The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-29
TRAINING FOR GIRLS.
Mrs. Cougar Tells What 1t Should he
to Produce Proper Character.
;nec,al 70 The Indianapolis journal.

Special to the indianapolis Journal.
LAFAYETTE, Ind, Jan. 2S.-In adj
dress before the Home Makers Association
Mrs Helen Cougar said, in part:
What can and what may women do are
questions old as the movement for civil
ization. The closing hours of the nine
teenth century answer these by saying that
they may do. anything for which they are
fitted. Schools and colleges, arts and
sciences. literature and the professions,
pulpit and the forum and the industrial
avenues are open to them Public senti-
ment welcomes them to any arena they
may choose 1t is their fitness only that is
considered when they knock at the door
of opportunity. Then what shall be their
training? At the risk of being supremacy
materialistic, shall lay down the PROPOSE
tion that the first concern of any human
being should be to secure bodily comfort;
next, intellectual growth and culture;
next. spiritual supremacy over the earth,
earthly. Every girl should receive such
training both in and out of school as to
consumrrate these desirable attachments.
Heretofore women have been taught that
the chief aim In life should be to attend
prayer meetings and learn how to die. L
hold that If We live right We will die right.
end the chief lesson for any human being
| is to learn how to live.
Many contend that the chief eld for
which a woman should receive training Is
| to be a wife and mother. There is no more
| reason or justice for this than there would
| be in training every boy to be husband
and father. / admit that such training
| for both girls and boys for these response
| BILE positions may be made incidental but
| never primary Again, 1t is usually be-
| iieved that every girl should trained
| TO be q housekeeper, with no other aim.
| 1t is fallacious to teach this as ii would
| be TO demand that every boy should be
trained TO plow and reap, making this the
| chief end in life. woman that could
| write an "Uncle Toms Cabin" that would
| strike the shackes from the lives of 4,0OO,-
| GOO slaves would doubtless fail in washing
q Ia nrha mo ha dam fc f0fr Of
/ q home, and she would have justifiabie
| right to fail. A Daniel Webster. General
| Grant or Wendell Phillips would be sadly
| out of place husking corn for a life occu-
patton.
The aim of all education should be to first
develop the best possible human being. be
IL man or woman; then let natural tenden-
| cies ana dominating tastes decide the life
work or the woman as well as the man
| If man wants a wife to do his kitchen
work, let him seek such an one. but he
| has no business to marry "A Harriet
| Beecher Stowe, expecting to make a three
dollar per week domestic out of her. There
| will always be plenty of domestics from
which 10 select, while there may be a
| corner on Stoves
| My plan for training a girl would be
| TO put her, in the first years of her school
| life, in the kindergarten which should be
! made part of the free-school system in
| every State IN the Union. Up to twelve
years of age she should be taught the
| three Rs and kindred rudimentary Eng
| lish branches. l would then require her to
| study hygiene with special reference to
| the care OF the body and the home. She
| should spend part of her time I'm learning
/ to do plain sewing and skilifui darning,
ond no girl should be permitted to graduate
| from the free schools until she could cut
| and make n simple, plain entire suit of
her wearing apparel. She should also learn
how to prepare wholesome meal and have
| thorough training in household manage
ment that her head may save the WEAKNESS
\ of her heels
/ Every free school should be thoroughly
| equipped TO give much of industrial
training as is necessary for everyday life
| The common English branches. with the in
strial training. are all the instructions
| which the free schools have any right TO
impart The dead languages and French.
German. Spanish Hottentot out of
| place in the free schools. Drawing and
| music. however. should be taught in all
| The common schools. for these train the
head end hand and sweeten the daily toll
| OF the schoolroom. The State should also
| supply the institutions for the higher and
/ special training. III a girl Is found TO
| possess superior talent in any direction,
| such as music. authorship art. archi-
| lecture, medicine. law or politics, domestic
1 science, platform or pulpit. then she should
4 he thoroughly equipped in these lines that
| nature has evidently laid down for her.
| and this should be done at the expense of
| the State. would make no difference in
/ the training of country or city girl, for
/ in this democratic land of ours a country
| girl stands rs good a chance 10 become the
| first lady of the land as the city-bred miss.
| If the State would train specialists under
| proper restraints and examinations. ttere
| would be more good housekeepers and
| fever half-taked Musicians and artists
The free schools are not educating too
| much as many claim. but much of the
| educating is misdirected. The daughter
| OF a day laborer, or slatterniy mother,
/ should be taught the arts of tidiness and
/ thrift and daily work in the free schools.
/ for IL not learned there the chances are
| that several generations will continue in
/ the habits of unthrift for the want of
| such training. The State can more eco
nornicaly educate its children than IL can
4 afford TO support ineapacity. Incidence and
| crime which are the direct fruits of not
| knowing how To do any work Well.
/ Not long since I was called TO a home
in this city TO administer charity. found