The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-03-03
EVILS OF OVER-EDUCATION.
Scholars Must Stand Like Human Yes.
sells and be Loaded with Facts,


you may make him miserable trying to
force love for learning, writes Mrs.
Lew Wallace in the Ladies' Home Jour-
nal. He will so through the books, and
the books will go through him; there is
children being educated for? The boys
are to be bread-winners. They must hur-
ry through and hustle for a living" The
girls-let us believe it-are the future
home-makers. The word helpmeet is
obsolete-left behind with the woman
who made Eden paradise. Constantly
the question is being brought UP, ''Shali
this and that be added to our public
schoolsw But who, asks, Can the
scholars en- t5iure any more" They. have
pz0tests nor pet they must stand
like human vessels ready to be filled to
the brim with mixtures of facts.
plead for childhood of the soul as we'll
blessed sunshine, the moderate task end
ed at the schoolhouse. This night young
heads are leaning against their mothers,
tired as no young things should ever be,
and it is a sorrowful sound to hear a
child waking from what might be the
sunny slumber of light heart beating
to healthful music to ask in troubled
pass grader" 1t is said that they like
to 20 to school. Yes, and they would like
it twice as we'll if there were half as
much to learn. Many children have l
known, but not one who loved study for
it's own sake. Companionship is what
lures them: Instead of wandering up
and down the wilderness of wintry facts,
let them loiter while among. the dear
illusions. The Happy Valley of Child
hood is but narrow, where the golden wa
ter babbles to the talking bird and the
singing tree, where the sun always
shines and the years are summers. They
who adjust the load that presses so heavi-
ly On the springs of life have much to
account for.
The Overtuught Woman.
Prof. Harry Thurston Peck of Column
bia university and editor of the Book
maker, is the author of an article for
maids and Mothers in the Cosmopoli-
tan that is calculated to make feminine
Rome howl: 1.-THE Overtaught Woman"
is the. special topic, and Prof. Peck not
only does not believe women capable OF
acquiring the highest education, but ac-
cuses them of lowering mems mental
standards and achievements by their e1-
forts to do so. Some little time ago, in
the same magazine, he analysed the fas-
cinating woman, and declared at that
never knew a great deal of book learn
ing. Prof. Peck takes himself very
seriously, and writes well. He hits a
great many nails on the head and drives
them in straight, and what he says is
true SO far as it goes, but it doesn't
quite cover the ground.
He persists, as do most men, in view
wholly from a masculine standpoint.
Women mainly view men from a fem
mime point of view, and view women. or
try to. from the masculine standpoint.
The few exceptions among women who
view themselves from feminine stand
point are more or less biased undoubted-
w. Still, who shall say that they haven't
a right to their own opinions? 1t never
seems to occur to women's masculine
critics that woman has any right to
do what she wants to do just for the
sake of doing it. Men are forever tell
ing women how they ought to livc-for
men; how they can best please-men;
how to be fascinating-to men.
Prof. Peck is now trying to induce
women to give up working in the profess
sio11s and sciences, etc, so men shall not
come down to their inferior feminine
level Of mentality.
Bless us and save us!
Poor men, poor dears! Poor, dear mas
culine critics. Don't worry. Most wom-
PHYS sake don't waste so much time
and trouble trying to prove to women
that domesticity, and motherhood, and
to be fascinating-to men, are their sole
functions in this life. Most women be-
lieve it, Even when they are no more
suited to domesticity than Prof. Peck is
for being Il valet; even when nature,
who does make horrible plumbers, has
decreed that motherhood shall be life
long invalidism and misery if not death
dealing, still most women, more or less
cheerfully, do their duty in the sphere in
which man is willing they should i've
move and have their being.
who but prove the rule; don't mind them,
Prof. Peck. They are selfish creatures;
they have made up their minds to have
their own way, and they Walt to expert
ment with ways to see which they like
best.-Dinah Sturgis in the Gentlewom-