The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-03

her originality worn away. until. on her
graduation day. she finds herself thrown
upon the world with little certain knowl-
edge and no strong and honest taste for
anything. Evidently, considered even from
purely intellectual standpoint. this IS a
poor preparation for college and mucn
worse one for life. We have right TO ask
of the schools something better than this.
POOR SUBSTRUCTURE.
The schools urge in reply to such COM
plants that it is unreasonable to expect
actual attachments of girls and boys of
eighteen; that they have been fully and
properly occupied in laying q broad foun-
dation for the structure they are to rear in
later years. But these claims cannot well
be supported. Any one who considers for a
moment the command of complicated bust
ness details or of difficult mechanical art
often possessed by boys of eighteen who
have been obliged to push their way in the
world or the technical skill and theoretical
knowledge of young painters and musicians
who have worked seriously and with pur-
pose, must admit that actual attainments
are possible at that age, and as girls ma
ture as rapidly as boys, there is no reason
why we should not find them in the fresh
man at Wellesley, Smith or Vassar But
their literary attachments certainly appear
rldlculOusly small If we compare them with
those of the artist. the musician the me-
chanic. And this deficiency is not due to
the necessary breadth of the so-called foun-
cations of q literary education. This much
used comparison of pre-collegiate instruc-
ton to the Substructure of q building, but
poor figure at best, Is out of place as
argument. There can be little real analogy
between the development and furnishing
of child's mind and the construction of a
cellar; and if comparisons are necessary it
would be wise to seek them among living
organisms, to note, for instance, that the
only plant whose underground growth is
practically complete before it pushes itself
above ground is the mushroom fungus.
The difficulty is that by fostering the pre-
paratory spirit we are depriving our Sec
ondary education of intelligent purpose,
and in depriving it of purpose, such pur-
pose as makes each step in progress full of
meaning and delight, we are taking out of
it the healthy principle of development. If
we hold back from young persons all the
reasonable fruits of learning. the sense of
power over n congenial subject, the pleas
ure of supplying need that has been felt,
the delight of struggle towards a well-ap-
pretended and desired goal we have no
right to wonder that their intellectual
growth lacks sturdiness. The elective sys-
tenn, meeting fairly the complex conditions
of modern society, is infusing new life into
the college. but indifference and its attend
ant, superfciality still cling to the lower
schools, and unfortunately these are the
two faults to which the mind of women
Is additionally prone, and from which,
therefore, she should be. most carefully
guarded. The reform of the secondary
schools. important it is to the country
as whole, is a matter of absolutely vital
interest to women.
And in the meanwhile, although the great
mass of the people must depend upon the
public provisions for education, whatever
they may be, it is probable that those who
need not do so, mothers who desire and can
afford the best training for their daughters,
would do well to consider the matter care
fully before they intrust their education alb
solutely to the imperfect mechanism of the
schools. The eXtrayag CANT Loyalty of Ameri-
can mothers to those institutions, phe-
nomenon paralleled i'll no other land, looks
like either an unwillingness to assume the
responsibilities of their position or an evil
dence of that excessive faith in machinery
which Matthew Arnold pronounced the dan
ger of Anglo-Saxon Phlistinsm 1t has
not yet been proved even that the school
atmosphere, excellent as it is for develop
ing the sturdier qualities of manhood, is
that in which the finest qualities of the
womanly character grow with most album
dant vigor, and although it may be that
this is so. that the schools offer compensa-
tons which more than atone for their
evils and the right solution of the problem
of education, for individuals as we'll as for
the masses and for women as well as men,
rests with them. We have not as yet
reached the position where this may be
safely assumed