The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-06-27
COLLEGE BRED WOMEN.

In a recent number of popular
magazine there is brief exposition
by the heads of seven American col
leges, devoted exclusively to the high
er education of women, of the ideals
aimed at by the woman colleges and
concerning the life mission of the COL
lege-bred woman. There is not
very great diversity of view among
the seven distinguished educators in
the setting forth of the results broadly
aimed at in the higher education of
women. Service to her generation,
to her race-that, in nutshell, is the
ideal for their graduates at which the
women's colleges are aiming. This
thought of service and of a highly
trained capacity for service is express
ed in practically every one of the
papers contributed under the head
Our Leading American Colleges Are
Aiming to Produce. -
The sweet girl graduate Is finish
ed product, but not society orna-
ment; not simply and merely for dec
orative purposes. She has been train
ed to work. One president of cele-
brated New England institution de-
clares 'the colleges have no SYM
pathy with the view that it is undig-
nifed to work rather, they believe
that it is beneath the dignity of
human being not to work" The head
of another institution that is main
tanning high level in the education
of women believes that the higher
education for women ''is substituting
for the weak and vain ambitions of
what is called society m b bitions
worthy of spiritual and intellectual
womanhood." And another distin-
guished college president expresses
the view that for the ideally trained
woman service to others is an essen
tial condition of her life and growth.
Contact with noble minds through
study Of books and through personal
association will make her eager to
throw herself into the great struggle
of humanity. Snobbishness, clannish-
ness and self-seeking have no place
where truth reigns."
Not one of the college presidents
concur in that view which has at times
been given expression, that college
training units women for domestic
life-for being wives, mothers and the
superintendents of homes. In an
swering the question, "What kind of
woman should the college producer"
the head of Massachusetts, woman's
college replies women like that
mother of family in a Western city,
who is a commissioner of public
schools, who looks well to the ways
of her household and yet Is a most
valued and efficient public servant"
The suggestion of another of the
commentators upon the collegebred
woman's mission is that "the college
woman learns to be adaptable, to
Judge dispassionarely- qualities quite
as desirable in the home as in the
study or the classroom. And an
other declares that "the home, the
church and society need women who
can think, who love the truth, who
are courageous, who are public-spirit-
ed, efficient, eager for service, and are,
withal, sincere, gentle, sympathetic
and womanly."
No, the sweet girl graduate is not
merely a finished art work, however
much she may look to be thing per-
feet and completed when viewed across
the footlights as she appears in her
graduating glory. Her commence
ment day marks commencement In
her life mission, and her life mission
Is not by any means, according to
those who should be well qualified to
speak for her, to be ''the butterfly
along the road" "