Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-07-24
THE SWEET GIRL GRADUATE.


a View OF the Case at Variance with
Modern ideas Of Education.
What does your sweet girl graduate
know when she leaves the stage bear
ing her diploma and loads OF howersl
asks a gray haired GROWER in The
Pittsburg Commercial Gazette,
Is she Fitted for any special calling
in lifel
In a majority of instances she has
received no practical instruction what
ever. She is scarcely able to put her
clothes on, much less 10 make or re.
pair them She may be able TO parse
a sentence, but too often she cannot
write good English. nOr docs she
speak H.
She can chatter in French 50 as 10
be understood by her teacher, but TO a
born Frenchman il would BE- about as
intelligent as ChOctaw, She probably
knows aH omelet from a steak. but
has only the faintest idea Of the pro
cesses by which they are made.
To her the world consists of books
aud good looking young men, and in
the more or less distant future stands
knIghtly looking man in the shadow
ola vine clad cottage, surrounded by
all the evidences OF wealth and com.
fort
Two years after the 5. 9 2. has re-
tired from the schoolroom French is a
dead language To her, geometry a puz-
zle and history a sealed book.
What has she gainedl
If she really studied hard she has
probably won a place in the ranks of
the nervous host Of women. a deep
seated dyspepsia and an irritable TEN.
per.
Ii she didn't study hard she is prob
ably an expert coquette or a chatter
box. The four or five years that she
spent in school were the years in
which she was growing out of girl
hood into womanhood, and the years
in which she should have been under
the personal care Of her mother.
Common sense teaches as that girls
should not be sent 10 college or SEM
mary until afterthey are Is years old.
From l2 10 10 they should be subject
TO physical culture, and only incident,
ally TO mental culture.
This view OF the case is at variance
with the modern idea on this subject,
but our head school men are slowly
coming to il. Medical scientists and
experts in physical culture condemn
the modern idea in uumeasured terms.
They know that girls should not be
put TO hard study before they are l6,
and they "a give the best OF reasons
for il.
Even if no other reason could be
given than that they are better able TO
comprehend their studies, it would be
sufficient. What is the use of rushing
a girl through a course OF studies that
j. incomprehensible 10 heri II is ali
unnecessary waste Of vital energy, for
which she must suffer for the balance
Of her natural life.
The healthiest, happiest and most
useful women in the land today are
not graduates of a seminary or high
school.
The best teachers and best scholars
among our women are those who IN
tered upon their collegiate course after
they had passed the verdant period
known as sweet l6. Then they knew
what they were doing. and why they
were doing it
There is no doubt but the present
system Of educating young women is
the cause Of their imperfect physical
development. i'll health and general
un6tness 10 become the wives Of bust.
ness men and mothers of a race Of
stalwart men and handsome women.
This is gospel truth.
The average young man stands the
college ordeal better than his sister,
because lac INDUCES in more physical
exei else and leadsa less unnatural life.
Ii he Is endowed with a reasonable
amount of common sense he has a
profession in view aud studies TO iii
himself for it, and in that direction at
least he is permanently benefited.
His sister, however, has no profes-
sion in view, and can see no purpose
whatever in her education. And it is
a fact that there is little in her whole
seminary course that will be of the
least practical use 10 her when she
becomes mistress Of a home and has
the arcs vi q family thrown upon her.
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