The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-09-21
Special Article.
HOW SHALL WE EDUCATE OUR
GIRLS2
BY DAVID STARR JORDAN, LID,
President of Leland Stanford University.

The subject of the higher educa-
ton of young women at present usu-
ally demands answers to these three
questions:
l. Shall a girl receive college ed
ucation7
2. Shall she receive the same KIND
of a college education as boy!
8. Shall she be educated in the
same college?
First, shall a girl receive college
education? The answer to this must
depend on the character of the girl.
Precisely so with the boy. What we
should do with either depends on his
or her possibilities. Wise parents
will not let either boy or girl enter
life with any less preparation than
the best they can receive. 1t is true
that many college graduates, boys
and girls alike, do not amount to
much after the schools have done the
best they can with them. 1t is true,
as I have elsewhere insisted, that
"you cannot fasten $1,000 educa-
ton to a fifty cent boy" nor to fifty
cent girl. either! But there is also
great truth in these words of Fred
eric Denison Maurice 81 know that
nine tenths of those the university
sends out must be hewers of wood
and drawers of water. But if we
train the ten-tenths to be so, then the
wood will be badly cut and the water
will be split. Aim at something no
BILE; make your system of education
such that a great man may be formed
by it. and there will be manhood in
your little men of which you do not
dream"
It is not alone the preparation OF
great men for great things. Higher
education may prepare even little
men for greater things than they
would have otherwise found possible.
And so it is with the education OF
women. The needs of the times are
imperative. The noblest result OF
social evolution is the growth OF the
civilized home. Such home only
wise, cultivated and high-minded
woman can make. To furnish such
women is one of the noblest missions
of higher education. No young wo-
man capable of becoming such should
he condemned to a lower destiny.
Even of those seemingly too dull or
too vacillating to reach any high ideal
of wisdom, this may be said, that it
does no harm to try. A few hundred
dollars is not much to spend on an
experiment of such moment. -Four
of the best years of ones life spent
IN the company of noble thoughts
and high ideals cannot fail to leave
their impress. To be wise and at the
same time womanly is to WELD ire
mendous influence which may be felt
for GOOD in the lives of generations
to come. 1t is not forms of govern
ment by which men are made or I'M
made. 1t is the character and lnnn-
ence of their mothers and their wives.
The higher education OF women
means more for the future than all
conceivable legislative reforms. And
its influence does not stop with the
home. 1t means higher standards OF
manhood, greater thoroughness OF
training and the coming of better
men. Therefore, let us educate our
girls as we'll as our boys. A generous
education should be the birthright OF
every daughter of the republic as
well as of every son.
Second, shall we give our girls the
same education as our boys7 Yes and
no. If we mean by the same, an
equal degree of breadth and thor
oughness, an equal fitness for high
thinking and wise acting,-yes, let 1t
be the same. If we mean to reach
this end by exactly the same course
of studies, then my answer must
be no, for the same course OF
study will not yield the same re-
suits with different persons. The
ordinary college course" which has
been handed down from generation to
generation is purely conventional. 1t
is a result of series of compromises
in trying to fit the traditional educa-
ton of clergymen and gentlemen to
the needs of a different social era.
The old college course met the special
needs of nobody, and therefore was
adapted to all alike. The great ed
ucational awakening of the last TWEEN
ty years in America has come from
breaking the bonds of this old system.
The essence of the new education is
individualism. It's purpose is to give
to each young man that training
...L;ob I'LL ,,oaLa O man Of him Not