The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-06-17
Schoolgirls Sometimes
Are Too Ambitious
BY MARGARET E. sANesTER.

Is there such thing as useless
knowledge knowledge which is in it
self rubbish, only fit to be slowed away
in the Iumber-room of the mind?
suppose teachers will take excep-
ton to the statement, but I am more
and more inclined to think that a great
deal that they .@abOriously teach, and
schoolgirls labCS 5usly learn, might as
well be dropped wholly out of the cur
riculum. We are all aware that what
remains TO US a few years after we
have finished our school education is,
50 far as facts are concerned. excessive
~. small What the schools have done,
If they have wrought well, has been to
give us mental facility and disciplined
powers. The question is pertinent
whether, for girls, they do this in the
best way
What ought you, a schoolgirl to &C
euire in order TO be prepared for your
work in life?
1t depends, of course, somewhat on
your future IF you are TO earn your
bread by the toll of hands or brain,
you must be taught application, con-
CentratiOn. perseverance and PUnCtual-
ity, Without these good working quail
titles no girl viii succeed in any trade,
from dressmaking to novel writing
WOman's great weakness lies in the 0i-
rectiOn of inatteuhOn, inconSequence
and responsibility. and these defects
hamper her in the world of business
and fatally retard her progress.
The schools should cultivate in girls
these forcefuI and Indispensable quail
ties as part Of the equipment for fight
ing the WOrld-battle. If arithmetic, al
zebra and geometry or Latin and
French or physics and economies are
best calculated TO promote this sort Of
mental and moral growth, by all means
let our young girls study them. But
one young girl should not have 20 spend
all her time and all her strength during
the golden years of school and college
work in mastering them all For the
practical purposes of life the schools
attempt too much and crowd it into too
short a time in the education Of giTas.
Schoolgirls are naturally aspiring and
ambitious. They respond swiftly to the
spur of an enthusiastic teachers de
sires. They are always ready to under
take anything that Is suggested and to
work until the point OF exhaustion 1
am not speaking of the idle or the inert
or the apathetic type Of girIhOod, but
of girlhOOd in the mass, when l assert
that it does not hold back from the
pace that kills.
Boys cannot easily be pressed beyond
p certain mark Girls see the mark and
Try to go beyond it. And in doing so
they often accumulate a lot of useless
and worthless knowledge which never
does them or any one else a particle of
good, and which might better be let
alone, especially as it gathers dust and
rust in forgotten pigeOnhOleS.
If a girl is TO spend her maturity as a
hOme-maker, as a home daughter, or
later as a wife or a mother, she requires
4
erudtion as whatever tends TO promote
common sense. self-rstraint and genu-
inc kindness, and to eliminate egOiSm.
Women at home must be altruistiC
Then. too. a girl who would shine in
the home and hold her own in society
must have culture and charm If the
schools help TO form her character OF
strong and simple lines and to give heI
courage as well as sweetness, they dc
more for her than if they enable her tC
pass puZZliTEg examinations on multi
form difficult subjects
Far be it from me to blame either
girls or their teachers for the great and
foolish waste that Is forever taking
place in matters educational Prima-
rily parents are the people most al
FAULT.
The other day an advertisement ap-
.peared in a widely read weekly period
zeal, which ran to the following effect
The words are not precisely quoted, but
here is the gist of the advertiser
WANTED
To take eTtire charge OF a little cir
of 10, a young woman who is a college
graduate She must be fond of chill
dren, in robust health and between tn,
ages of - and 80. Must have had ex
perience in similar positions and b,