Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-08
The School Girl
and Her Studies
BIZ MARaAaEr e. sANasrEa.

ecopyright. 1905. by Joseph b Bowies,
- oRoTHY and have had an argu-
ment She declares that 1t isn't
worth while to work hard at q
thing she cannot understand. and
frankly desrises Despises u
strong word but have noticed that Dor
othy and other girls In the sunnyland OF
the early teens are wee bit given TO ths
use OF strong expression Perhaps they
don't intend to exaggerate and perhaps
they do feel that they must underscors
their words with vigorous emphasis or else
their listeners will only laugh. 1t IS
great trial to girls that grown people. peo-
pie fifteen or twenty years Older than
they, so generally seem to find them anus
ing and decline to take them seriously.
However. do take Dorothy seriously. and
when she tells me that she despises partial
payments and loathes complex fractions,
and never can find her way through the
puzzling labyrinth of compound interest.
feel very much like shaking hands with
her. I am not ashamed to tell you that
I have had my own troubles over those
very things. They are puzzling enough let
who may tell us the contrary. Yet l am
reluctant to believe that there Is anything
In the region Of school study that clever
girl cannot understand. cannot conquer ana
cannot make her own If only she sets her
will resolutely to the task, and gives 1t
her full and undivided attention. What
girls have done. girls may do, and for
one am always sorry when I see girl
ready to confess herself defeated.
l once knew a very successful teacher.
He was so enthusiastic about teaching,
so magnetic, full OF fiery energy and
of contagious fun that to be In one Of his
classes was a delight difficult to describe.
He compelled every girl to do her best
and he left the school room at the end of
the day with conviction not only that
he had done the best he could for his pu-
pills. but that they had willingly done their
best for him. One day l questioned him.
prof Blank, which do you prefer, a
clever girl or a stupid girl? Where do you
work hardest?
He answered with smile that lit up the
dark rugged face. How can you ask?
The clever girls are bound to learn; they
do not especially interest me or call forth
my efforts l find my greatest pleasure
In teaching the girls whom you call stupid,
but who simply haven't got hold of their
work at the right end l like to draw
them out I like to show them what they
can become. l like to help them up their
hills of difficulty. There is twice the re-
ward in teaching a dull pupil than there
is in teaching a bright one. You see it is
usually the case that the dull ones only
need waking up and that when they are
awake, they go on famously. while the
others acquire with such ease that they
are soon satisfied and their efforts flag"
l have never been quite sure in my own
l.
myself enjoy clever. keen witted, sparkling
girls like Dorothy and her sister Elizabeth,
but then, too, am very fond Of girls OF an
opposite type; girls like Janet and Nellie,
who have TO work very faithfully for all
they get in the school room I suppose the
truth Is that girls appeal to me just because
they are girls One thing know, and that
Is that II anybody, clever or dull, wishes to
attain high rank In study, she must grind.
Let me put 1t in capitals-GRIND! Work
hardest where you are least attracted. There
Is no particular credit to be attached to you
IL you learn with facility. A veteran editor
told me one day that the fatal flaw in the
work OF nine-tenths OF the youthful con-
trtbutors to his magazine was their facility.
''They do sketchy things and slovenly
things and superficial things" he said. be
cause they have never learned the value of
real work"
Girls, a tiny diamond flashing like dew
drop in the or single lustrous pearl or
green emerald holding the tints Of the deep
sea In It's flashing heart Is worth a CARLOAD
of rhinestones A very little bit of gold Is
worth more than yard OF gold leaf What
you win by resolute effort is yours forever.
You have not only gained a certain amount
OF knowledge. you have not only mastered a
certain theory found out how to state a
certain proposition, but you have mastered
yourself you have made your mind obey
you and you have become the reader to I'M
dertake the next thing that dares to battle
you.
/ wouldn't, II were Dorothy, say quite so
broadly that I despised what did not I'M
derstand. There is many a mystery that I'm
folds itself to us in strange beauty once we
have penetrated beyond its gates. There are
numbers of things that never reveal to US
their secrets simply because we haven't
learned their alphabet.
I cannot believe that any school girl of
today would unwillingly endure TO be class
ed among the lazy and the needless and
the trivial souls, who never see an inch of
the way before them. In your last vacation
when you went to the mountains you start
ed one morning on long jaunt. You walked
and climbed and toiled up a steep and brier-
haunted path scrambling here. slipping
there, now falling back, now advancing, but
always getting a little higher up After
awhile you reached place far up the
mountainside, where there was a grassy
plain. and there you stopped to rest You
were paid for all your trouble by the mag
niflcent prospect that lay before you It is
always worth while to climb, girls, and
there Is never disappointment when you
have reached the heights, but sometimes
there is hard work before you get there.
Usually you will find all through life that
she is best paid who works hardest at what
she does not 80 very much enjoy for the
moment. The time for enjoyment comes
when one has gained the victory.