The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-06-29
THE NEW EDUCATION.
CHANCES IT HAS MADE IN TIE Po-
slTiON or OUR GIRLS.

They WIN Hereafter Bc Known For Their
Learning and Their Social TACT and rhey .
WIN Also Insist T1at They Have Proper
Liberty.
The recent discussion Of tlocondition Of /
9ur young women ian Engli h life In Tho |
Nineteenth Century has beer suggested by |
The change which the higher education Of /
girls has forced upon the attention OF
mothers IN English society. The daughters !
are being educated like the )us. and they
crave the liberty and oppor mi lies which
the sons enjoy IL is impu siblc to hold
these young girls IN the sg ne social re
straiut which existed lief, 70 NEWMAN
and Girtun were I'm existence, and the
English mothers are up iu arms because
The girls refuse to hc cumpnceut maidCns
and take the traditional pos lion Of young
women who are bending all their energies
to secure favorable offers of marriage.
While this discussion does not exactly fit
into the grooves of our own social life,
there is a great deal in it that is suggestive
and important Veal rejoice at the open
ing of careers for young women, and it is
not because mutrimuuy Is any the less the
sphere i'm which woman rcali Is her highest
function that we welcome the increase Of
agencies through which young women,
like young men. can follow their aptitudes
and not only earn their own living, but do
the things which imply the fullillment of
their tastes and capacities, 1t is a great
thing to have gained this social and in
dustrial freedom, and where the demands
Hre not too heavy the Independence and
freedom which women have gained are
having the happiest effect upon their per
sonal welfare.
There is another and increasing class in
this country who are being prepared in our
homes for Radcliffe and Wellesley and
Smith colleges, and who are destined to be
the leaders of our social and intellectual
! life in the future. This class most closely
corresponds to the daughters of English
men in the upper walks of life, and it is
not only in the education Of these girls
/ that wider range of Thought and life Is
/ to be possible but they are to give II GER
] tain elevation TO the standards of American
/ life They are to set forth the true posi-
| ton of woman not as an exception of at
/ tainment among the few, but as the nor
nal expression of our best life These ed
ucated women will become, to "A great ex
tent, our teachers of the higher education,
| bat large portion of them will find the
| fltlflllment of their ambitions I'm marriage
! and will become moro or less the leaders Of
society. What our higher education is eX-
pected to accomplish is not to turn out
/ into the world two or three thousand blue
stockings every year. but to send into
American society hundreds Of young WON
en- who will realize their worth in careers,
who will be expansive in their influence
upon the world, and who, beyond their pc
sitlon as wives and mothers, will be known
| for their learning, for their social tact and
/ for that indcfnable influence which makes
a woman the center of attraC don and pow
| er in the social circles in which she moves.
No one can watch the progress of the
new education in the homes Of well to do
| people without seeing the silent transfer
nation which is already going on. One is
constantly coming across these educated
/ girls, who lose none of their attractiveness
as women in the possession # training
! which enables them TO handle The things
/ of the world with the deXt rity and sue
/ cess possessed by their broth rs. They are
| crowding into the ranks of tho professions.
/ Medicine and the law are fay Drite channels
for them, and in art, in music and in the
lesser professions women are beginning to
be nearly as numerous as men. The field
is ample, and there is hardly a woman
who aspires to make n care r for herself
that does not find her place
The fact thaG every year these educa.
tional institutions are placin these young
women in the field of oppOr, unity is to bt
watched by the social student as very
important factor in American life. They
are transforming the homes from which
they go forth into the world and they ar,
ready to engage in the making of new
homes and in the widening OF the range OF
our common life. The men and womer
now in middle age had in few instance:
the advantages, social and intellectual
which are now enjoyed by their daughters
and 1t is greatly to their credit that they
have responded to the demand that theil
girls shall come under the influence of the
higher education TO such an ,xtent that il
almost every social circle the college WON
en- begin to be an appreciable and infuen
tial element.
The question now at the front is whether
these girls shall begin to take the lead
The effect of their wider training is tC
make a humdrum life irksome and dis
tasteful, and to make the position of q
woman waiting for matrimony, which
may never come, one that STILES the very
training which she has received. While NJ
one would wish that young women should
needlessly expose themselves to censure by
taking too much liberty, it is not possibl,
that girls thus educated will consent t
'the trivial round and 1.-THE common
task" which are the traditional life o
; most young women as we have known
them, and it is in England no less thai
in America that parents need to be educat
ed to appreciate the position in which
their daughters, trained in the new edu
cation, stand. The friction which in SOM
quarters is complained of is largely becaus
the fathers and the mothers of our girl
are not intelligent in approaching the po
sition in which our girls are placed or tn
demands which the new order of thing
creates. The only way of escape is for TIN
girls, with such tact and discretion a
they can employ, to take matters into thei
own hands and insist that the libert!
which is given to their brothers shall be
to proper extent, allowed To themselves
What we want in American society is t,
gain the advantages of the higher educa
ton not simply for the girls who are in
tent upon careers but for those girls who's
probable mission is TO become centers o
influence in our homes, and whose ulti
mate place will be that of leaders in tn
social world The new education will no
become effective with our hest educated
women divorced from the practical inter
ests of life in the sense that ii will be pow
erful when the social leaders recognize
, that the higher education of women is al
essential step in the conquests which the.
aim to make. Education without aim i
apt to be disappointing, but education o
the kind which many of our girls are re
ceiving today helps them to realize to IA yer!
large extent the true position of women il
the world.-BostOn Herald.
Admiral ANeIing.