Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-02-08
COLLEGE TRAINING
Study of Many Branches Is Not Al
ways Higher Education
WHAT THE 'NOBLEST MISSION" MEANS
Advantages Now Easy to Secure
Are Good for Many.
LIES STRESS AND STRAIN

Written for The Evening Star by Mary Lowe
1t may take another generation, perhaps
two, to furnish a sufficient number of re-
liable facts to prove the advantage or dis
advantage of what we call higher educa-
ton to girlhood and motherhood in gem
eral, but its influence on a young woman
| here and there can be tested anywhere at
any time. though such tests supply only
varying hints instead Of reliable data for
| definite conclusions.
| If, in the absence of abundant and relia-
| BILE facts, our theories rest largely upon in
| fluence, and our differences are based upon
| knowledge of womanly tendencies, it viii
be because up-to-date journalism does not
choose to wait two, or even one. generation
for its copy. If there is enough in the OBJ
servation and experience of today to lead
us to infer that college is good for the girl
Of today, we will send her to college. Nor
Will we wait to say what We think of its
advantages or disadvantages until she fin
lshes her course; certainly not until she
mas passed through the training classes of
wifehood and motherhood in that highest of
all institutions of learning, the home.
AT the outset, let us avoid the mistake Of
supposing that the passing through col
iege course is necessarily higher educa-
ton" Influenced by the desire to give our
girl just good advantages as any other
girl, many of us are sending into the COL
leges girls who would be better and do bet
ter outside. The dudish boy, whose father
said of him, Yes, l sent him to the best
schools, but he didn't care; he just went
through on his cuffs" has his feminine
counterpart. We have all heard of the
young woman whose parent was told by
her professor, Your daughter is very
painstaking-and (she is very pretty)-truly
an ornament to her class. She seems, L
In 1~,,+
And we all know the reply, why, then,
didn't you buy her one? You know we told
you to get everything she needed without
regard to expense.
But, il lads who think more of their cuffs
than Of all the learning of the sages are
few, the lasses of corresponding type are
fewer. 1t must be admitted that even the
average college girl is eager to rank high
in her class, and willing to work for her
place. The girl above the average is eager
to learn, to know, to grow, to gain. and it
goes without saying will need no stimulant
to toll
Using Advantages.
This eagerness does not, in either case,
go far to prove that what they get at coll
lege fits them for the divine mission of
motherhood better than could be done else
where, for much less depends upon the col
lese than upon the girls. Their gain will
be measured by their measure of intelli-
gence, Of pluck, Of previous development,
of faculty for genuine work 1t depends,
too, on their own conception of what the
higher education ought to be expected to
give to them. If we-against whom in our
youth the college doors were barred-should
be careful to estimate fairly the advanta ges
of college training. all the more should
these younger sisters, to whom all doors
swing wide, enter the treasure house of
knowledge well aware Of what equipment
they need, and knowing how to use the
supplies that lie on every hand.
Whatever the college gives will fit
young woman for motherhood just SO far
as 1t trains all her faculties and makes
them ready for her use in any other career.
We send our boys to college that their
mental powers may be disciplined to meet
Hfe's stress and strain, In whatever form
it arises. Special training for special
fields comes afterward when the field is
chosen. Special training there ought to be
for home life, for motherhood's RESPONSE
bilitfes and cares; but no special training
ever supplies the lack of disciplined mental
powers. These the mother should possess
without regard to what else may or may not
be her preparation. Her mental training
makes her mistress of her own forces 1t
gives her weapons into her own hands. 1t
aids her to put On her armor and when the
time comes for the marching along" she is
ready and brave, like true Christian SOL
der, instead Of undecided, mpty-handed
and weak And. because. Of all careers,
motherhood is the highest how reasonable
that for its sake the highest mental train
ing should be given.
A Grain of Truth.
No saying is more quoted than The hand
that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules
the world" There is a grain of truth in
the words There would be more IL only
the world would stay in its cradle. But
every mother learns that there Is wide
distinction between rocking and ruling
While her world Of babyhood Is waiting
to be hushed to sleep she may rock her
cradle and Groom her lullaby. But when
the baby becomes the young man. pushing
eagerly forward into world where many
mother can follow only with her prayers,
the strain that shall stir him to noble deeds
Is not found in a cradle song.
Always and everywhere her prayers
should go after her boy-compassing him
abetlt like outspread wings Of watchful love
but the woman who has known how to
win her own college course has more than
prayers to offer-knows, indeed how. also
to be one Of the college comrades OF her
son. We have known wise mothers who
having missed early opportunities, finding
1t late for severe study, yet read transla-
lions Of all the Latin and Greek course and
worked hard in many other directions, that
In all new fields of knowledge, they might
keep step with their boys. -s =
But" says some one, their boys did not
want their mothers to keep step. College
days are young fellows time to be with
other fellows"
Loves and Leads, Too.
Some truth In that but trust a mother
bright enough to do the college work of her
son. to be bright enough not to make her
self a nuisance-not to bore him with her
knowledge. Trust her to find other ways
than the rocking and coddling, that many
mother keeps up her whole life long, some
times because it is the only thing she knows
how to do. If she stands in the way of her
baby's becoming a man-if she keens a
rocking and find by and by that some wo-
man with brains is ruling, it will be be-
cause she did not claim her scepter when
she might-because she only helplessly loved
when she might have helpfully led
II We gathered in one great company the
disappointed mothers. who, with silent
heartache. have seen their boys drift away