The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-03
LACK in COLLEGE WOMEN
POOR SHOWING FOR WORK ON THE
COUNTRY'S BEST MATERIAL.
Curriculum of Studies Needs Revision
Too Much school and Not Enough
Home Duty for the Girl.

themes written by the freshmen at prom
inent woman's college and interview their
| writer's, a kind of experience that puts one
into particularly close touch with large
numbers of girls from many different
schools. and the experience has tended to
convince me that girls suffer much more
than boys from the evils of the present
school curriculum; that the school machin-
cry needs adjusting. Indeed, there is no
need of any peculiar experience to lead one
to see at least that the training we are
giving girls at present is highly unsatis-
factory 1t is only necessary to examine
honestly the product of the schools as she
appears in the form of the average college
freshman. She is, to be sure the product
of the preparatory rather than the high or
finishing school, but, except during the last
four years, her training has been the usual
one, and even then she was setting the pat
| tern upon which her noncollegiate sister
was encouraged to form herself, for the
| preparatory course is the most popular
| with teachers. The best teaching and the
most careful thought at the disposal of the
| schools has been expended in her service,
and she is supposed, moreover, to represent
| the best material of the country, that
! rather above the average in brain and char
acter; no objection could reasonably be
| raised to her as an example of the school
graduate, but as cultured young woman
it must be admitted that she is unsatisfac-
tory.
If look at her carefully, breaking
| through the glamor that her delightful
youth must always cast about a girl who
has but just begun to do up her hair and
wear her dresses long, it is very evident
that she has made painful sacrifices. 1t is
| Of 70
| transmit the fruits of the worlds civiza-
tion and it is therefore especially unfortu-
nate for her that in the schools linguistic,
mathematical and scientific studies so
| largely supersede the training in music art
| and literature which must always be
| garded as essential to the finest culture:
but far more unfortunate still is the fact
| that school work is now allowed to absorb
| the energies OF average children to such an
extent that wel-to-do girls are almost COM
pletely debarred from participation in the
| thousand small affairs of home which have
| so great an influence in moding woman's
character. Too often before a girl enters
college she has spent three or four years
| leadlng the unnatural life OF boarding
school, with it's narrow interests and self
centered responsibility so i'll adapted to the
development of the finer qualities of Wom-
| anho0d, and if she has not been so unfor
| tunate as this she has yet been led to be-
lieve that her school work the cultivation
of her own intellect, was the most impor-
tant of her duties, to which all others
should bend, and in the discharge of which
any sacrifice of their own convenience or
comfort-surely q very poor training for
pense with her help she has escaped this
| danger, it is true; but she is hardly more
happy She has been compelled to take
| needed playtime for her household duties,
| washing dishes and sewing seams indoors,
while her brother sells papers and clears
sidewalks in the open air, and as a result
she enters college or the world faded and
| weakly, an easy subject for the nervous
prostration of American middle life.
IMMATURE MINDS.
1t would seem that sacrifices such as
these could be justified, if at ALL only by
thoroughly excellent mental training. But
we discover with some surprise that the
mind of the average freshman is singularly
immature and her knowledge small so
small that we are forced to believe that
| the sacrifices were unnecessary; she does
not know enough to hurt anybody. A hun
dred years ago she would have had a smat-
tering of music art and literature, and she
would have been taught to write a good
letter. Now all this is changed Compare
lively few college freshmen play or sing or
draw we'll enough to entertain themselves
| or others; few of them have read much out
| side the meager list of books prescribed by
| their examiners. and they have no COM
mand Of their mother tongue. Instead of
| these pleasant accomplishments they have
| SmatterlnS OF a Few ancient ana mOuern
| languages of mathematics and of science
| or two. subjects in which, unfortunately,
| smatterings are not of any very great prac-
| teal use. They seem to have neglected all
| their faculties with the exception of mem
| DRY and the power of analytic reasoning,
and although we have the highest respect
| for these faculties of the human mind, we
| may be pardoned for renarking that their
exclusive cultivation makes young per-
son one-sided and is very likely to injure
| the charm of her personality. Moreover,
even these seem to have been somewhat
unwisely trained Girls entering college, as
is we'll known, show a surprising lnaDll1ty
| to apply processes of reasoning to new ma
| terial and, although their memories are
| loaded with facts one finds that these are
| very ill-assorted. They know nothing well.
| They have not a sufficient command of any
| modern or classic language to be able to
| appreciate it's literature or the genius of its
| people: nor do they know enough of any
| science to have gained that poise and self
respect that come OF a fair command OF
| any subject. Their mental outfit IS by no
| means brilliant for young persons or eight
| cen. Evidently large part of the ten or
| twelve years of their school life has been
| wasted in ill-directed and half-hearted la
| Dor and looking at them, one is My
| reminded of the comment upon the fem ale
| into the mouth of intelligent school
master. MANY things" he says with
which we furnish our scholars at the school
| do not please me. because experience tells
me of how little service they are likely to
| be in after-life. 1t Isl impossible to state
how much is at once stripped off how
| soon as the young lady finds herself in the
| position of a housewife or a mother" Or,
! one might add in any other conceivable
| position whatsoever.
FAULTS OF SCHOOLS.
Much of this waste is undoubtedly due to
faults in the schools affecting boys and
| girls alike, and which, since they are rene
| diabie, cannot be too often pointed out. 1t
is due to the overcrowdng of programmes
which make excellence impossible; to the
prevalent abuse of the evolution theory of
education, which throws such unnatural
emphasis upon the value of certain studies
in developing the mind that its votaries
seem to quite lose sight of the fact that the
attainment of knowledge and the power
that springs of knowledge is. after all, the
reasonable end of education; and perhaps
| more directly still, it is due to that prepar-
| atory spirit which. however energetically
| it may be repudated and however incon-
| sistent it is with the development theory
| with which it co-exists, is certainly gain
! ing influence, making it's way even into
| the kindergarten. The freshman's energies
| have been scattered over such a varied cur
| riculum that asked to interest himself in
| responded langudly; the end in view, I'M
certain even to his instructors, has never
| been seen by him, and the paths he has
taken have looked like blind alleys, lead
| ing nowhere. He has never been permitted
to feel the need of any fresh bit of knowl-
constantly been being prepared for an
emergency he did not anticipate, which
| again, unless its sole purpose was to de-
| velop his mind, prepared him for an effort