The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-07-30
School Girls and Mathematics.
By Marparet E. Sandster

don't blame you much. Dorothy. for
your great dislike of mathematics.
have never particularly enjoyed study
ing them for my own part, and I have
always looked with respectful wonder
and almost awe on other people who
have professed to find them delightful.
Yet, my dear the girl next you in the
class may approach this subject in a
quite different mood from yours She
may fully enjoy the abstract and con-
crete principles OF the science OF num-
bers; may fairly revel IN difficult prop
ositions, and may regard the hou~ for
algebra, trigonometry or whatever else
it may be as the most exhilerating hour
Of the day. Not infrequenuy two sisters
may be entirely in contrast when the
question concerns this abstruse and. on
the whole, formidable study; one may
love Il as much as the other Ioathes il.
You need not expect to- receive much
help from the people at home when you
are puzSling over diagrams, examples
and problems in mathematics Most of
us, after our school days, remember
enough OF what we learned there to en-
able US TO foot up household accounts.
and to see that We do not oyerrun our
weekly or monthly income. But we do
not retain much more.
If we are thOughtless persons. we are
apt to regret that we were compelled to
spend a lot Of time over things we did
not like when there were so many other
things that would have given us a great
deal of pleasure.
But, Dorothy, stop moment before
you condemn your teachers for insist
ing on making mathematics the test of
your scholarship. In the first place. il
is good for most Of us to do what we
don't very much want TO do. We are
better FOR being compelled to exercise
some self-denial. You and 1 are bound
TO meet obstacles of one sort or another
all along the road of life. If we are
towards, we shah SILVER and shake and
turn away and look for some little by
path by which we may avoid the issue.
If, on the contrary, we are brave, we
shall go boldly up to the thing in our
path, and see whether it cannot be put
aside. In order to get along credita bly,
in this world, every one Of us must have
a good supply of moral courage and real
force of character. These tasks of the
schOOlroom are chiefly valuable because
i'm them there is hidden the element
which turns the raw recruit into a SOL
der the element called drill You get
an enormous amount of drill for your
mind when you study mathematics.
You may not find ii agreea BILE, but that
does not matter. The fruit viii be
reaped later on.
You need not laugh at me, Dorothy.
when tell you that a girl who has
been thoroughly trained and disciplined
by struggles with mathematics. that for
her mean conquest, viii bear herself
much more finely than one who has
spent her time dawdling over lessons
that never taxed her powers. For in
stance, it is a shame for a woman TO
scream when she sees a Door little
mouse scuttling as fast as il can out
or the closet or to go into fits when n
Dat or spider or some other uncanny
creature crosses her field of vision.
Women who do this are women who
nave never had any practical drill i'm
selt-controi. You may not know il. but
there is the greatest peril to women in