pleasures and opportunities which no +institutional life can give.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<h3>FROM THE SCHOOL TO THE GIRL</h3> + + +<p>What the school is able to do for the girl depends very largely upon the +girl herself. The majority of people with whom she comes in contact do +not take that into consideration, and the school is held unfairly +responsible for the girl. All any school can do is to use the material +it finds. Some one has said, with harsh but true emphasis, that a +college does not make a fool, it simply helps in the development of one. +As an illustration of its limitations, a school sends out two girls from +the same class; one girl it is proud to have taken as a type, the other +it is sorry to have represent it. Yet both have been under exactly the +same influence. Students do not realize how fearfully at their mercy a +school is, or that, so far as reputation is concerned, it is they who +make or mar its credit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<p>If the school training is worth anything at all, it makes the most of +unpromising material. Its really discouraging experience is not with the +girl of limited ability who gives her best and so in some sense gets the +best, but with the student who doesn't give her best and who, because of +her own indifference, is always misrepresenting the training she is +receiving. No school ever wishes to have its ideals confused by a vulgar +display of wealth or by loud or conspicuous behaviour. Yet many a +school, with ideals all that they should be, is misjudged in public +places because of some thoughtless or unreliable girls. This doesn't +seem like fair-play or team-play, does it? The fineness of life ought to +be felt and expressed in student behaviour. Yet how often it is not!</p> + +<p>Another way in which the ideals of a school or college are +misrepresented is by lack of intellectual integrity. Any school informed +with a large spirit wishes to meet its students on a platform of +absolute trust,—a platform<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> which makes precautions against dishonesty +unnecessary. Just so long as a school must be vigilant in order to keep +a few students from unfair behaviour, just so long is it prevented from +meeting them all on a basis of absolute trust. Why should girls excuse +themselves for classroom dishonesty? What would they think of a girl who +cheated in basket-ball? Would they condone that? Until student +government has recognized absolute intellectual integrity as a part of +its ideas, it will not have achieved its end. The rock on which all +scholarship is founded is honour. Lack of honour is fatal to its ideal. +"Cribbing," often excused by people who do not stop to think, is the +small beginning of a big evil.</p> + +<p>Many a large institution is like an anxious mother, not always +infallible in wisdom, but personally interested in and eager for the +success of the individual. A successful girl brings credit to her +school, for she demonstrates, as nothing else can, the fact that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +school is achieving its purpose in service to the community. How much +this encouragement is needed, girls do not realize, for they do not know +all the difficulties which institutions, especially technical and +collegiate, have to meet in sending their students out into the world. +In finding a position for a student, the school has to consider the +whole girl. It may care greatly for an attractive personality and yet +see that its possessor is lacking in qualities of faithfulness and +accuracy, and that with its utmost endeavour it has never been able to +correct these faults. On the other hand, the school may have those +students whose manners, whose dress, whose personality, whose spelling, +whose awkwardly expressed notes, whose lack of promptness, make against +success in any capacity.</p> + +<p>Another point for which the school looks in recommending its students is +physical fitness, which shows itself in many different ways: in voice, +in carriage, in attractiveness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> in staying power. One teacher who had +an excellent record as a student and was, besides, a fine girl, had so +unpleasant and absurd a voice that her students were in a continual +state of amusement and would learn nothing from her. A great many +teachers have lost in power because of a poor voice, strident, or +lifeless, or husky, or falsetto. A poor enunciation, or words that do +not carry, are ineffectual means by which to reach a class, to hold a +customer, or to introduce one's self favourably to the interest of +others. For a girl who is going to have any part in public life—and +most girls do nowadays—a good voice is an absolute essential. And it is +well for us to remember that the voice is not something superficial, but +that it is the expression of that which is within.</p> + +<p>Another way in which physical fitness shows itself is in the carriage. A +girl who carries herself with erectness and energy brings a certain +conviction with her of fitness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> for many things, of self-respect, of +ability, and reveals in her bearing something of her mind as well as of +her body. We are always tempted to think a person who "slumps" +physically may slump in other ways. A good carriage, good voice, and +strong, clean, digestive system are far more important than beauty of +features.</p> + +<p>There is another matter at which the school in placing its students must +look. To be a desirable candidate for a good position a girl need not be +expensively gowned, but she must be daintily and freshly dressed. +Immaculate shirt waist, a plain, well-made skirt, with good shoes, +stockings and gloves and a quiet, pretty hat, are all any woman needs in +meeting her business obligations. And that daintiness which she shows in +her dress she must show in her person too, in clean skin and +finger-nails, good teeth, and smooth, attractively arranged hair.</p> + +<p>It is very important for the interests of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> school, as well as for the +individual, to place its students advantageously. To have them succeed +widens its sphere of usefulness and influence and opens new channels of +service. Every college puts itself to considerable expense in looking +out for the interests of its students, for the glory of a great school +lies not only in the people whom it collects into its midst, but even +more in those whom it sends out. A girl has no right to go so lightly +through her school life that she fails to see in it all the +self-sacrifice and effort and ambitions that have gone into the building +up of what is her privilege and opportunity. In so far as she does this +she fails in the team-play spirit. Why should a girl think that she can +spend her father's money, or the means of her school, thoughtlessly? +What would happen to her if she did this with the funds of her +basket-ball team? Yet girls waste the resources of their school by +carelessness with its property, a carelessness that collectively mounts +up into thousands of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> dollars, and never once stop to think how +difficult every big school finds it to make ends meet.</p> + +<p>Before it is too late, at least now that she is leaving school, let her +stop to realize that a great deal of the work for an institution is +along the line of self-sacrifice, in the gifts given, in the work of its +administrators and teachers. This unselfishness means a financial loss, +for business ability might be invested in more lucrative ways; it means +a social sacrifice, for there is a certain kind of impersonality which +is demanded in work that deals with a continually changing community; it +means risk in the great strain put upon physical and nervous strength; +it means forgetting one's self; for the true teacher is willing to be +forgotten when she has served others. What a school may accomplish for +its students is its only compensation for all this self-sacrifice.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<h3>THE WORK TO BE</h3> + + +<p>One of the qualities a girl who has completed her school or college life +needs to show for a few months more than anything else is the quality of +adjustment, for she will find that she must continually adjust herself +to new conditions whether they be of the home or elsewhere. All the time +through school she has been in some sense a centre of interest. Her +class has been an important factor in the academic life. When she has +gone home it has been as a school or college girl, and she has been of +interest because she brought that life into the home. But now the +attitude of others towards her is different. She ceases to be the centre +of attention, and for her a day of serious readjustment is at hand. +Perhaps in her own estimate she has seemed even more important than she +really was. She is likely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> now to swing from a sense of self-importance +to an injured feeling of insignificance, and to a conviction that people +can get along quite as well without her. Up to this time when she has +gone home she has been an honoured visitor. But now that she is at home +to stay, instead of becoming the centre she is merely part of the family +circle with its obligation of doing for others. Her presence in the +household is no longer a novelty.</p> + +<p>The swift change from a highly-organized, methodical life to the life of +the home where there is not so much method, is hard for a girl. One +reason it is difficult is that while she may be accomplishing a great +deal that is useful, she seems to be doing nothing and to get nowhere. +She feels as if she were in the midst of a conflict of duties. In school +she has had implanted in her the idea that she must accomplish some +definite thing, and between this objective and the irregular demands of +the home there appears to be more or less clashing. She is confronted by +a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> problem not easy for any one to solve: how to keep her definiteness +of aim and work, and yet not be self-centred.</p> + +<p>Oftentimes when a girl fails to adjust herself to the home life, her +family and friends feel that she is rather selfish in her desire to +carry out her own aims rather than to give them up for new demands. +Frequently the family is as much to blame for not realizing that the +girl needs to be helped back into the old life as the girl is for not +being able to help herself. In the home the spirit of team-play is much +needed. Quite as much as the girl, the family has a lesson to learn in +the art of adjustment and in remembering that this grown-up child isn't +just the same individual she was when she went away several years ago. +They need to realize that the girl may be able to give more to the home +life than she ever did before, but that it will be given in a somewhat +different way.</p> + +<p>While she is learning the difficult art of finding her place again, a +great deal depends<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> upon the individual girl, not only in the home but +in the community at large. Sometimes she needs to be reminded that +although she may have had more advantages than those left at home, that +doesn't necessarily make her a superior person. A girl who is inclined +either to pity or to admire herself too greatly should give herself a +vigorous shaking. In the long run she will find it easier to do that on +her own account than to have others do it for her. The friends at home, +or in the church, or in the town, with education of a different kind +coming to them, may have quite as much and more to give her than she to +give them. One indicator of a really cultivated woman is her power to +adapt herself to the circumstances in which she is placed. A gentlewoman +never calls attention to the difference between herself and somebody +else. The woman of broad culture is the one who makes everybody feel at +home with her. If a girl's education has been worth anything at all, it +should give her not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> a superior, set-aside feeling, but a desire to be +more friendly and useful wherever she may be, and, not placing too much +stress on externals, to look for essentials, to get the full value from +every person and from every experience with which she comes in contact.</p> + +<p>Girls go to so many different kinds of homes that it is unlikely that +they will meet the same sorts of difficulties. There is the girl who +goes into the society home, where it is impossible for her to carry out +her ideals without conflict with its social standards. On the other +hand, there is the girl who goes into the very simple home where all the +stress is upon the domestic side of life. And there is the girl who has +to provide part of the family income. Very likely she has the hardest +problem of all. She enters upon some new work, and nine times out of ten +the way is not made easy for her; she is a novice with all the hardships +that come to the novice. Perhaps in the beginning she has met a very +real perplexity in hardly knowing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> what line of work to take up. She has +no particular interest, no especial talent, no brilliant record, no +powerful friends, no money with which to establish herself. With her it +must be as it is with thinking: she must seize hold of the thing nearest +her. What seems to her a temporary and unsatisfactory expedient will in +many cases open out a path leading to something much broader. At least +she may remember this as consolation: that even that experience of +uncertainty, of indecision, is a part of education, and out of it, +rightly and bravely met, will come some richness for her future life.</p> + +<p>The beginning of a work, teaching or anything else, may have to be +rather irksome, indeed, may be exceedingly difficult,—an experience +that will perhaps test staying power to the utmost. When it is too late +to give due appreciation we realize that the work in school which was +planned for us and arranged with our physical and mental well-being in +view was, after all, not so hard as we thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> it at the time. We wish +that we had enjoyed our leisure more and complained less.</p> + +<p>From the point of view of fatigue, as a secretary, a clerk, a trained +nurse, a teacher, a social worker, the burden may be so great that the +girl is disheartened. She is all the more disheartened because, knowing +that a useful life is a strong, steady pull, the way before her seems +interminable. If she carries her whip inside her—this counsel is not +for those of us who are lazy—she does well to remember that there is a +point beyond which fatigue should not be borne, that is, when it +overdraws her capital of health and nervous energy. Raising pigs is +preferable to a so-called high profession when pig-raising is happily +joined with a reasonable amount of health and security. The pigs and +health together can always pay mortgages and buy necessities for those +dependent upon us and for ourselves. The high calling without health is +like a wet paper-bag: it will hold nothing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + +<p>The girl meets with another difficulty in finding out that in almost any +line of work a great deal of time is needed for the mastery of what seem +the simplest principles. No one wants the girl who hasn't had +experience, and nobody seems disposed to take her and give her that +experience. However, we all find some one who is hardy enough or kind +enough to try us; and as every year now there is more effort put into +finding the work girls are most suited to do, there is no excuse for +slipping into teaching as a last resort. Not unnaturally we sometimes +distrust ourselves, especially in taking up an occupation to which we +are not accustomed. And in her new work the girl, uncertain of her +ability to master what she has undertaken, is placed in a position in +which she has the encouragement of neither the school nor the home. +Before, she has put much of the responsibility for her work and life +upon parents and instructors. Now she has to be her own judge and pass +judgment on herself and her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> work. She has, too, not only to lift her +own weight but the weight of others as well. As she longs for +coöperation, good will and encouragement the value of the team-play +spirit has never seemed so great before.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We do not need to be told to remember the happy and easy experiences of +life. No girl forgets them. What we do need is some one to tell us where +the hard places will be, to warn us, to stiffen our courage and to point +clearly to the uses of hard work and adversity. And although this may +seem like placing another straw on the poor camel's back, it is now time +to say that in her life-work, whether it be in her home or outside, a +girl should be very clear in her mind what her aims and purposes are. If +she is working solely for the praise and commendation of others, she +will often be grievously disappointed. Not in recognition does real +reward lie, but in the work itself. If she wins great popularity she is +likely to find that there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> is nothing that shifts so quickly and is such +a quicksand. If material wealth is her sole object she will harden into +the thing she seeks and add but another joyless barbarian to a modern +world congratulating itself that barbarism is a thing of the past, and +yet presenting the spectacle of a mammon worship such as has never been +seen before. If gold is her end, and not the means to a nobler end, then +she will find herself constantly sacrificing higher issues to that, and +lowering her one-time ideals. Truly the woman who marries solely for the +comforts of a home, the woman who teaches, or nurses for "pay" alone, +has her reward, and that is in self-destruction. She is a carrier of +barbarism, not of culture; of disease, not of health; of tribulation, +not of joy. The only real reward there can be lies in the idealism, the +joy, the strength of the work done and in a mind and heart conscious of +having done their best.</p> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<h2>GIFT BOOKS, ESSAYS, Etc.</h2> +<p><br /><br /><i>JOHN T. FARIS</i> Author "<i>Winning Their Way</i>."</p> + +<h3>"Making Good"</h3><h4> Pointers for the Man of To-morrow</h4> +<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.25.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Dr. J. R. Miller</i> says: "Sixty intimate messages to young men +and boys on the things that make for success or failure. Bright +and short and full of illustrations from actual life, they are +just the sort that will help young men in the home, in school, +among associates and in business. Everywhere is the suggestion +of the necessity for Christ if men would build up fine +character and make life worth while."</p></div> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>JEANETTE MARKS, M. A.</i></p> + +<h3><b>A Girl's School Days and After</b></h3> + +<p>Introduction by Mary K. Woolley, President of Mt. Holyoke College. 12mo, +cloth, net 75c.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In twelve most readable and suggestive chapters ranging from +"The Freshman Year" through "School Friendships," "The Students +Room," "Tools of Study and Their Use," "The Joy of Work," "The +Right Sort of leisure," "The Girls Outdoor Life," to "The Work +to Be," the author writes in a practical yet interesting way of +wellnigh every phase of the girl and her school.</p></div> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>FREDERICK LYNCH Director of N. Y. Peace Society.</i></p> + +<h3><b>The Peace Problem</b></h3><h4> The Task of the Twentieth Century</h4> + +<p>Introduction by Andrew Carnegie. Cloth, net 75c.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Andrew Carnegie commends this book in no stinted terms. "I have +read this book from beginning to end with interest and profit. +I hope large editions will be circulated by our peace +organizations among those we can interest in the noblest of all +causes."</p></div> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>JAMES M. CAMPBELL, D. D.</i></p> + +<h3><b>Grow Old Along With Me</b></h3> + +<p>12mo, cloth, gilt top, net $1.25.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Shows in most helpful fashion things one should strive for and +guard against, things he should leave off doing, as well as +others he should put on. It is a pleasant thing to read and it +should be a potent factor in leading one to an appreciation of +the real beauty and opportunity that lies 'west of fifty +years.'"—<i>Chicago Tribune</i>.</p></div> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>MRS. NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS</i></p> + +<h3><b>The American Woman and Her Home</b></h3> + +<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.25.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The author shares with her gifted husband the power of both +entertaining and influencing people with the pen. The +remarkable interest awakened lately by Mrs. Hillis' articles in +"The Outlook" has inspired this helpful book.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="FICTION" id="FICTION"></a>FICTION</h2> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M. D.</i></p> + +<h3><b>Down North on The Labrador</b></h3> + +<p>Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> + +<p>A new collection of Labrador yarns by the man who has succeeded in +making isolated Labrador a part of the known world. Like its predecessor +the new volume, while confined exclusively to facts in Dr. Grenfell's +daily life, is full of romance, adventure and excitement. The <i>N. Y. +Sun</i> recently said: "Admirable as is the work that Dr. Grenfell is doing +on the Labrador coast, the books he has written, make his readers almost +wish he would give up some of it to write more."</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>CLARA E. LAUGHLIN</i></p> + +<h3><b>The Gleaners</b></h3> + +<p>A Novellette. Illustrated, decorated boards, net 75c.</p> + +<p>Again Miss Laughlin has given us a master-piece in this story of present +day life. Millet's picture, "The Gleaners," is the moving spirit of this +little romance and, incidentally, one catches the inspiration the artist +portrays in his immortal canvas. "The Gleaners" is issued in similar +style to "Everybody's Lonesome," of which the <i>Toronto Globe</i> said: "One +of the successful writers of 'Good Cheer' stories for old and young is +Miss Laughlin, and whoever reads one of her cheery little volumes +desires more."</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>PROF. EDWARD A. STEINER</i></p> + +<p><i>Author of "The Immigrant Tide," etc.</i></p> + +<h3><b>The Broken Wall</b></h3> + +<p>Stories of the Mingling Folk. Illustrated, net $1.00.</p> + +<p>Professor Steiner has the story-teller's knack and uses his art with +consummate skill in this collection, where will be found dramatic +tragedy and profound pathos in strong contrast with keen humor and +brilliant wit, all permeated by an uncompromising optimism. No man has +probed the heart of the immigrant more deeply, and his interpretation of +these Americans of tomorrow is at once a revelation and an inspiration: +a liberal education in brotherhood.</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>A. D. STEWART</i></p> + +<h3><b>Heather and Peat</b></h3> + +<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.20.</p> + +<p>"This is a very delightful story, told in the broadest and most +fascinating Scotch language. The author belongs of right to that class +of modern Scotch writers who bring out matters of vital human interest, +with religious and tender touches, and this story is one that any writer +might be proud of and any reader of feeling and vitality must delight +in."—<i>Journal and Messenger</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>YANG PING YU</i></p> + +<h3><b>The Love Story of a Maiden of Cathay</b></h3> + +<p>Told in Letters from Yang Ping Yu. Finely decorated boards, net 50c.</p> + +<p>Written in English picturesquely colored with Chinese, at once naive and +yet full of worldly wisdom, frank and yet discreetly reserved. The story +as told in the letters is real, vivid, convincing. It is a human +document that will compel the attention of the reader from beginning to +end, and verify again the saying that "truth is stranger than fiction."</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>MARION BLYTHE</i></p> + +<h3><b>An American Bride in Porto Rico</b></h3> + +<p>Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> + +<p>"The story is very pleasant and very human. In her bravery and courage, +in her wit and merriment, the bride reminds one somewhat of the "Lady of +the Decoration." This similarity adds, however, rather than detracts +from the charm of the book. She is thoroughly good-natured and clever +and companionable, with a whimsical and ever-present sense of +humor."—<i>Chicago Evening Post</i>.</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>ISLA MAY MULLINS</i></p> + +<h3><b>The Boy from Hollow Hut</b></h3> + +<p>Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> + +<p>Readers of John Fox, Jr.'s stories will recognize the location of this +story at once. The author and her husband, President of the great +Theological Seminary of Louisville, have taken a large interest in these +descendants of <i>some of the best American stock</i>. Through the tender +humanness of her narrative Mrs. Mullins bids fair to gain a large +audience for this intensely interesting work.</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>DR. OLIVIA A. BALDWIN</i></p> + +<h3><b>Sita,</b> A Story of Child-Marriage Fetters.</h3> + +<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.25.</p> + +<p>A realistic story of native and mission life in India; a story dealing +with the stress of famine and the pathetic condition of India's +child-widows.</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>MRS. MAUD JOHNSON ELMORE</i></p> + +<h3><b>The Revolt of Sundaramma</b></h3> + +<p>With an introduction by Helen B. Montgomery. Illustrated by Gertrude H. +B. Hooker. Net $1.00.</p> + +<p>Sundaramma, a Hindu maiden, is the heroine of this story which relates +her revolt against child marriage and her flight from such slavery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>NORMAN DUNCAN Author of "Dr. Luke," etc.</i></p> + +<h3><b>The Measure of a Man</b></h3> + +<p>A Tale of the Big Woods. Illustrated, net $1.25.</p> + +<p>"The Measure of a Man" is Mr. Duncan's first full-sized novel having a +distinct motif and purpose since "Doctor Luke of The Labrador." The tale +of the big woods has for its hero, John Fairmeadow—every inch a man +whom the Lumber Jacks of his parish in the pines looked up to as their +Sky Pilot. Human nature in the rough is here portrayed with a +faithfulness that is convincing.</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>ROBERT E. KNOWLES Author of "St. Cuthberts," etc.</i></p> + +<h3><b>The Singer of the Kootenay</b></h3> + +<p>A Tale of To-day. 12mo, cloth, net $1.20.</p> + +<p>The scene of action for Mr. Knowles' latest novel is in the Crow's Nest +Pass of the Kootenay Mountains of British Columbia. To this dramatic +field he has gone for local color and has taken every advantage of his +wide knowledge, picturing life of every phase in his most artistic +style.</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>HAROLD BEGBIE Author of "Twice-Born Men</i>"</p> + +<h3><b>The Shadow</b></h3> + +<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.25.</p> + +<p>A new story by the novelist whose study of regeneration, "Twice-Born +Men" has made the religious world fairly gasp at its startling +revelations of the almost overlooked proofs of the power of conversion +to be found among the lowest humanity. His latest work is a brilliant +study of modern life which will maintain the author's reputation.</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>RUPERT HUGHES</i></p> + +<h3><b>Miss 318</b></h3> + +<p>A Story in Season and out of Season. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net 75c.</p> + +<p>"Is there any excuse for one more Christmas story?" "Surely nothing has +been left unsaid." "The truth, perhaps." "The truth?—about Christmas! +Would anybody care to read it?" "Perhaps." "But would anybody dare to +publish it?" "Probably not." "That sounds interesting! What nobody would +care to read and nobody would dare to publish, ought to be well worth +writing."</p> + + +<p><br /><br /><i>J. J. BELL Author of "Oh! Christina!" etc.</i></p> + +<h3><b>The Indiscretions of Maister Redhorn</b></h3> + +<p>Illustrated, 16mo, cloth, net 60c.</p> + +<p>The thousands who have read <i>Wullie McWattie's Master</i> will need no +introduction to this Scottish "penter" and his "pint o' view." 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Girl's Student Days and After + +Author: Jeannette Marks + +Commentator: Mary Emma Woolley + +Release Date: April 23, 2006 [EBook #18234] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GIRL'S STUDENT DAYS AND AFTER *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project) + + + + + + + + + + + +A Girl's Student Days and After + +By + +JEANNETTE MARKS, M. A. + +(_Wellesley_) + +_With an Introduction by_ +_MARY EMMA WOOLLEY, LL. D._ +_President of Mt. Holyoke College_ + +_New York Chicago Toronto_ +_Fleming H. Revell Company_ +_London and Edinburgh_ + +Copyright, 1911, by +FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY + +New York: 158 Fifth Avenue +Chicago: 125 North Wabash Ave. +Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. +London: 21 Paternoster Square +Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street + +_Inscribed +to +MARY EMMA WOOLLEY, LL. D._ + + + + +_Introduction_ + + +The school and college girl is an important factor in our life to-day. +Around her revolve all manner of educational schemes, to her are open +all kinds of educational opportunities. There was never an age in which +so much thought was expended upon her, or so much interest felt in her +development. + +There are many articles written and many speeches delivered on the +responsibility of parents and teachers--it may not be amiss occasionally +to turn the shield and show that some of the responsibility rests upon +the girl herself. After all, she is the determining factor, for +buildings and equipment, courses and teachers accomplish little without +her cooeperation. + +It is difficult for the "new girl," whether in school or college, to +realize the extent to which the success of her school life depends upon +herself. In a new environment, surrounded by what seem to her +"multitudes" of new faces, obliged to meet larger demands under strange +and untried conditions, she is quite likely to go to the other extreme +and exaggerate her own insignificance. Sometimes she is fortunate enough +to have an older sister or friend to help her steer her bark through +these untried waters, but generally she must find her own bearings. + +To such a girl, the wise hints in the chapters which follow this +introduction are invaluable, giving an insight into the meaning of +fair-play in the classroom as well as on the athletic field; the +relation between physical well-being and academic success; the +difference between the social life that is _re_-creative and that which +is "_nerves_-creative"; the significance of loyalty to the school and to +the home; the way in which school days determine to a large degree the +days that come after. These, and many other suggestions, wise and +forceful, I commend not only to the new girl, but also to the "old +girl" who would make her school and college days count for more both +while they last and as preparation for the work that is to follow. + + MARY E. WOOLLEY. + + _Mt. Holyoke College_, + _South Hadley, Massachusetts._ + + + + +_CONTENTS_ + + +A WORD TO THE WISE 13 + +I. THE IDEAL FRESHMAN 17 + +II. THE GIRL AND THE SCHOOL 25 + +III. FRIENDSHIPS 33 + +IV. THE STUDENT'S ROOM 41 + +V. THE TOOLS OF STUDY AND THEIR USE 54 + +VI. THE JOY OF WORK 61 + +VII. FAIR-PLAY 70 + +VIII. THE RIGHT SORT OF LEISURE 78 + +IX. THE OUTDOOR RUNWAY 88 + +X. A GIRL'S SUMMER 99 + +XI. FROM THE SCHOOL TO THE GIRL 107 + +XII. THE WORK TO BE 115 + + + + +_A Word to the Wise_ + + +We train for basket-ball, golf, tennis or for whatever sport we have the +most liking. Is there any reason why we should not use the same +intelligence in the approach to our general school life? Is there any +reason why we should make an obstacle race, however good and amusing +exercise that may be, out of _all_ our school life? We don't expect to +win a game with a sprained wrist or ankle, and there really is no reason +why we should plan to sprain the back of school or college life by +avoidable mistakes. + +The writer believes in the girl who has the capacity for making +mistakes,--that headlong, energetic spirit which blunders all too +easily. But the writer knows how much those mistakes hurt and how much +energy might be saved for a life that, with just a pinch less of +blunder, might be none the less savoury. School and college are no place +for vocal soloists, and after some of us have sung so sweetly and so +long at home, with every one saying, "Just hear Mary sing, isn't it +wonderful!" it is rather trying, you know, to go to a place where vocal +solos are not popular. And we wish some one--at least I did--had told us +all about this fact as well as other facts of school life. Anyway it +should be a comfort to have a book lying on the table in our school or +college room, or at home, which will tell us why Mary, after having been +a famous soloist at home made a failure or a great success in chorus +work at school. Such a book is something like having a loaded gun in +readiness for the robber. We may never use the shotgun or the book but +they are there, with the reassuring sense of shot in the locker. + +It is something, is it not, to have a little book which will tell you +how to get into school and how to get out (for at times there seem to be +difficulties in both these directions)--in short, to tell you something +of many things: your first year at school or college, your part in the +school life, the friendships you will make, your study and how to work +in it, the pleasure and right kind of spirit involved in work, the quiet +times, as well as the jolly times, out-of-doors, your summers and how to +spend them, what the school has tried to do for you; and, as you go out +into the world, some of the aspects, whether you are to be wife, +secretary or teacher, of the work which you will do. Of one thing you +may be certain; that behind every sentence of this little book is +experience, that here are only those opinions of which experience has +made a good, wholesome zwieback. + +I wish to take this opportunity to thank my friend, Mrs. Belle Kellogg +Towne, editor of _The Girls' Companion_ and _Young People's Weekly_, +Chicago, for her cooeperation in allowing me to use half the material in +this little book; also Dr. C. R. Blackall, of Philadelphia. + +_Camp Runway._ J. M. + + + + +I + +THE IDEAL FRESHMAN + + +Freshman year, the beginning year, the year of new experiences, new +delights, new work, new friends, new surroundings; the year that may +mean much to a girl, that may answer some of the questions that have +lain long in heart and mind, that will surely reveal her more clearly to +herself, that may make her understand others better and help her to +guess something of the riddle of the years to come! + +What has the student done to get ready for this year? If she were going +camping she would know that certain things were necessary to make the +expedition a success. With what excitement and pleasure, what thoughts +of jolly camp-fires, deep, sweet-smelling forests, and long days afoot, +she would prepare everything. She would not let any one else do this for +her, for that would mean losing too much of the fun. But the _freshman +year_, what about the thinking and planning for that, also an expedition +into a new world, and a veritable adventure of a vast deal more +importance than a few days or weeks of camping? Would she enter forests +upon whose trees the camp-fires throw many shadows, follow the stream +that cleaves its way through the woods, go along the runway of deer or +caribou or moose, with a mind to all intents and purposes a blank? No, +her mind would be vivid with thoughts and interests. + +With the same keen attention should she enter the new year at school or +college, and as she passes through it, thinking about all that comes to +her, she will find it growing less and less difficult and more and more +friendly. She will consider what the freshman year is to be like, think +of what sorts of girls she is to meet and make friends with, what the +work will be, what she may expect in good times from this new adventure, +and, thoughtful about it all, make the minimum of mistakes and get the +maximum of benefit. + +Here come some of the girls who are entering school and college with +her--bright-haired, dark-haired, rosy or pale, tall and thin, fat and +short, clever and average, desirable and undesirable,--in fact, all +sorts and conditions of girls. Who is to be the leader of them all? She +is the _ideal freshman_, a nice, well-set-up girl who does not think too +much of herself, who is not self-conscious, and who does not forget for +what she is sent to school. Despite the temptations of school life she +uses her days wisely and well. She does not isolate herself, for she +sees the plan and value of the recreative side of school-days. She is +already laying the foundations for a successful, useful, normal +existence, establishing confidence at the outset and not handicapping +herself through her whole course by making people lose their faith in +her. Our _ideal freshman_ may be the girl who is to do distinguished +work; she may be the student who does her best; and because it is her +best, the work, though not brilliant, is distinguished by virtue of her +effort. She may be the girl who is to make a happy home life through her +poise and earnestness and common sense. Whoever she is, in any event in +learning to do her best she is winning nine-tenths of the battle of a +successful career. It is she, attractive, able, earnest, with the +"fair-play" or team-play spirit in all she does, true to herself and to +others, whom every school wants, whose unconscious influence is so great +in building up the morale of any school. Mark this girl and follow her, +for she is worthy of your hero worship. + +This is the girl who goes into school in much the same spirit that she +would enter upon a larger life. She is not a prig and she is not a dig, +but she knows there are responsibilities to be met and she meets them. +She expects to have to think about the new conditions in which she finds +herself and to adjust herself to them, and she does it. She knows the +meaning of the team-play spirit and she takes her place quietly on the +team, one among many, and both works and plays with respect for the +rights and positions of others. It is in the temper of the words +sometimes stamped upon the coins of our country--_E Pluribus Unum_--that +she makes a success of her school life. She knows that not only is our +country bigger than any one of its states, but also that every school is +bigger than any one of its members whether teacher or student. In a +small family at home conditions have been more or less made for her, +just as they are for other girls. Yet she knows that the school life is +complicated and complex, and it is impossible for her to feel neglected +where a more self-centred or spoiled girl fails to see that in this new +life she is called upon to play a minor part but nevertheless a part +upon which the school must rely for its _esprit de corps_. She goes with +ease from the somewhat unmethodical life of the home to the highly +organized routine of the school because she understands the meaning of +the word "team-play." She has the cooeperative spirit. + +Yet there are other girls, too, in this school which the freshman is +entering. There is the student who errs on the side of leading too +workaday a life, and in so doing has lost something of the buoyancy and +breadth and "snap" which would make her associations and her work +fresher and more vigorous. "The Grind," she has been called, and if she +recognize herself in this sketch, let her take care to reach out for a +bigger and fuller life than she is leading. And there is, too, the +selfish student whose "class-spirit" is self-spirit; and the girl who is +not selfish but who uses herself up in too many interests, dramatic, +athletic, society, philanthropic and in a dozen others. She is probably +over-conscientious, a good girl in every way, but in doing too much she +loses sight of the real aim of her school life. To these must be added +another student,--the freshman who skims the surface, and is, when she +gets out, where she was when she entered--no, not quite so far along, +for she has slipped back. She is selfish, relying upon the patience and +burden-bearing capacity of her father and mother, as well as the school. + +No doubt every girl would meet her obligations squarely if she realized +what was the underlying significance of the freshman year; the school +life would surely be approached with a conscientious purpose. What a +girl gets in school will much depend upon what she has to give. No girl +is there simply to have a good time or merely to learn things out of +books. Nor is she there to fill in the interim between childhood and +young womanhood, when one will go into society, another marry, and a +third take up some wage-earning career. No, she is there to carry life +forward in the deepest, truest sense; and the longer she can have to get +an education and to make the best of the opportunities of school and +college life, the richer and fuller her after-years will be. Both middle +life and old age will be deeper and stronger. Let us think about these +girls, let us think about what it means to be a freshman, and so lessen +our difficulties and increase our pleasures; let us have a big +conception,--a large ideal always at heart--of what the _first year_ +should be, and beginning well we shall be the more likely to end well. + + + + +II + +THE GIRL AND THE SCHOOL + + +Inside school or college the girl is in several ways responsible for the +atmosphere. Merely in her conversation she can be of service or +dis-service. It may be simply a good joke which she is telling, but if +the joke misrepresents the school she will, perhaps, do lasting harm. If +she is hypercritical--and there is nothing so contagious as +criticism--she influences people in the direction of her thought; she +sets a current of criticism in motion. A student frequently gives vent +to an opinion that is only half-baked--it is well, by the way, to make +zwieback of all our opinions before we pass them around as edible--about +courses and instructors. She does not realize that some opinions to be +worth anything must be the result of a long process of baking, that a +nibble from the corner of a four months' or nine months' course will +not, however understandingly it may be Fletcherized, tell you whether +the course is going to be fruit cake, meringue or common soda crackers. +She may think that she herself is so unimportant that what she says +can't matter, or she may not mean what she says and be merely letting +off steam. Nevertheless her influence is exerted. Some one showed an old +lady, who had never been known to say anything in the least critical of +any human being, the picture of a very fat man prominent in public life. +She looked at it a moment, and then said sweetly: "My, isn't he plump!" +If only there were more old and young ladies like that dear soul! + +There is another kind of conversation which may not be ill-natured and +yet does harm. Idle gossiping, talking about things that are not worth +while or speculating about affairs which are not our business and of +which we know little or nothing. Akin to this is fashionably slangy +conversation concerning the latest thing in books, magazine articles, +trivial plays. For even the "tone" of school or college conversation a +student is responsible. She can make her school seem cheap or +cultivated. The remarks which visitors overhear as they go from room to +room or from building to building are likely to indicate the "tone" of +an institution. A catalogue may say all it pleases about a school but in +the end the school is judged by the women it educates and sends out, +even as a tree is known by its fruit. Cultivated, strong women are worth +more in advertisement than all the printed material in the world, +however laudatory. + +When a girl has received everything her Alma Mater has to give, she has +no right to be untrue to its fundamental aims and ideals, or to +misrepresent it in any way, either by what she says or by her own +behaviour. Every student in a large institution is in a sense a +pensioner. No student can pay for what is given to her. Is it not a poor +return for her to be reflecting dishonour rather than honour upon her +school? + +There is a certain social selfishness in the way some students take +their opportunities for granted without realizing that there are +thousands and hundreds of thousands of girls who would give all that +they possess for a tithe of such riches. Also, because of the sacrifice +which is being made for them at home girls are selfish in taking their +school or college life carelessly. The school has to bear much of the +responsibility for the individual failure. But of this the student who +is failing rarely thinks. Parents hold an institution to blame if it +does not do for their child what they expect it to do, when it may be +the girl who is at fault. + +In the use she makes of her portion of inheritance, in the gift the +school bestows on the student, there is a large social question +involved. The school gives her of its wealth, the result of the +accumulation of years and of the civic or philanthropic spirit of many +men and women. This, if the girl's sense of responsibility is what it +should be, she feels bound to increase and hand on. It is the old +_noblesse oblige_ under new conditions of privilege. + +While she is still in school the girl discharges part of this obligation +by realizing what is best for her school as an institution. A college or +a big school is no place for vocal soloists. Its life is the life of an +orchestra, of many instruments playing together. The student's sense of +responsibility is shown by her attitude towards the corporate government +and administration of the school. Instead of regarding the laws of her +school as natural enemies, chafing against them, making fun of them or +evading them if possible, she has a duty in fulfilling them. The +consciousness of this responsibility is the very heart and soul of the +student self-government movement, for it recognizes not only the +obligation placed upon its members by an institution, but also the wide +influence one girl may have on others. Student government knows that +upper class girls can determine the spirit of the under classes. Even +looking at the matter from the lightest point of view, respectful and +law-abiding ways are always well-bred ways. + +When a student becomes an alumna she can discharge a large part of her +great responsibility by realizing that it is not any longer so much a +question of what her school can give her as of what she can give to her +school. One thing she can always give it--that is, kindly judgment. And +she can acknowledge that her ideas of what her Alma Mater is after her +own school-days may not be correct. The school, sad to say, is sometimes +placed in the position of the kindly old farmer who, hearing others call +a certain man a liar, said: "Waal now, I wouldn't say he wuz a _liar_. +That's a bit harsh. I'd say he handled the truth mighty careless-like." +Schools find that some of their alumnae handle the truth mighty +careless-like. + +While she is still a student a girl's service to her school lies largely +in her daily work, the mental muscle she puts into all that she does in +the classroom and studies out of it. If because of her and a multiple of +many girls like her, the college does not possess that _sine qua non_ of +all the higher mental life, an intellectual atmosphere, it is the +student's and her multiple's fault. "You may lead a horse to water but +you cannot make it drink," may be an old adage, but it would be hard to +improve upon it. You may set before students a veritable Thanksgiving +feast of things intellectual, but if they have no eagerness, no appetite +for them, the feast remains untouched. Energy and hunger of the mind, +not the anxious hosts, will in the end decide whether that feast is or +is not to be eaten. + +The school considers not only scholarship but also the sum of all that +it is, its culture, its attainment, its moral force, as these elements +are expressed in its living members, its students and its teachers--in +short, its idealism. Idealism is having one's life governed by ideals, +and an ideal is a perfect conception of that which is good, beautiful +and true. If the girl's life is not governed by ideals, how, then, can +the school hope to have its idealism live or grow? Frequently students +think of the ideals of college or school as of something outside +themselves, more or less intangible, with which they may or may not be +concerned. Students cannot do their institution a greater injury than by +harbouring such a thought, for if their sense of responsibility will +only make the idea of the school personal, then indeed will the school +be like that house upon which the rains descended and the winds blew but +it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. + + + + +III + +FRIENDSHIPS + + +Homesickness and friendships, how much and how vivid a part they play in +the first year, or years, of school life! An old coloured physician was +asked about a certain patient who was very ill. "I'll tell you de truf," +was the reply. "Widout any perception, Phoebe Pamela may die and she may +get well; dere's considerable danger bofe ways." I will tell you one +truth about the first year of school life: friends there will surely be, +and homesickness there is likely to be,--there is "considerable danger +both ways." + +Even if a girl has never been away from home before, it is possible that +she will not suffer from homesickness. It is probable, however, that the +new surroundings in which the girl finds herself, and the separation +from those who are the centre of her personal life, will bring on an +attack of this most painful malady. It takes time to fit comfortably +into the new surroundings, and meanwhile everything is strange. +Homesickness is not to be laughed at, but it must be less deadly, less +fatal than some people think it, or there would not be so many +recoveries. Girls often weep when they enter school, and then after the +long dreary years are really over, lived through, and the poor forlorn +freshman is metamorphosed into the senior, they weep again. Is it not +strange that these seniors who wept on entering school should weep also +when leaving it? It looks in the end as if Phoebe Pamela were sure to +get well. Yet the effort to get well requires a fine effort at +self-control,--an effort every girl is the better for making, although +it may take everything plucky in a girl to "back up" her intention to +remain in school. The earlier the student considers this question of +homesickness the better. Let her face its possibilities before she goes +away from home, and make up her mind, if she is attacked, resolutely to +overcome it. If it comes, let her never give up the struggle, for, by +giving in, she will only lose ground in every way, morally, socially, +intellectually. By her cowardice she will part with what she can never +recover later. + +Many temptations follow in the wake of homesickness, and the most +serious of all is to make friends too rapidly. It may be laid down as a +rule that a friendship formed on this stop-gap principle, and too +rapidly, is not likely to endure. Such a friendship is not a sane or a +wise relation, for friendship is like scholarship: if it is worth +anything at all it comes slowly. Impulsive, quickly forced friendships +are not wise investments; the very fact that they come so quickly +implies an unbalanced state of idealizing, or lack of self-control. This +does not mean that one is not to form pleasant acquaintances from the +very beginning of the school life. Acquaintanceship always holds +something in reserve and is the safest prelude to a deeper and more +vital friendship. + +There is no denying that there is great temptation to violent +admirations and attractions in school. In the first place, in school or +college the girl is brought into contact with a large circle of people +who are immensely interesting to her. The whole atmosphere is full of +novelty, of the unusual. Some of the students and teachers whom she +meets for the first time represent a broader experience, it may be, than +her own home life has given her. They are often new types and new types +are always interesting. + +I shall say nothing of the idealism of friendship--it plays its part in +other books. It would seem sometimes as if almost too much emphasis had +been placed upon the making of friendships in school,--friendship which +is, after all, but a by-product, the most valuable it is true, +nevertheless a by-product of the life. Wholly practical are the tests of +friendship which I shall give. In the first place a friend is too +absorbing who takes all of one's interest to the exclusion of +everything else: there should be interest in other people, other +activities as well as in one's work. Such a friendship can only make a +girl forget for what she has come to school. The new relation which +disposes one to look with less respect and affection upon one's own +people and home--and they, be it remembered, have stood the most +valuable test of all, the test of time--cannot be a good influence. It +may be said in general that an association which is developing the less +fine traits in one's character, giving emphasis to the less worthy +sides, should be relinquished immediately, even at the cost of much +heartache. The heartache will be only temporary; the bad influence might +become permanent. On the other hand, since friendship is giving as well +as taking, one does well to consider the fact that if one's own part in +it does not tell for good, there is just as much reason for stopping the +friendship where it is. Some of these associations--and this is a hard +saying, I know--which seem everything at the time are nothing, as the +years will prove. A girl idealizes, and idealizes those who are not +worthy. Inevitably the day comes when she laughs at herself,--if she +does not do worse and pity herself for having been such a goose. + +Only a few of the friendships made in school are destined to endure. One +of the foremost of those that last is founded on similarity of interest. +Perhaps it is the girl with whom one has worked side by side in the +laboratory,--a relation formed slowly and on a permanent basis. Many of +the best of friends have come together through community of interests, +and this is a type of friendship for which men have a greater gift than +women. + +There is still another type which develops because of some conspicuously +noble or fine quality which proves attractive. Hero worship, this, which +enlarges one's self through the admiration given to another. Then there +is the friendship based on a purely personal attraction, with mutual +respect and self-respect as its dedicated corner-stone. This does not +mean that one cannot see any faults in the friend, or know that one's +own are seen, without losing affection. There is always something flimsy +and insecure about a friendship that simply idealizes. Any relation +should be all the stronger for a frank acknowledgment of its +imperfections. If a girl cares enough she will be willing to admit her +own faults and wish to make herself more worthy to be a friend. + +And, finally, there is what might be called the lend-a-hand +friendship,--the relation that springs into existence because of the +need which is seen in another. It is not fair to make a packhorse of +one's friend or to turn one's self into the leaning variety of plant, +but it is fair and wise and right, if one is strong enough to accomplish +the end in view, to lend a hand to another girl who is not making the +best of herself. + +Have a good time but do not swear eternal allegiance in this first year +to anybody, however wonderful she may seem. Hold yourself in reserve, if +for no other reason, then on account of the old friends at home, whether +they be kin or no-kin, for they have been true. And remember, as I have +said before, friendship is like scholarship and must by its nature come +slowly. + + + + +IV + +THE STUDENT'S ROOM + + +There has been a general improvement in student rooms, yet many rooms +to-day have altogether too much in them: too many pictures, too many +banners, too much furniture, too many hangings. The great fault of most +rooms is this overcrowding. If we were only heroic enough to make a +bonfire of nine-tenths of all they contain we should see suddenly +revealed possibilities for something like the ideal room. + +One serious and obvious objection to the overcrowding of rooms is the +hygienic. I am tempted to say that this is the most important objection: +indeed, since health is more important than wealth, I will say so. A +girl has neither the time nor the ability to keep so many articles in a +room clean: and while she is busy attending to her studies, some +cherished ornaments are not only laying up dust for the future, as a +more regenerate life will lay up treasures, but also breeding germs, +perhaps collecting the very germs which will take this girl away from +school or college. Besides, bric-a-brac not only gathers dust and breeds +germs but also wearies the nerves. It makes one tired to see so many +things about, and tired to be held responsible for them. Without +realizing it, we resist the amount of space they occupy and in their +place want the air and sunshine. Subconsciously, most of us long to get +rid of our bric-a-brac and then pull down the draperies that keep out +the sunlight. The simpler the window draperies in a room, the more +easily washed, the better and more attractive. For wholesome +attractiveness there is no fabric that can excel a flood of warm +sunshine. Any girl or woman who has curtains which she must protect from +strong light by drawing down the shades is guilty of a household sin +whose greatness she cannot know. That same sunshine, freely admitted, +will do more to cleanse a house than all the soap, all the brooms, and +even all the vacuum cleaners ever invented. + +The so-called beauty of a room should always give way before the hygiene +of a room. Not only should the room be sensibly furnished so that it may +have plenty of air and light, but closets should not contain articles of +furniture which belong where the air can reach them. There is a +difference between a room that is not orderly and one that is not clean. +A room that contains unclean articles in drawers or closets, unclean +floors, unclean rugs and hangings and unclean walls, should not be +tolerated for an instant. If a girl turns a combination bedroom and +study in school or college into a kitchen, if an ice-cream freezer +occupies all the foreground of this place she calls home, and +chafing-dishes with cream bottles, sardine tins, cracker boxes, paper +bags full of stale biscuits, fruit skins, dish-cloths and +grease-spotted walls, all the background, it is impossible to have a +clean room to live in. + +The Golden Rule applies to rooms as well as to human beings and should +read, "Do unto a room as you would it should do unto you." And not only +for the sake of health should this Golden Rule for Rooms be observed but +also for the sake of the college or school. The room that belongs to us +only for a time should be as thoughtfully cared for as if it were our +own personal property. There is something inconsistent, isn't there, in +educating a girl in high thinking and fine ideals, if she is willing to +live in a room that for uncleanliness many a woman in some crowded +quarter of a city would consider a disgrace? Such contradiction in mind +and surrounding is out of harmony with all one's ideal for a +gentlewoman. + +Not only beauty is restful, peace-giving and peace-bringing, but so, +also, are neatness and order. Orderliness helps to fit one for work. +There is undoubtedly some connection between surroundings and one's +mental state. In themselves disorder and confusion are irritating. The +sight of a dirty child crying in the doorway of an untidy house suggests +some connection between the wretchedness of the child and the squalor of +the home. I often think of William Morris, the great craftsman and +charming poet, who had much at heart the happiness of all people, +especially the poor, and his exclamation, "My eye, how I do love +tidiness!" To him, to the artist, it was, as it is, beautiful. George +Eliot had to put even the pins in her cushion into some neat arrangement +before she could sit down to write. Disorder wastes not only one's +feelings and health, it also wastes one's time, for a lot of this +commodity may be lost in looking for books, wraps, gloves and other +things which are not put away properly. + +School ought to be a training for the life afterwards. That is why we go +to school, isn't it? Why should a girl indulge herself in habits which +will make against her usefulness in the life of the home or in whatever +circumstance she may be? There is a certain disciplinary value in order. +Every great military school has recognized this. Laxness in the care of +one's room may mean the habit of laxness in other and more important +ways. Disorderliness indicates a certain tendency in character, and if a +girl allows that sort of thing to go on she is very likely to show it in +other ways. Untidiness in any of one's personal habits--and what could +be more personal than a room?--should be taken up and corrected even as +one attempts to correct any weak point in one's character. + +Do you know what is always--that is, if it is in it at all--the most +beautiful thing in a room? It is something which the Creator meant all +mankind should have, rich and poor, old and young alike; it is something +beyond the buying price of any wealth. It is the sunshine, more +beautiful, more valuable than expensive hangings that shut it out. +Perhaps it is partly because it is inexpensive, God-given to all people, +that housewives frequently draw their curtains against it. If they had +to pay more for it than for carpets and hangings, you may be very sure +that a great many husbands and fathers would be overworking in order +that their families might buy a whole display of sunshine instead of +tapestries. + +Do you know what is the most helpful thing you can have in your room, +the article without which you cannot live in it at all, no matter how +fine the rugs and bric-a-brac may be? _Air!_ Air is the one thing which +is almost instantly and absolutely indispensable to human life, for we +breathe it in not only through our noses but also all over our skin. +Every hundredth fraction of an inch of our bodies is feeding upon air, +and the purer that air and the cooler the better and more invigorating +food it provides for the skin surface as well as for the lungs. The +mind, for it is housed in the body and its tenant, must depend for its +vigour or tone upon the fresh air in school or college study. Even a +very good head cannot work well set upon an anaemic body which is +suffocating for want of good clean air. If you wish to do your best work +and keep well, the first thing to do is not to open your books but to +open your windows. After that the books and a reasonable number of hours +of continuous study. American audience halls, pullmans, ordinary coaches +and public buildings of all sorts, especially libraries, are notoriously +overheated and unventilated. It is the intelligent American girl and +woman who, beginning with the home, will correct this evil. The schools +are, on the whole, in the forefront of the fresh air movement, +especially the public schools. As every one knows, the public schools +are establishing open air rooms for their children who need them. +Although there is much to be said about what a room should contain to +make it attractive, it should never be forgotten that sunshine and +fresh air are more beautiful and more priceless than anything else which +it can hold. + +The first object in furnishing a bare room is to make it +habitable,--that is useful. Take the kitchen, for example, and +usefulness is practically the sole object in fitting it up. And the +curious thing about it all is that it cannot help being beautiful in a +homely, motherly way, for it exemplifies one of the strongest elements +of all beauty and that is _service_. The kitchen may be a very humble +place but if more women would make a study of their kitchens and then +take thought, it is likely that the rest of their houses would be in +much better taste. A thing that is useful, even as with some well-worn +homely old woman who has led a good and helpful life, always acquires a +beauty of its own. It may be hard for girls to see this but it is there, +and in time it will be seen. Just as it is essentially more beautiful to +have a clean, strong body rather than a pretty face and a body that is +not what it ought to be, so is it more truly beautiful to have articles +of furnishing in our rooms, in study or kitchen, that are of +indispensable genuine use. + +Take the gaudy ambitious study one girl has made for herself. It is +defaced by the presence of articles of no value at all in the world of +needs; there is nothing in it that is genuinely beautiful and nothing +that is substantially useful. The furniture is almost too cheap to stand +on its own legs, and the colours would certainly never wash and not even +wear. This room is a junk-shop of new, useless, unattractive objects of +no virtue,--in short, a most unpleasant place in which to live. Have you +ever considered what gives even the simplest clothes for distinctive +occasions a beauty of their own? It is fitness. And it is this same +fitness which tells so much in furnishing a room. It might be said of +certain dresses that they "go together," that is, they are harmonious, +they belong together, they have, like some people, the beauty of +agreeing with themselves, and a very desirable sort of beauty it is. +Just as clothes are an expression of the people who wear them, so are +rooms an expression of the people who live in them. No well-bred girl +cares for tawdry, cheap, over-ornamented clothes. She is made +uncomfortable even at the very thought of having to wear such things. +She should suffer just as much discomfort on the score of a cheaply +furnished (and by "cheap" here I do not mean inexpensive--whitewash and +deal intelligently used may create a beautiful room), overcrowded and +over-ornamented study. + +What is the meaning of the room which is your school centre for the time +being? It is an intimate place where a girl may have her friends and +good times; it is a retreat and it is a workshop. It is the girl's home +centre away from home, the place from which she will lead her life, in +its expression attractive or unattractive, like her or unlike her. To +intend that this room in beauty, in cleanliness, in order, shall be the +best expression possible of the girl's best self is the ideal to set for +the school study. + +Get good materials and good colours. They need not be expensive. +Remember that colours have to go together just as furniture has to do +so. To have styles of furniture that clash or colours that do not +harmonize will negative any care which the student may have taken in the +selection of individual pieces or materials. To have too much with which +to fill the room is a good deal worse than not to have enough. Much +better it is to have a few things which are just what they should be +than to have too many and those undesirable. To get a desk, if a girl +can afford to do so, that she will be glad to keep her life long is a +good beginning, and a comfortable chair that will be made doubly +precious by all the school associations woven about it. And let her be +careful about pictures for her walls and not crowd them with cheap and +"fashionable" trash. Above all, let her remember that good taste, +simplicity, careful selection, will do more to assure her the possession +of an attractive room than all the money in the world can do. + + + + +V + +THE TOOLS OF STUDY AND THEIR USE + + +A girl ought to take up her study with the same sense of pleasure as +that with which a strong workman enters his shop, knowing his tools and +able to use them. Having good tools and knowing them is certainly part +of the joy of work. And what are the tools the student must use? Well, +for the average student, the one that is first and most important is +_Good Health_. The mind is not as clear if the body is not in good +health, clean within and without. + +The second set of tools consists of a different sort of equipment and +apparatus, tools with which a girl must become familiar and which she +must know how to use--_Books_, _Library_, _Laboratory_ and _Classroom_. +Why shouldn't a student be just as able to use her books as a carpenter +his plane or saw? One couldn't expect a fumbling carpenter or a clumsy +seamstress to accomplish much work or good work. There are times when a +girl need not claim to know anything but she must, at least, know where +to find what she wants to know. This is the first lesson in the use of +books; without knowledge of them or love for them, the student can't get +along at all. And beyond this somewhat mechanical use of books there is +a deeper and larger lesson to learn; to know that a book is not merely a +page of print where information may be sought but that it is a mirror in +which one finds the world, its wisdom, its joy, its sorrow, its divine +adventures. Robert Southey, the friend of the poet Coleridge, has +written beautifully on the subject in a little poem called "His Books." + +Another tool in the student's workshop is _Previously Acquired +Knowledge_: that is, what one has in one's mind. Some people's minds are +junk-shops. But a junk-shop is better than an empty shop. This +previously acquired knowledge, if used rightly, becomes the tool of +later courses, the servant of later years. Our stored-up facts--many of +them--have not been an end in themselves. How could they be? For +example, such things as paradigms and formulae and long lists of names +and dates, are tools pure and simple; but the student in the workshop +must have them or she will be like a carpenter who had much to do but on +coming to his bench found no tools there and so was idle all day. + +A fourth tool for the girl in her study--one that cannot be deliberately +acquired, as information or apparatus or even health can be--is +_Experience_. This is the most valuable tool of all--one's experience of +travel, with people, in responsibility, in love, in joy, in sorrow, in +any kind of work. The girls who are the most interesting in the +classroom are the girls who are not contenting themselves with apparatus +alone but whose minds are flexible with experience, who bring all of +themselves, their life, to bear upon the work. A certain well-known +minister had prepared a sermon for his usual Sunday engagement, but +half an hour before service another text came into his mind. He could +not forget it, so he jotted down notes and preached the new sermon +instead of the one that had been prepared. This sermon made a great +impression on all who heard it, and the minister himself said of it that +some people would declare that it had been thought out in half an hour, +but that really he had put fifty years of his life into it. The sharper +and better the tools, the finer the character of the work. If experience +has been observed and retained, and previously acquired knowledge is +ready for service, and hand and mind know how to use books, and the +student is in good condition physically, then the excellence of that +girl's work in the class and out can be guaranteed. + +And now what are the uses of the work which these tools can accomplish +for us? Coleridge wrote in his poem, "Work Without Hope," + + "Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, + And Hope without an object cannot live." + +The only hope that can last is hope that is not wholly centred in +ourselves, but has some thought for others and our service to them. Work +devoid of inspiration and ideals, work done merely for one's self, study +pursued with only a degree as an end or for the sake of "pay" as a +teacher, turns school and college into a market-place, a place of +barter, where in exchange for so much energy and so much money we may +acquire a certain position and livelihood. Only that work in which one +has the consciousness of being, or becoming, useful to others, brings +joy that will endure. What do we think of the minister who is without a +sense of consecration? The responsibility of the student or the teacher +is quite as large, the opportunity for service quite as wonderful. One +of our greatest English poets, William Wordsworth, exclaimed: "I wish to +be considered as a teacher, or as nothing!" The calling of the teacher, +of the student, has through all time been thought a high one,--one that +has drawn to itself fine and unselfish spirits. The life of the student, +no matter how necessary to the world its market-places are, never has +been and never can be a life of barter, of trade. + +The wealth that comes to the student should not be an exclusive +possession. It may be bought at a large price but it can never be sold. +It must be given away, or shared, for it is wealth which carries with it +a sense of social responsibility. It is enjoyed for a double purpose, +not only for the sake of the happiness it brings to us but also for the +sake of the joy or help it may bring to others. Millions of girls covet +the opportunities that come to a few in school and college, many of them +who far more greatly deserve this privilege than we. Indeed, what have +most of us done to merit the right to all that we have? The only way in +which we can show our sense of justice is by taking our privileges as +something to share with others. The girl who has health, pleasant +surroundings and work worth doing, has all a human being has a right to +expect. She ought always to be happy, always rejoicing in her work and +always eager to divide her wealth with others. + +The redeeming feature of royalties has been their sense of +responsibility for their subjects! In great disasters, or calamities, +their first thought has been to go to the relief of the people. The King +and Queen of Italy are noble examples of this courage and unselfishness. +In America the only "privileged" class is the highly educated. It is +they from whom _noblesse oblige_ must be expected, who will show in all +emergencies their sense of responsibility, who will share all that they +have with others. A girl will be happy, she will grow, she will be a +leverage power for good with those among whom she lives, only in so far +as she uses her tools of knowledge in the service of others, and shapes +all that she does towards some humanly useful end. + + + + +VI + +THE JOY OF WORK + + +If one is in good condition, the exercise of any physical power is a +pleasure. It is a pleasure to run, to sing, to dance, to climb +mountains, to row, to swim; it is a pleasure to shout for nothing else +than for the pure joy of letting off surplus energy. In the world of +animals, the horse and dog, to take only two illustrations, abound in +this enjoyment of physical energy. The horse paws the ground and snorts +and whinnies and loves the fastest road pace you will let him take. The +dog leaps in the air, jumps fences, barks, and races around madly, +sometimes after nothing at all. + +But the highest power of which human beings are possessed is not the +power of the body. It is the power of the mind. Yet many of us +throughout our school and college life not only do not wish to use this +power but even rebel against it. "What," some girls are saying to +themselves, "enjoy the work of a classroom? Who ever heard of such a +thing!" Yes, just that. And if we don't enjoy the work of a classroom, +even an indifferently good one, there is something the matter with us, +or the subject should not have a place on any curriculum. Every mental +exercise should be full of the keenest pleasure, of intellectual +pleasure. + +Our schools and colleges to-day are very much richer in the joy of +everything else--in beautiful surroundings, in freer and fuller athletic +and outdoor life, in a more varied and delightful social life--than they +were fifty or even twenty-five years ago. But it is a question whether +the joy of intellectual work has kept pace with this joy of life in its +other aspects. Sometimes it almost seems as if intellectual eagerness +were in inverse ratio to the ease and fullness of the opportunities we +have. At least many fair-minded girls have seen the predicament in +which the teacher is placed. The man who makes a vase for the use and +pleasure of others may rejoice not only in his own workmanship but also +in the thought of the service and delight he is giving to others. That +is, his pleasure is twofold. The teacher who is deprived of some +response of joy in the work he is doing is a workman deprived of his +rights. To those girls who are thinking of becoming teachers this should +be a sobering thought. + +Missionary teachers, with their students eager to get anything they have +to give, are not to be pitied. Our schools and their groups of teachers +in isolated and uncultivated parts of the West and South are not to be +pitied. Even if education is with them shorn of much that gives it +charm, the opportunities that come are prized. Students and teachers +have intellectual joy in the work they do, and without that the greatest +university in the world might as well, or better, be a district school, +for then the work done would be truly useful. It is the teacher who has +to put much of her time and energy into making a subject superficially +attractive enough for a student to elect it, who is to be pitied. A +classroom full of blase girls whose minds need to be tickled before +there is the least expression of intellectual mirth upon their faces, is +an ordeal not lightly to be met except by the professional joker or +academic tumbler. + +Girls often become impatient with themselves, and that is one reason why +there is so little joy in work for them. Think of Helen Keller as a +famous example of this joy in work under the most adverse circumstances. +What could be greater than her handicap? Shut away from the world by +deaf ears and blind eyes and, for a while, by inability to speak, she +has nevertheless shown a keenness of pleasure and intellectual +acquisition that shames us who have all our senses in their fullness. +Think of her patient, unremitting delving, of the digging up, up, up to +get to the light which most human beings are privileged to enjoy with +no effort at all! The mind that accepts this wealth with no thought, no +sense of responsibility, is a trifler with riches that are about us for +God-given purposes. Think of the way in which Stevenson and John Richard +Green and George Eliot rose above their ill-health and did their work in +despite of it! Perhaps some of us have superb health and have never made +any conscious effort to use that gift for a high end. + +Girls grow impatient with themselves when they wouldn't be impatient +with a little child. Yet the mind has to be trained even as we train a +child; it has to be brought back and back, again and again to the thing +to be done. After the asking of a simple question, oftentimes a whole +class will look confounded, because they have some strange notion that +thinking means getting hold of something very far away and difficult to +grasp. All that the first effort in thought denotes is taking a hold of +that which is nearest and following it up. It is the old story of +Theseus following his clue of thread, the slender thing in his hand, by +which he was guided out of the labyrinth and to the broad sea of +adventure. + +There are difficulties in the doing of any work that is worth while. It +would be a poor adviser who painted the student's way as a path of +roses. First and foremost, one's own inertia interferes with the joy of +work. Some one has defined the lazy man as one who doesn't want to do +anything at all, and the indolent man as one who doesn't want to do +anything that he doesn't want to do. Then, too, there are certain +allurements and distractions in school life which are a hindrance to our +joy in an intellectual task. And there is the very natural +disinclination to the drudgery involved in all hard labour. No work that +is worth while is without drudgery. Lack of encouragement from older +people is one serious difficulty some girls have to meet. There is a +type of older person who is sure that using the mind will harm that +precious article. And, finally, there is our inexperience, our own lack +of comprehension, our own purposeless and formless lives. + +Joy in work should not be altogether conditional upon one's sense of +ease or upon what is called success. Seeming success is not always +success. Often the most valuable lessons come from failures. Robert +Browning, the poet, speaks again and again of the noble uses of failure. +Let me quote one stanza from one of his greatest poems, "Rabbi Ben +Ezra": + + "Then, welcome each rebuff + That turns earth's smoothness rough, + Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go! + Be our joys three-parts pain! + Strive and hold cheap the strain; + Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!" + +You can't learn to walk if you haven't tumbled down a good deal in doing +it. It is often failure that means ultimate success. Of course if a +girl keeps on saying: "Oh, what's the use?" about everything she does +and all her failures, there isn't any use. In weak moments that sort of +thing can be said of every great and worth-while experience, of love, of +joy, of sorrow, of work. But a girl who allows herself to take this +attitude is a "quitter," and doesn't know the first principles of +playing the game. + +Part of the joy of work consists in the mere delight of intellectual +exercise, delight in thinking a thing out. That is the way we develop +ourselves mentally, just as we develop ourselves physically through +sports. The mind that thinks is capable of deeper and broader thinking. +Thinking begets thought. A muscle that is left without exercise softens +and finally atrophies. The same is true of mental muscle. If this +strength is left unused it is gradually lost and cannot be recovered. +Mental concentration, the thought that is so strenuous that everything +else is shut out, strengthens the mind. In this wonderful old world no +new land has been discovered without physical effort. There is no +country of the mind which can be entered without a similar effort. + +And there is another and very important joy in work--the sense that one +is being equipped for the work of the world, for usefulness. The mere +feeling that one's powers are being developed brings joy with it. There +is still another joy which every one of us must covet--the sense of +entering into the intellectual riches of the world, its wonders of +science and art and letters, with the feeling that we have a part in a +great treasure, a treasure which, unlike gold and precious stones, men +have never been able to gauge or to exhaust. Such gold and silver as we +take from that adventure cannot be lost or stolen from us. It remains +with us to the very last, and with it no life can ever become really +poor, or dull, or old. + + + + +VII + +FAIR-PLAY + + +Few students realize how closely a classroom resembles a commonwealth. +To most of us it seems a place into which we go to have a certain amount +got out of us, or put into us. This conception of the classroom is +unworthy the modern girl who has, otherwise, a fine understanding of the +meaning of team-play, of playing all together for a common end, a game +or a republic united by a tacit compact. + +Does the average student feel responsibility for the game of basket-ball +or lawn hockey which she is playing? The first thought of the girl in +answering this is that it was a foolish question even to ask. Of course +she does. But for her classroom? No, that is a different sort of game, +in which the responsibility lies all on the shoulders of the instructor. +It is a one-woman or a one-man game, and very often the students are +but spectators, cheering or indifferent, approving or disapproving. The +pupil does not hold herself accountable for this game; it is the teacher +who makes the class "go," who extracts from each student the information +bottled up in her, together, often, with a good deal of carbon +dioxide,--a process difficult and hard as drawing a swollen cork out of +a soda-water bottle. Finally, with a sort of noble rebound of effort, +the exhausted instructor is to put a vast deal of information back into +the girl before the student claps her book together and rushes pell-mell +to the next classroom, there to be similarly uncorked, if the teacher +has learned the art and her mental muscle is sufficient. + +Such a conception of a classroom is not fair-play. The teacher, like the +coxswain of a college crew, may have rowed over the same course and she +may know it well enough to cover it in the dark; she may have won +distinction upon it, may be the fittest person in all the states of the +Union to cover it again, but if she has not a good or a winning crew to +coach, she will never win any race, even the shortest. No instructor has +shoulders equal to such a multiple burden as coaching, steering and +doing all the rowing, too. To play any classroom game in this spirit is +to be dead weight for every one else embarked upon the same adventure. +It is not fair-play. + +By such an attitude on the part of merely one student in the class, +every other student associated with her loses, for the girl who will not +lift her own weight the others must carry. If that student were playing +in that spirit on the basket-ball team, do you suppose that the coach, +or the captain, would let her stay on? Not for a moment; off she would +go and very much humiliated, too. If it is a discussion, the touch and +go of the whole recitation will depend upon the presence of the +team-play, or fair-play, spirit in the course. The instructor may do her +best but if there is no play-the-game in that classroom, she might just +as well fold up her tent, like the proverbial Arab, "and silently steal +away." It is not that any recitation need be a brilliant affair--if most +of them depended upon that for existence they would scarcely exist at +all--but there must be an honest, earnest, responsible effort to make +the best of the hour. Good will inevitably come from the clarifying +effort to express thought, and the leading from thought to thought as +the work goes forward. + +The basket-ball team cannot win, or even play, unless all the members +are playing together. Each one is needed despite the fact that she may +not be one of the chief or best players. Just so does the class need all +its students. If a girl is only average, it is not fair-play for her to +sit back and do nothing; neither is it fair-play for her to monopolize +the attention if she happens to be more than commonly able. It is not +fair-play to laugh at the girl who is at a disadvantage, or to appear +bored. It is unfair to the individual, to the classroom in general and +to the instructor. The least she can do in this class game is to give +her whole and her courteous attention. + +Think of all the practice games in which the average athletic team takes +part. What can be said for the student who comes into the classroom +unprepared to lift her own weight, unprepared to help others? When one +comes to think about it from the fair-play point of view there is +nothing to be said for her. Nor is it fair-play for a girl to allow +herself to get into such a state physically that she is unable to study. +How often and often have fudge-heads--due to an application to too much +sugar and not to books--sitting row after row killed a school or even a +whole college! Before a class tempered by fudge and not by wholesome +outdoor living and conscientious devotion to work, the teacher might +better put away her notes and close her book. Nothing can happen through +or over that barricade of fudge-heads. + +And it is not fair-play to cram because of time lost, or for any other +cause. The only end of cramming is that the student soon forgets all +that has been learned. Alone by normal, slow acquisition and all the +associations formed in such learning can information come to us to stay. +It may not be particularly wicked to cram if one has plenty of time to +waste, but it is foolish unless one has. + +There is a kind of gossip in which a girl takes part, made up of +snap-shot judgments of the classroom, idle carping about some little +unimportant point, expression of wounded vanity and unfair talk, which +may mean a tremendous loss of prestige for a really admirable course; it +may mean that girls, who would naturally go into it because of their +liking or gift for the work, do not go or go in a critical and +unsympathetic attitude. If there is a complaint to be made about any +course it should be made to the responsible person concerned, and that +is usually the teacher. Anything else is not fair-play. In the +classroom the instructor is the "coach" of the game and she is the +person with whom to talk. It is needless to say that if a girl is +putting nothing into a course she cannot expect to get anything out of +it, or to complain because things do not "go." If she wants them to "go" +why does she not help, and have the profit of taking something away from +the work as interest on her effort? A girl gets dividends only from work +into which she has put some brain-capital. + +And the people at home? Is it fair-play to them, when they are making +sacrifices of money or of happiness to keep the daughter at school, for +her not to put good work into her study and play her part faithfully in +the classroom game? So many things have to be taken into consideration +of which we are not likely to think. There is the girl herself, the +other girls with whom she is working, the instructor, the people at +home, the institution that is providing an expensive equipment or plant +through the philanthropic efforts of others or the taxation of the +public. If the girl does not play her part fairly, there is a rather big +reckoning against her, is there not? + + + + +VIII + +THE RIGHT SORT OF LEISURE + + +The right sort of leisure ought to help as much in the development of +the girl as the right sort of work. If it is leisure worthy the name, it +will bring refreshment; it will not leave one physically and mentally +jaded. Neither mind nor body should ever be exhausted because of the way +in which freedom has been used. Leisure is as important to work as work +is to leisure. A person who has not worked cannot appreciate freedom, +while the one who has had no leisure is not best fitted for work. "All +work and no play makes Jack a dull boy;" it is just as true that it +makes Jill a dull girl. The girl who works all the time, not realizing +the importance of free moments, becomes fagged in body and mind. She is +a tool that is dull, and would do well to remember that even a machine +is better for an occasional rest. + +Some mistaken ideas about leisure have grown up, making it difficult to +say anything on this subject without being misunderstood. Stories--whole +books of them--about "spreads" and more or less lawless escapades in +school and college, have given girls and other people, too, the +impression that this is the sort of thing school leisure is. Nothing +could be farther from the truth. Midnight feasts may occur in school, +and most of us, unless we are too good to be average girls, have taken +part in them. But such stories are vicious, for they misrepresent the +life by suggesting that eating inferior and unwholesome food is the real +freedom most girls desire. There is something repulsive in the very +thought. Feasts that leave a girl with a coated tongue and a dull head +and Monday "blues" do not fairly represent school or college leisure. +Good times that interfere with good work have no place in ideally free +hours. But, indeed, the odours from the chafing-dishes do suggest that +some of the girls are trying to put into literal execution the wish of +a great German professor in Oxford. The professor, eager to try a dish +he saw on the hotel bill of fare, but with his English and German verbs +not quite disentangled, said to the waiter, "Hereafter I vish to become +a Velsh Rabbit." Perhaps becoming a Welsh rarebit represents the height +of some girls' ideals, but this is hard to believe. + +The possession of leisure depends to a great extent upon the will power. +The girl who has never learned to say "No," who has no power of +selection, cannot expect to have any hours for her own use. She is +quarry for every idle suggestion, every social engagement, every +executive "job" which pursues her. The girl who engages all her time +socially cannot have a sense of leisure, for she turns her playtime into +but another schedule, to be met as inexorably as her academic courses. +Her days become a formidable array of "dates," often stretching ahead +for weeks. Even if girls are not determined to have it for themselves, +they should give to others some opportunity for freedom, and should +respect their possible desire for solitude. The girl who engages or +annexes every particle of time, her own or that of some one else with +whom she comes in contact, is making leisure an impossibility. The girl +who leaves no margin cannot hope for even the spirit of freedom. + +Many students excuse themselves for much executive work in school and +college on the ground that it is done in their leisure. That girl is a +goose who allows herself through any sense of self-importance, or +irreplaceable usefulness, to be so involved in executive work that all +other aspects of her school life are slighted. If she refuses to be +swamped by such "jobs" she can have the happiness of reflecting that +probably some girls who need the training far more than she does are +doing the work. To every girl will come the opportunity right along for +"managing"; club and social work will bring it, and a good-sized family +will bring it as nothing else can. But school leisure she will not have +again. The whole aim of the school is to enrich the lives of its +students, and it knows all too well that that student who does not keep +for herself the leisure upon which body and mind and soul must feed is +indeed poor. + +There is one way in which leisure is very generally misspent in +school--and alas, outside, too!--not in managing one's own affairs, but +in managing and discussing the affairs of others. At such times the +remarks may be superlatively pleasant, but they are more often +superlatively disagreeable. It may be said with truthfulness that they +are almost never moderate or just. Everything is all black or all white, +with no gray. It makes one think of the little girl with a curl in the +middle of her forehead: + + "When she was good, she was very, very good, + And when she was bad, she was horrid." + +But, alas! the poor wretches discussed are not allowed even the natural +and somewhat happy human alternation between badness and goodness. No, +indeed, they are monsters of a desperate character--they may at the +moment be broken-heartedly conscious of their own faults--or they are +shining six-winged angels. And, woe! this sort of thing comes almost as +hard upon the angels. They can't endure it; so much goodness breaks down +their wing arches, and the glorious ones crumple together like +tissue-paper. + +And upon the girls busily engaged in creating angels of loveliness and +gargoyles of ugliness, this sort of conversation works havoc. It does +not invigorate them, it does not inspire them. It belittles their +minds--thank fortune, that making kindling wood of the characters of +other people does do this!--and stunts their finer feelings. This sin, +that they "do by two and two," they pay for one by one. Gentle and +considerate feelings are lost, time is wasted, a vicious habit,--almost +no habit is more vicious,--is acquired. Such gossip can never become a +pure enjoyment; it remains at the best an ignoble, discreditable +excitement. Rolling these sweet morsels under their tongues, a taste for +ill-natured or exaggerated comment fixes itself in their mouths. Even if +they have consciences that, like good mothers, will occasionally wash +their mouths out with soap, they retain the disturbing memory of unkind, +coarse, or foolish words. + +Yet school should be the last place in which to indulge in idle talk. +Such indulgence is against all the idealism of student life. Idle or +meddlesome talk never helps any one, either the one who talks or the one +who is discussed. If you have anything to say about other people, and if +going to them will help you, the only friendly thing to do--it is not an +easy thing--is to speak to the people concerned. If we really knew how +to put ourselves in other people's places, no unkind, unfriendly words +would ever be spoken again. There would be things hard to bear +said--rebuke or reproof are never easy to receive--but nothing +unfriendly. Think how idle, ill-natured talk flows around the world, and +then think what a different world it would be if there were none of it! +It is to human life what the blights, the scales, the insect pests are +to tree and flower. Fortunately, as people grow older they come to think +themselves less infallible, and as they grow wiser they become more +tender and more lenient in their judgments. + +In companionship whose leisure interests are good there is a sense of +freedom filled full and running over, of minds and hearts doubly rich, +of good times doubly jolly. But on the whole, girls have too little +absolute solitude; there is scarcely a girl in twenty, except the "dig," +who is alone at all. One trouble with dormitory school life is that it +fosters leisure-wasting and time-wasting "gang" habits. A girl so +surrounded never wants to be alone a moment, either indoors or out. With +such, the blessing and blessedness of solitude should be learned, for +solitude rightly used makes strong men and women. + +The woman who has leisure has a grasp upon time, is master of it instead +of being mastered by it. It is the girl whirled around in a squirrel +cage of pointless weekly and Sunday engagements who is oppressed and +mastered by her lack of freedom. And then there is the hard-pressed +future; we must lay up some leisure for that. The time when one is most +hurried is the time when one most needs the sense of freedom. The story +of the old Quaker lady who had so much to do she didn't know where to +begin, and so took a nap, is profoundly full of wisdom. When the old +lady woke up she found she had plenty of time after all, not because she +had done anything but because she had come again into a leisurely frame +of mind. + +Leisure means neither a blank mind nor an empty hand. It means a holiday +taken with an eager mind, with eyes keen in their delight and knowledge, +with hands capable of some beauty or some use. All of us have leisure +to think, but not all of us think. Some of us, if friends come in +unexpectedly, will quickly pick up something and pretend to be busy. +When Watt sat by the fire watching the steam from the teakettle lift the +lid, he was not precisely idle. The powerful, indispensable steam-engine +was the result. One reason, aside from all religious considerations, why +we need a quiet Sunday, is that we may have that sense of freedom which +feeds mind and body, and even the crumbs of whose profitableness have +made the world rich in great inventions, in great pictures, in wonderful +books. + + + + +IX + +THE OUTDOOR RUNWAY + + +After Nebuchadnezzar came in from eating grass there had taken place in +that potentate a great change for the good. One of the factors in this +betterment may have been the grass itself. The grass-cure has always +been popular and always will be, for it is just as good for the tired +mind as it is for the tired body. Nowadays every big school and every +college provide a grass-cure for students who are out at elbows with +their nerve sleeves, or who have not sufficient muscle to make them fit, +or who are overworking or need toning up in any way. There is more and +more recognition of the fact that a school course which is taken at the +expense of health is not worth having. And side by side with this +wholesome admission has come a great awakening in the last fifteen years +to the curative value of the _outdoor runway_, whether that runway be a +field track, energetic walking in a park or campus, or a cross country +run. + +Some girls--and there are more girls of this type than there are +boys--put in their outdoor life as a stop-gap. It is inconceivable that +this should be true, yet it is true. Apathetically the students have +exercised sixty minutes, considering this minimum quite sufficient. Not +a particle of zest do they reveal in the exercise taken. They do not +seem to know or they do not care that the fields and woods should be +full, not only of health and all that goes with it, including success, +but also of the best of friends who all have their good points worthy of +notice and imitation, in quick leap, cheerful voice and blithe song. +What are sixty minutes in this great outdoor runway? Not a tithe of the +twenty-four hours and at best only half of what the minimum should be. +Exercise should be taken even if nothing else in the school life is. +And I say this advisedly, for health is the basis on which not only the +future of the woman's life must depend but also that of the race. Good +health, the inheritance of it, its maintenance and increase, neither the +girl nor her parents can ever hold as too sacred a trust. That it is a +sacred trust the schools are recognizing more and more, and provisions +are being made, especially in the public schools, for the defective in +health as well as for the strong. The outdoor school, at first an object +that attracted universal attention, is now being taken quite for +granted. Foolish the girl who does not learn to take the outdoor runway +for granted, too, and go out to it in high spirits to learn its wisdom, +to take part in its joys and to receive its health. + +It may be accepted as a new axiom--the more exercise the less fool. +Strong, able muscles, steady nerves (and let us remember that nerves +depend for their tone on the muscular condition), a clean skin open at +all its pores and doing its eliminative work thoroughly, and clean +strong vitals make up the kind of beauty within the reach of all +womanhood, and the physical beauty which she should most desire. The day +is coming when our ideal of what is physically perfect--not spiritually, +for Christianity has carried us beyond anything that Greece ever +knew--will be more like the Greek in its entirety, its emphasis upon the +harmony of the whole body. The body is a mechanism to be exquisitely +cared for--self-running, it is true, and yet in need of intelligent +attention. Think of the care an engineer gives his engine, and it is by +no manner of means so wonderfully and so intricately fashioned as these +bodies of ours on which our happiness, our working ability, even our +very goodness depend. Health as a safeguard to one's whole moral being +is coming into more and more recognition, and not only as a safeguard +but also as a cultivator of all that is best in us spiritually. There +are people very ill, or permanent invalids, whose great victory it is +to be among the saints of the earth, but that it is easier to be good +when one is well no one will deny. Every big school has now its class or +classes in corrective or medical gymnastics, in which stooping +shoulders, ewe necks, curved spines, flat insteps, small waists and +narrow chests are rectified as far as possible in the limited hours of +the school days. + +The time is coming when parents will consider it a disgrace to allow +their children to be physically undeveloped. The physician, always in +advance of the community for which he cares, sees how grave in moral or +intellectual import physical defects may be. The educational world, +alive to new messages for the reconstruction of its educational ideal, +begins also to place more and more emphasis upon the physical care and +development of its students--and not by any manner of means for physical +reasons only but because the whole girl or the whole boy is better +spiritually and mentally for having a body that is strong and well. The +whole being keeps better time, just as a watch does, for having clean +works. No one has the right to shut out the fresh air or the sunshine; +no girl should remain undeveloped physically through lack of exercise +when she could, through exercise, make herself strong. Even to abuse her +feet, the important centre of many important nerves, by tight shoes, is +wrong; so is it to rack her spine and upset or throw out of position all +the delicate and wonderfully fashioned organs of the abdominal cavity by +the wearing of high French heels. Undoubtedly, however, American +motherhood and girlhood represent something more and more intelligent; +indeed, in physical culture women are beginning to keep step with men, +and it is upon this fact that school and college depend in their +splendid efforts to make the sum of feminine vitality, despite the +pressure of modern civilization, plus rather than minus. + +_The more exercise the less fool_; and it is worth remembering that the +daily exercise, the plunge into cool or clean air, as well as the plunge +into water, is a wit sharpener, and will do more for a student in the +long run than "digging" possibly can. _Mens sana in corpore sano_ may be +an old saying but it is still new enough to be repeated with vigour to +certain people. Let us get out-of-doors and have our wits sharpened and +see more, and do more, and be more! No one can permanently starve her +whole body for the want of fresh air and exercise, which are the body's +birthright, and expect to have a clear head or do well-balanced and +helpful work in the home, or in school, or in some wage-earning career. +If the girl attempt this impossibility she will be like the frog which +jumped up one foot and fell back two. She will get to the bottom soon +enough, the bottom of the class or the bottom of her health account, but +she will never get to the top of anything. Any success, if by chance it +should come to her, resting on a basis of ill health or indifference to +her physical fitness for living and working, will be like the house +built upon the sands. Before the girl is twenty, before she is +twenty-five--the earlier the better--she should recognize this fact and +begin to establish her life on the bed rock of health. + +It is true, too, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, that the country +boy and the country girl are more resourceful than their city cousins. +Out-of-doors they have had to use their wits and have not been spoiled +by all the appliances of city life. Out-of-doors, too, they have made +invaluable friendships with bird and squirrel and rabbit and deer, +friendships whose intelligent wood-life has taught them much. +Self-reliance is one of the lessons of the outdoor runway; and wisdom +and inspiration come from it when they are needed. About this truth the +work of the poet Wordsworth is one long poem. Again and again he writes +of the perfect woman shaped by the influences of nature. Of her he +says: + + "Three years she grew in sun and shower; + Then Nature said, 'A lovelier flower + On earth was never sown; + This child I to myself will take; + She shall be mine, and I will make + A lady of my own. + + "'Myself will to my darling be + Both law and impulse: and with me + The girl in rock and plain, + In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, + Shall feel an overseeing power + To kindle and restrain. + + "'She shall be sportive as the fawn + That wild with glee across the lawn + Or up the mountain springs; + And hers shall be the breathing balm, + And hers the silence and the calm + Of mute, insensate things. + + "'The floating clouds their state shall lend + To her; for her the willow bend; + Nor shall she fail to see + Even in the motions of the storm + Grace that shall mould the maiden's form + By silent sympathy. + + "'The stars of midnight shall be dear + To her; and she shall lean her ear + In many a secret place + Where rivulets dance their wayward round, + And beauty born of murmuring sound + Shall pass into her face!'" + +No one can afford to neglect all the spiritual influence of nature, and +the only way to receive it is to go to nature. Purity of mind, a clean +conception of God's creative plan, a more active intellectual life are +all there for the girl who will seek them. She cannot afford _not_ to go +back to nature for these helps, for every woman is in some sense a +burden bearer, and she must needs know all she can of what life means in +order to bear these burdens well. + +There are various kinds of outdoor life, some one of which is within +reach of every human being, even if they are cripples. Probably most +girls when the outdoor life of school and college is spoken of think +that athletics is meant. That is one part of the outdoor runway, and +since it is provided in every school, and insisted upon, but little +about it need be said. It is doing its work with more and more +inspiration, as the response to its ideals comes in. And it does +something more in every well-equipped school than merely make a girl use +her legs and arms: it gives her a large, sane ideal of health and +provides her with the means of keeping well. There is no more useful +profession for the woman seeking one that is useful as well as +remunerative than physical culture. + +There is another aspect of the outdoor runway of which less is said. I +mean gardening, or the care of live stock of some kind, or bee culture. +This is practical remunerative work which for the girl living at home +and going to school should serve famously as a grass-cure; it would keep +her out-of-doors with profit to both her health and her purse. And then +there is another kind of grass-cure: the outdoor life out-of-doors, to +be taken in long country walks, in fishing expeditions, in picnics, in +camping or wherever roads, hills, meadows and brooks lead. Finally, +there is the outdoor life indoors. This life insists upon windows open +to the air and open to the sunshine, and this life every one of us may +have all the time. + + + + +X + +A GIRL'S SUMMER + + +Any girl who settles down to a summer with the idea of doing nothing, or +in an aimless, not-knowing-what-to-do-next fashion, lessens her +opportunities for pleasure. Pleasure is not idleness, although in the +minds of a great many people who have not thought very much it is. The +right sort of leisure is full of opportunities for doing interesting +things. + +There are some girls who look upon their summers as an escape from the +slavery of their school year. There are others who think of their +summers as something to be endured until they can go back to the more or +less selfish freedom of the school. Neither is the right way. The summer +ought not to be an entirely frivolous season, neither ought it to be too +workaday. If a girl has work to do, everything should be so arranged as +not to deprive the vacation of its recreative side. On the other hand +the summer should be all the happier because of a definite object to be +accomplished. Something is wrong with a girl unless she finds both +summer and winter full of opportunity and pleasure. + +No one can possibly do all the delightful or useful things which may be +done in a single summer. In these months there is opportunity for growth +just as in the winter--perhaps more opportunity physically. And +intellectually there is much to be seen and observed. For the girl who +can, it is well to plan to be out-of-doors as much as possible. For +some, there are opportunities for camping, for long walks, for +gardening, to learn how to do certain physically useful things, to row, +swim and ride. Only an extraordinary emergency would deprive a girl of +all the out-of-door exercise which she needs. If she isn't able to be by +the sea or in the mountains, in almost all cities there is opportunity +for exercise and games. With a short car ride she can go to golf links, +to tennis courts, into the country. In many semi-citified homes there +is space for a girl to do some gardening, one of the most profitable of +pleasures, good for the girl and good for the home. Many homes would be +much more attractive if there were more of the garden spirit in them. +But if there is no chance for this, there can always be physical +culture, an opportunity to build one's self up in health, to live sanely +and wisely, to get plenty of sleep, and to take corrective exercise. In +physical culture a girl should find out what she most needs--almost any +gymnastic instructor in school or college would be glad to outline +work--and then in ten or fifteen minute exercises develop herself along +those lines. + +For the girl with means there is the chance for travel, a splendid +opportunity to cultivate many virtues of which the young traveller +seldom thinks: patience, adaptability, seeing the bright side of things. +Travelling may be made a very important part of education. It is too bad +that some people of limited horizon take it simply as a chance to +aggrandize themselves, something to boast about and with which to bore +their friends by repeated accounts of what they did "abroad." The great +Doctor Samuel Johnson, the compiler of the famous dictionary and author +of "Rasselas," heartily disliked young travellers, for, he said, "They +go too raw to make any great remarks." Travelling, if it is what it +should be, is an educational opening. In this way can be gained a +background for history, for literature, for sociology, and a vivid and +living knowledge of geography. Merely running about with a guide-book +will not achieve these ends, although a guide-book is a very important +asset: sympathy, trying to understand what one sees, will. Travelling +takes away provincialism because it broadens the outlook. In a very real +sense the world becomes one's home. + +The girl who is not able to move about or actually travel may travel in +books. She should be ashamed to read what is harmful or merely cheap, +but further than that it may not much matter. Let her read the Little +Books, if she wishes, and the Great Little Books. As surely as the +magnet swings towards the pole will the Great Little Books take her to +the Great Big Books. She will be drawn on and up in her reading, and +will have cultivated a love for reading which is far more important than +perfunctory knowledge of the classics. + +Just as any books that are good point towards books that are better, so +should the good work of a girl's school year be turning her mind towards +the future and her work as a mature woman. In the summer she has time to +assimilate all she has done, to get her bearings, and to plan wisely for +the year, or years, to come. For a girl of strong physique the summer +vacation gives an opportunity to add towards what she is going to do +eventually; to specialize in some line of work, to take a library, or +scientific, course. Many girls, however, who wish to spend their summer +in this fashion ought not to consider it, for they are not strong +enough. It is well for them to remember that it is the quality of work +that counts rather than the quantity. Often the quality of a girl's work +for an ensuing school year depends upon her freedom from study during +the summer. Students should be very sure, if they undertake work in the +summer, that it is not done simply from a nervous desire to go on +regardless of the quality of the work done. But for those in perfect +health this is an opportunity to try their powers in different ways in +order to discover what it is they really wish to do. A summer so spent +may keep many a girl from slipping into teaching just because it seems +the only thing she can do. Such a salvation will be twofold, for it will +save not only the girl, but also a profession overcrowded with loveless +followers. There are so many needs to be filled by a woman's work that +it is her duty to look for some vocation for which she is truly adapted, +to get out of the ruts of those professions into which women flock +because they have no initiative. + +Often a girl thinks only of what she will do with her own summer without +thinking of what she will do with her mother's or her father's summer. +For nine or ten months they have been thinking of what they could do for +her. Sometimes girls do not realize the actual need of help and of +companionship which those at home feel, and the older people are too +unselfish to force this need upon their juniors. Between the +unselfishness of those who are older and the self-centredness of those +who are younger, there is often sad havoc made in a home. A girl who, +after a year's absence and all that has been done for her, can't adjust +herself to those who need her, has still something to learn. + +If older people cannot do without the buoyancy of the young, the young +cannot very well afford to forget the mother and father who have much, +although no word may be didactically spoken, to teach them. Let the +girl take her summer not only as an opportunity to grow closer to her +family but also as a chance to learn home-making, to train herself in +the practical things of the home. This practical training is often a +very valuable supplement to the school work. The time is passed when the +learned woman who is unable to do anything for herself is the ideal--if +she ever has been that. The inability to make a home for herself, to do +all the necessary things daintily, detracts from a woman's power. In +practical ways a woman should be both dainty and capable. Parents, as +well as girls, sometimes forget or do not clearly recognize the fact +that no school, no college, can take the place of the home, that schools +are not primarily schools in home-making, but rather schools of general +education. The summer is a good time for the girl to find her place +again in the home life, and for both parents and children to rejoice in +the pleasures of the home--pleasures and opportunities which no +institutional life can give. + + + + +XI + +FROM THE SCHOOL TO THE GIRL + + +What the school is able to do for the girl depends very largely upon the +girl herself. The majority of people with whom she comes in contact do +not take that into consideration, and the school is held unfairly +responsible for the girl. All any school can do is to use the material +it finds. Some one has said, with harsh but true emphasis, that a +college does not make a fool, it simply helps in the development of one. +As an illustration of its limitations, a school sends out two girls from +the same class; one girl it is proud to have taken as a type, the other +it is sorry to have represent it. Yet both have been under exactly the +same influence. Students do not realize how fearfully at their mercy a +school is, or that, so far as reputation is concerned, it is they who +make or mar its credit. + +If the school training is worth anything at all, it makes the most of +unpromising material. Its really discouraging experience is not with the +girl of limited ability who gives her best and so in some sense gets the +best, but with the student who doesn't give her best and who, because of +her own indifference, is always misrepresenting the training she is +receiving. No school ever wishes to have its ideals confused by a vulgar +display of wealth or by loud or conspicuous behaviour. Yet many a +school, with ideals all that they should be, is misjudged in public +places because of some thoughtless or unreliable girls. This doesn't +seem like fair-play or team-play, does it? The fineness of life ought to +be felt and expressed in student behaviour. Yet how often it is not! + +Another way in which the ideals of a school or college are +misrepresented is by lack of intellectual integrity. Any school informed +with a large spirit wishes to meet its students on a platform of +absolute trust,--a platform which makes precautions against dishonesty +unnecessary. Just so long as a school must be vigilant in order to keep +a few students from unfair behaviour, just so long is it prevented from +meeting them all on a basis of absolute trust. Why should girls excuse +themselves for classroom dishonesty? What would they think of a girl who +cheated in basket-ball? Would they condone that? Until student +government has recognized absolute intellectual integrity as a part of +its ideas, it will not have achieved its end. The rock on which all +scholarship is founded is honour. Lack of honour is fatal to its ideal. +"Cribbing," often excused by people who do not stop to think, is the +small beginning of a big evil. + +Many a large institution is like an anxious mother, not always +infallible in wisdom, but personally interested in and eager for the +success of the individual. A successful girl brings credit to her +school, for she demonstrates, as nothing else can, the fact that the +school is achieving its purpose in service to the community. How much +this encouragement is needed, girls do not realize, for they do not know +all the difficulties which institutions, especially technical and +collegiate, have to meet in sending their students out into the world. +In finding a position for a student, the school has to consider the +whole girl. It may care greatly for an attractive personality and yet +see that its possessor is lacking in qualities of faithfulness and +accuracy, and that with its utmost endeavour it has never been able to +correct these faults. On the other hand, the school may have those +students whose manners, whose dress, whose personality, whose spelling, +whose awkwardly expressed notes, whose lack of promptness, make against +success in any capacity. + +Another point for which the school looks in recommending its students is +physical fitness, which shows itself in many different ways: in voice, +in carriage, in attractiveness, in staying power. One teacher who had +an excellent record as a student and was, besides, a fine girl, had so +unpleasant and absurd a voice that her students were in a continual +state of amusement and would learn nothing from her. A great many +teachers have lost in power because of a poor voice, strident, or +lifeless, or husky, or falsetto. A poor enunciation, or words that do +not carry, are ineffectual means by which to reach a class, to hold a +customer, or to introduce one's self favourably to the interest of +others. For a girl who is going to have any part in public life--and +most girls do nowadays--a good voice is an absolute essential. And it is +well for us to remember that the voice is not something superficial, but +that it is the expression of that which is within. + +Another way in which physical fitness shows itself is in the carriage. A +girl who carries herself with erectness and energy brings a certain +conviction with her of fitness for many things, of self-respect, of +ability, and reveals in her bearing something of her mind as well as of +her body. We are always tempted to think a person who "slumps" +physically may slump in other ways. A good carriage, good voice, and +strong, clean, digestive system are far more important than beauty of +features. + +There is another matter at which the school in placing its students must +look. To be a desirable candidate for a good position a girl need not be +expensively gowned, but she must be daintily and freshly dressed. +Immaculate shirt waist, a plain, well-made skirt, with good shoes, +stockings and gloves and a quiet, pretty hat, are all any woman needs in +meeting her business obligations. And that daintiness which she shows in +her dress she must show in her person too, in clean skin and +finger-nails, good teeth, and smooth, attractively arranged hair. + +It is very important for the interests of a school, as well as for the +individual, to place its students advantageously. To have them succeed +widens its sphere of usefulness and influence and opens new channels of +service. Every college puts itself to considerable expense in looking +out for the interests of its students, for the glory of a great school +lies not only in the people whom it collects into its midst, but even +more in those whom it sends out. A girl has no right to go so lightly +through her school life that she fails to see in it all the +self-sacrifice and effort and ambitions that have gone into the building +up of what is her privilege and opportunity. In so far as she does this +she fails in the team-play spirit. Why should a girl think that she can +spend her father's money, or the means of her school, thoughtlessly? +What would happen to her if she did this with the funds of her +basket-ball team? Yet girls waste the resources of their school by +carelessness with its property, a carelessness that collectively mounts +up into thousands of dollars, and never once stop to think how +difficult every big school finds it to make ends meet. + +Before it is too late, at least now that she is leaving school, let her +stop to realize that a great deal of the work for an institution is +along the line of self-sacrifice, in the gifts given, in the work of its +administrators and teachers. This unselfishness means a financial loss, +for business ability might be invested in more lucrative ways; it means +a social sacrifice, for there is a certain kind of impersonality which +is demanded in work that deals with a continually changing community; it +means risk in the great strain put upon physical and nervous strength; +it means forgetting one's self; for the true teacher is willing to be +forgotten when she has served others. What a school may accomplish for +its students is its only compensation for all this self-sacrifice. + + + + +XII + +THE WORK TO BE + + +One of the qualities a girl who has completed her school or college life +needs to show for a few months more than anything else is the quality of +adjustment, for she will find that she must continually adjust herself +to new conditions whether they be of the home or elsewhere. All the time +through school she has been in some sense a centre of interest. Her +class has been an important factor in the academic life. When she has +gone home it has been as a school or college girl, and she has been of +interest because she brought that life into the home. But now the +attitude of others towards her is different. She ceases to be the centre +of attention, and for her a day of serious readjustment is at hand. +Perhaps in her own estimate she has seemed even more important than she +really was. She is likely now to swing from a sense of self-importance +to an injured feeling of insignificance, and to a conviction that people +can get along quite as well without her. Up to this time when she has +gone home she has been an honoured visitor. But now that she is at home +to stay, instead of becoming the centre she is merely part of the family +circle with its obligation of doing for others. Her presence in the +household is no longer a novelty. + +The swift change from a highly-organized, methodical life to the life of +the home where there is not so much method, is hard for a girl. One +reason it is difficult is that while she may be accomplishing a great +deal that is useful, she seems to be doing nothing and to get nowhere. +She feels as if she were in the midst of a conflict of duties. In school +she has had implanted in her the idea that she must accomplish some +definite thing, and between this objective and the irregular demands of +the home there appears to be more or less clashing. She is confronted by +a problem not easy for any one to solve: how to keep her definiteness +of aim and work, and yet not be self-centred. + +Oftentimes when a girl fails to adjust herself to the home life, her +family and friends feel that she is rather selfish in her desire to +carry out her own aims rather than to give them up for new demands. +Frequently the family is as much to blame for not realizing that the +girl needs to be helped back into the old life as the girl is for not +being able to help herself. In the home the spirit of team-play is much +needed. Quite as much as the girl, the family has a lesson to learn in +the art of adjustment and in remembering that this grown-up child isn't +just the same individual she was when she went away several years ago. +They need to realize that the girl may be able to give more to the home +life than she ever did before, but that it will be given in a somewhat +different way. + +While she is learning the difficult art of finding her place again, a +great deal depends upon the individual girl, not only in the home but +in the community at large. Sometimes she needs to be reminded that +although she may have had more advantages than those left at home, that +doesn't necessarily make her a superior person. A girl who is inclined +either to pity or to admire herself too greatly should give herself a +vigorous shaking. In the long run she will find it easier to do that on +her own account than to have others do it for her. The friends at home, +or in the church, or in the town, with education of a different kind +coming to them, may have quite as much and more to give her than she to +give them. One indicator of a really cultivated woman is her power to +adapt herself to the circumstances in which she is placed. A gentlewoman +never calls attention to the difference between herself and somebody +else. The woman of broad culture is the one who makes everybody feel at +home with her. If a girl's education has been worth anything at all, it +should give her not a superior, set-aside feeling, but a desire to be +more friendly and useful wherever she may be, and, not placing too much +stress on externals, to look for essentials, to get the full value from +every person and from every experience with which she comes in contact. + +Girls go to so many different kinds of homes that it is unlikely that +they will meet the same sorts of difficulties. There is the girl who +goes into the society home, where it is impossible for her to carry out +her ideals without conflict with its social standards. On the other +hand, there is the girl who goes into the very simple home where all the +stress is upon the domestic side of life. And there is the girl who has +to provide part of the family income. Very likely she has the hardest +problem of all. She enters upon some new work, and nine times out of ten +the way is not made easy for her; she is a novice with all the hardships +that come to the novice. Perhaps in the beginning she has met a very +real perplexity in hardly knowing what line of work to take up. She has +no particular interest, no especial talent, no brilliant record, no +powerful friends, no money with which to establish herself. With her it +must be as it is with thinking: she must seize hold of the thing nearest +her. What seems to her a temporary and unsatisfactory expedient will in +many cases open out a path leading to something much broader. At least +she may remember this as consolation: that even that experience of +uncertainty, of indecision, is a part of education, and out of it, +rightly and bravely met, will come some richness for her future life. + +The beginning of a work, teaching or anything else, may have to be +rather irksome, indeed, may be exceedingly difficult,--an experience +that will perhaps test staying power to the utmost. When it is too late +to give due appreciation we realize that the work in school which was +planned for us and arranged with our physical and mental well-being in +view was, after all, not so hard as we thought it at the time. We wish +that we had enjoyed our leisure more and complained less. + +From the point of view of fatigue, as a secretary, a clerk, a trained +nurse, a teacher, a social worker, the burden may be so great that the +girl is disheartened. She is all the more disheartened because, knowing +that a useful life is a strong, steady pull, the way before her seems +interminable. If she carries her whip inside her--this counsel is not +for those of us who are lazy--she does well to remember that there is a +point beyond which fatigue should not be borne, that is, when it +overdraws her capital of health and nervous energy. Raising pigs is +preferable to a so-called high profession when pig-raising is happily +joined with a reasonable amount of health and security. The pigs and +health together can always pay mortgages and buy necessities for those +dependent upon us and for ourselves. The high calling without health is +like a wet paper-bag: it will hold nothing. + +The girl meets with another difficulty in finding out that in almost any +line of work a great deal of time is needed for the mastery of what seem +the simplest principles. No one wants the girl who hasn't had +experience, and nobody seems disposed to take her and give her that +experience. However, we all find some one who is hardy enough or kind +enough to try us; and as every year now there is more effort put into +finding the work girls are most suited to do, there is no excuse for +slipping into teaching as a last resort. Not unnaturally we sometimes +distrust ourselves, especially in taking up an occupation to which we +are not accustomed. And in her new work the girl, uncertain of her +ability to master what she has undertaken, is placed in a position in +which she has the encouragement of neither the school nor the home. +Before, she has put much of the responsibility for her work and life +upon parents and instructors. Now she has to be her own judge and pass +judgment on herself and her work. She has, too, not only to lift her +own weight but the weight of others as well. As she longs for +cooeperation, good will and encouragement the value of the team-play +spirit has never seemed so great before. + + * * * * * + +We do not need to be told to remember the happy and easy experiences of +life. No girl forgets them. What we do need is some one to tell us where +the hard places will be, to warn us, to stiffen our courage and to point +clearly to the uses of hard work and adversity. And although this may +seem like placing another straw on the poor camel's back, it is now time +to say that in her life-work, whether it be in her home or outside, a +girl should be very clear in her mind what her aims and purposes are. If +she is working solely for the praise and commendation of others, she +will often be grievously disappointed. Not in recognition does real +reward lie, but in the work itself. If she wins great popularity she is +likely to find that there is nothing that shifts so quickly and is such +a quicksand. If material wealth is her sole object she will harden into +the thing she seeks and add but another joyless barbarian to a modern +world congratulating itself that barbarism is a thing of the past, and +yet presenting the spectacle of a mammon worship such as has never been +seen before. If gold is her end, and not the means to a nobler end, then +she will find herself constantly sacrificing higher issues to that, and +lowering her one-time ideals. Truly the woman who marries solely for the +comforts of a home, the woman who teaches, or nurses for "pay" alone, +has her reward, and that is in self-destruction. She is a carrier of +barbarism, not of culture; of disease, not of health; of tribulation, +not of joy. The only real reward there can be lies in the idealism, the +joy, the strength of the work done and in a mind and heart conscious of +having done their best. + + +THE END + + + + +_JOHN T. FARIS_ Author "_Winning Their Way_." + +"Making Good" Pointers for the Man of To-morrow 12mo, cloth, net +$1.25. + + _Dr. J. R. Miller_ says: "Sixty intimate messages to young men + and boys on the things that make for success or failure. Bright + and short and full of illustrations from actual life, they are + just the sort that will help young men in the home, in school, + among associates and in business. Everywhere is the suggestion + of the necessity for Christ if men would build up fine + character and make life worth while." + + +_JEANETTE MARKS, M. A._ + +A Girl's School Days and After + +Introduction by Mary K. Woolley, President of Mt. Holyoke College. 12mo, +cloth, net 75c. + + In twelve most readable and suggestive chapters ranging from + "The Freshman Year" through "School Friendships," "The Students + Room," "Tools of Study and Their Use," "The Joy of Work," "The + Right Sort of leisure," "The Girls Outdoor Life," to "The Work + to Be," the author writes in a practical yet interesting way of + wellnigh every phase of the girl and her school. + + +_FREDERICK LYNCH Director of N. Y. Peace Society._ + +The Peace Problem The Task of the Twentieth Century + +Introduction by Andrew Carnegie. Cloth, net 75c. + + Andrew Carnegie commends this book in no stinted terms. "I have + read this book from beginning to end with interest and profit. + I hope large editions will be circulated by our peace + organizations among those we can interest in the noblest of all + causes." + + +_JAMES M. CAMPBELL, D. D._ + +Grow Old Along With Me + +12mo, cloth, gilt top, net $1.25. + + "Shows in most helpful fashion things one should strive for and + guard against, things he should leave off doing, as well as + others he should put on. It is a pleasant thing to read and it + should be a potent factor in leading one to an appreciation of + the real beauty and opportunity that lies 'west of fifty + years.'"--_Chicago Tribune_. + + +_MRS. NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS_ + +The American Woman and Her Home + +12mo, cloth, net $1.25. + + The author shares with her gifted husband the power of both + entertaining and influencing people with the pen. The + remarkable interest awakened lately by Mrs. Hillis' articles in + "The Outlook" has inspired this helpful book. + + + + +FICTION + + +_WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M. D._ + +Down North on The Labrador + +Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. + +A new collection of Labrador yarns by the man who has succeeded in +making isolated Labrador a part of the known world. Like its predecessor +the new volume, while confined exclusively to facts in Dr. Grenfell's +daily life, is full of romance, adventure and excitement. The _N. Y. +Sun_ recently said: "Admirable as is the work that Dr. Grenfell is doing +on the Labrador coast, the books he has written, make his readers almost +wish he would give up some of it to write more." + + +_CLARA E. LAUGHLIN_ + +The Gleaners + +A Novellette. Illustrated, decorated boards, net 75c. + +Again Miss Laughlin has given us a master-piece in this story of present +day life. Millet's picture, "The Gleaners," is the moving spirit of this +little romance and, incidentally, one catches the inspiration the artist +portrays in his immortal canvas. "The Gleaners" is issued in similar +style to "Everybody's Lonesome," of which the _Toronto Globe_ said: "One +of the successful writers of 'Good Cheer' stories for old and young is +Miss Laughlin, and whoever reads one of her cheery little volumes +desires more." + + +_PROF. EDWARD A. STEINER_ + +_Author of "The Immigrant Tide," etc._ + +The Broken Wall + +Stories of the Mingling Folk. Illustrated, net $1.00. + +Professor Steiner has the story-teller's knack and uses his art with +consummate skill in this collection, where will be found dramatic +tragedy and profound pathos in strong contrast with keen humor and +brilliant wit, all permeated by an uncompromising optimism. No man has +probed the heart of the immigrant more deeply, and his interpretation of +these Americans of tomorrow is at once a revelation and an inspiration: +a liberal education in brotherhood. + + +_A. D. STEWART_ + +Heather and Peat + +12mo, cloth, net $1.20. + +"This is a very delightful story, told in the broadest and most +fascinating Scotch language. The author belongs of right to that class +of modern Scotch writers who bring out matters of vital human interest, +with religious and tender touches, and this story is one that any writer +might be proud of and any reader of feeling and vitality must delight +in."--_Journal and Messenger_. + + +_YANG PING YU_ + +The Love Story of a Maiden of Cathay + +Told in Letters from Yang Ping Yu. Finely decorated boards, net 50c. + +Written in English picturesquely colored with Chinese, at once naive and +yet full of worldly wisdom, frank and yet discreetly reserved. The story +as told in the letters is real, vivid, convincing. It is a human +document that will compel the attention of the reader from beginning to +end, and verify again the saying that "truth is stranger than fiction." + + +_MARION BLYTHE_ + +An American Bride in Porto Rico + +Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. + +"The story is very pleasant and very human. In her bravery and courage, +in her wit and merriment, the bride reminds one somewhat of the "Lady of +the Decoration." This similarity adds, however, rather than detracts +from the charm of the book. She is thoroughly good-natured and clever +and companionable, with a whimsical and ever-present sense of +humor."--_Chicago Evening Post_. + + +_ISLA MAY MULLINS_ + +The Boy from Hollow Hut + +Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00. + +Readers of John Fox, Jr.'s stories will recognize the location of this +story at once. The author and her husband, President of the great +Theological Seminary of Louisville, have taken a large interest in these +descendants of _some of the best American stock_. Through the tender +humanness of her narrative Mrs. Mullins bids fair to gain a large +audience for this intensely interesting work. + + +_DR. OLIVIA A. BALDWIN_ + +Sita, A Story of Child-Marriage Fetters. + +12mo, cloth, net $1.25. + +A realistic story of native and mission life in India; a story dealing +with the stress of famine and the pathetic condition of India's +child-widows. + + +_MRS. MAUD JOHNSON ELMORE_ + +The Revolt of Sundaramma + +With an introduction by Helen B. Montgomery. Illustrated by Gertrude H. +B. Hooker. Net $1.00. + +Sundaramma, a Hindu maiden, is the heroine of this story which relates +her revolt against child marriage and her flight from such slavery. + + +_NORMAN DUNCAN Author of "Dr. Luke," etc._ + +The Measure of a Man + +A Tale of the Big Woods. Illustrated, net $1.25. + +"The Measure of a Man" is Mr. Duncan's first full-sized novel having a +distinct motif and purpose since "Doctor Luke of The Labrador." The tale +of the big woods has for its hero, John Fairmeadow--every inch a man +whom the Lumber Jacks of his parish in the pines looked up to as their +Sky Pilot. Human nature in the rough is here portrayed with a +faithfulness that is convincing. + + +_ROBERT E. KNOWLES Author of "St. Cuthberts," etc._ + +The Singer of the Kootenay + +A Tale of To-day. 12mo, cloth, net $1.20. + +The scene of action for Mr. Knowles' latest novel is in the Crow's Nest +Pass of the Kootenay Mountains of British Columbia. To this dramatic +field he has gone for local color and has taken every advantage of his +wide knowledge, picturing life of every phase in his most artistic +style. + + +_HAROLD BEGBIE Author of "Twice-Born Men_" + +The Shadow + +12mo, cloth, net $1.25. + +A new story by the novelist whose study of regeneration, "Twice-Born +Men" has made the religious world fairly gasp at its startling +revelations of the almost overlooked proofs of the power of conversion +to be found among the lowest humanity. His latest work is a brilliant +study of modern life which will maintain the author's reputation. + + +_RUPERT HUGHES_ + +Miss 318 + +A Story in Season and out of Season. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net 75c. + +"Is there any excuse for one more Christmas story?" "Surely nothing has +been left unsaid." "The truth, perhaps." "The truth?--about Christmas! +Would anybody care to read it?" "Perhaps." "But would anybody dare to +publish it?" "Probably not." "That sounds interesting! What nobody would +care to read and nobody would dare to publish, ought to be well worth +writing." + + +_J. J. BELL Author of "Oh! Christina!" etc._ + +The Indiscretions of Maister Redhorn + +Illustrated, 16mo, cloth, net 60c. + +The thousands who have read _Wullie McWattie's Master_ will need no +introduction to this Scottish "penter" and his "pint o' view." The same +dry Scottish humor, winning philosophy and human nature fairly overflow +these pages. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Girl's Student Days and After, by Jeannette Marks + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GIRL'S STUDENT DAYS AND AFTER *** + +***** This file should be named 18234.txt or 18234.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/2/3/18234/ + +Produced by David Edwards, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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