The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1905-09-02
BY MARGARET E. sANGsTER.


BY MARGARET Z. SANGSTER.
Copyright, 1905. by Joseph B. Bowles)
Examinations loom large In school
life. because they are tests of prog
ress. When the school year Is at an
end, and you look back over its course,
as over journey from one point to
another, the examinations stand out
In some schools there are weekly tests.
in others reviews come monthly, and
in nearly every school there are half
yearly examinations which very fair
ly show the work that has been as
signed and demonstrate the faithful
ness with which it has been done.
A student whose work is fairly well
performed every day, who never brings
half-learned lessons to q recitation,
who never shirks task or accepts
help. instead of working out problems
for herself, need have no dread of ex-
aminations. They will take care OF
themselves. But there are girls who
have an easy way of Slipping through
their tasks, who are DOT at all
thorough, nor diligent, and yet who
manage to seem prepared when they
are just the reverse have known
such girls, brilliant and superficial,
who glanced over their work at the
last moment, and hoped for an easy
question, or who rocked as IL they
knew so much that the teacher passeI
them over, and put her query to a
duller girl in the next seat. These
sketchy girls when examination time
comes are obliged to Cram They
spend frantic hours in making up in
a hurry what ought to have been at
their fingers ends throughout the
term. They possibly pass a written
examination, and send in pa3ers that
receive high marks. Blu. in the end
they will be distanced by other girls
who were faithful all through.
Girls who are merely clever are like
merchants who put all their goods in
the shop windows, and have nothing
on the shelves. Unless we have plenty
to draw from besides what we put
in front for the public to see, We shall
soon find our working capital exhaust
ed, and our resources hopelessly
crippled.
wonder if you understand pre-
cisely what I mean? 1t is so impor-
tant that a woman should in these
days be equipped at every point, for
her home life or her business o2por-
tunities, or her profession, whatever it
may be, that no girl at school can af-
ford to waste her opportunities. You
have been told over and over until
the words seem but an idle tale, that
you are in life's morning, that these
are your best days, and that If you do
not make the most of the present, 1t
will never be in your power to re-
trieve the loss.
Half the time you listen to this sort
of preaching with bored resignation,
when it comes from parents and
teachers. But dear girl, 1t is true.
The mill will never grind again with
water that is passed. What you lose
to-day you cannot gain tomorrow.
The real value of education to girls,
is that it is preparing them to take
their places in the world, and to make
the world better in days to come. A
girl who does not make the mos. of
her time in school will not only be
sorry later on, but will be surpassed
by others less clever than herself, but
more conscientious.
Occasionally one meets q very COM
monrlace woman who has few ideas,
no conversation, and very little influ-
ence. People pass her by without
paying attention to anything she says,
and express surprise when told that
she is a graduate of some conspicuous
college. How did she ever manage
to secure diploma? may be asked.
Well, there may be more than one
explanation. She may have done her
work mechanically, or she may have
had a remarkably good memory, or
she may have studied hard for exam
nations and used up her strength too
lavishly. Unless one is developed
Systematically in brain and heart and
body, she will have to take a back
seat in the audience when others are
on the platform, directing the pur-
poses of the assembly. She will be
in the rear, and the procession will
finally drop her from its ranks.
want to say something to encour-
age the dull girls, who have to work
tremendously for all they secure. In
talking one day with noted educator,
a man under whose eyes hundreds of
pupils had passed, and who had made
q profound study of the possibilities of
young people, / was impressed with
something he said. 1t was this: 81
am not very much interested in the
clever and brilliant girls who toss off
their work as IL it were a bagatelle.
They may be trusted to achieve some
good results. unless they depend too
much on their native quickness, or
they prove failures. A plodding pupil
who has to wage battle for every
] inch of ground gained, awakens my en-