The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-08
EDUCATIONAL LINE FOR GIRLS.

EDUCATIONAL LINE FOR GIRLS.
 This is essentially a practical age. We are so absolutely bewildered by the wealth of things which we desire to study. by the good and instructive books which we wish to read, by the different lines of work which we de- sire to pursue, that we are obliged to make a choice of what we really need most to carry us through life.
 The present requirements for admis- sion to college are such that school meeting these requirements, is the best possible education for young girl, whether she goes to college or wheth- CT she considers her education be fin- ished with this preparatory work The demands of the college for thorough and advanced work in English are just what an English-speaking girl needs most essentially in her preparation for life. The years of study of the mod ern languages which the college re- uuires, the ability to converse easily and understand perfectly in the class room all that Is said in the foreign tongue, certainly prepare the girl most thoroughly for the natural and every day uses of the language in travel or in society. Formerly the study of for eign languages was an accomplish ment, an ornament of education; now 1t is looked upon as a simple neces- sity.
 A regular college preparatory school is naturally better adapted to prepare girls for college than another school, equally good in other respects, but having various aims and objects. I speak now of a preparatory school which is officially recognized by the large, weli-known colleges of the land, and which has received from one or more of them. the certificate privilege.
 In such schools the necessary prepar- alton is begun so early in the pupils regular course that the need of hasty. nerve taxing and imperfect work is an unknown thing. One of the great est fallacies is that of attempting, in one or two years, to do the work of four years. It is necessarily poorly and imperfectly done, even if it be pos sfbIe to do it at all. Facts thus learn ed remain abstract facts, but do not enter into the real, inner conscious ness of the pupil-in other words. they are not assimilated.
 The study of the modern languages should commence, if not in the pri- mary department at least in the inter- mediate. First one foreign language, then the next year, or after two years, another should be taken up, and these should be continued throughout the four years of Latin work.
 The Germans are universally ac- , knowledged to be the best students in every line of work. A long, careful and 2 personal investigation of German methods, covering a. period of nearly eight years, has taught me the value of years of earnest, conscientious work. A German girl enters school at six wears of age. At seven, or latest, at eight. she commences French. The fol- lowing year. she adds to this, English, and she carries these languages as long as she continues at school.
 The German boy studies not only the modern languages in this way. but also the Latin. It is required in the gymnasium schools in Berlin that, one day in each week, Latin shall be the language of the classroom. Conae- ouentIy 1t is an ordinary thing in Ger many, to hear a lengthy and interest ing conversation carried on in Latin
 Al well-regulated school-life should he. for a normally developed child from the primary through the college and university courses, a constant great joy--never a burden, never a cause of worry or Anxiety. The joy of learning, of discovering for ones self ahe wonderful things in the world, in