The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-05-26
EDITED BY PRUDENCE PRUDE

leads to the desired goal cannot De
travelled until constant hammering
breaks away the rocks of prejudice
and of custom which now bar the
way. This is not a problem of a
high school building. That / dare
say, will be settled by the voters in
their own good time. What ! wish to
discuss is the kind of knowledge
which will be impaired within the
walls of that building when it is err
ected. What are we making of our
girls? Do we desire educated fools
stuffed with complicated and unwieldy
masses of more or less futile knowl-
edge which will serve them no useful
purpose, or trained women capable
of doing a practical service in the
world? The answer is plain. Train
ed women, of course. Trained in
what? The answer is equally clear.
Trained in the performance of those
duties which will demand the larger
share of their attention after gradua-
ton. What are those duties? There
you have the problem and the situa-
ton and the solution in a nutshell
for who is to deny, in the face of
proven statistics that the majority of
High School maids and misses be-
come housewives and home mothers?
Then, if our logic is to be sustain
ed, we must train our girls in the
science of housekeeping and home
building, the hygiene and sanitation
of the home, the care of children,
the preparation of food in short, we
must give them the kind of equip
ment which enables them to take the
helm of the family ship in calm
hand with strength to steer through
the most troubled seas into smooth
harbors without danger of shipwreck
or mishap. Are we doing it? No.
What are we doing, pray? Study
the question from all viewpoints, an
lalyze it ,dissect it, the fact remains
we are examining our girls with dates
and dead languages, Intellectual dog
mas that have little relation to the
practical creed of living.
Only the ignorant make the plea
that we would thus rob girls of op
portunity for higher learning to which
they may be more or less adapted
The science of home making makes
sharpest demand upon the most bril-
liant intellect, the preservation of the
home, the most rigid demands on the
most powerful mental equipment. A
girl cannot be too well equipped for
the task which she meets. But, if all
their school training, elaborate and
exhaustive as it may have been, fails
them in the practical application of
theories to stern realities and exist
ing conditions which are not to be
brushed aside or run away from,
there has been a stupid blunder com-
mitted, and the unfortunate phase Of
the matter is that such a blunder
cannot be rectified or justice done
the victim of a wrong kind of educa-
ton.
The girl who leaves the school
room behind her and faces the world
with no ready weapons at hand, has
not the privilege of returning to the
, recitation room to readjust her equip
ment. Rather, she is forced to make
the best of what she has. That IS
where failures crop up, unhappiness
results and domestic catastrophes
rear their heads. If your girl leaves
the school room today with nothing
but the most haZy ideas as to what
constitutes the duties of the preserver
of the home nest, she has been done
rank injustice for which she will
sometime find cause to blame you.
She may be able to read her twenty
lines of Homer per day, or eXtricate
herself from the maZes of geometrical
problems with surprising celebrity
but, depend upon it, she will forget
it unless she remains in constant
practice such as would be required of
a teacher or worker in similar fields
Your girl and my girl and hun
dreds upon thousands of other girls
won't teach or go out into the world
or frequent the business offices. They
will marry and make homes and
then, if never before, unless your
daughter has been properly trained
in the science of preserving the home
and keeping its morals and its man
ners and it's personality pure and
clean and sweet, you will make the
discovery that your pride in
her education was falsely es-
tablshed Every commencement that
sees hundreds of girls pouring forth
from school house doors without the
equipment which should have been
instilled into them from childhood
signifies that the blunder is still be-
ing perpetrated. We are not educat-
ing our daughters, we have not edu-
Gated them, we will not have educat-
ed them until public opinion arouses
itself to demand the reform of the
High School curriculum and substi.
tutes for dead theories and impossi.
BILE idealism the practical ground.
floor course of household economics
domestic science and maintenance Of
the American home. When shall we
commence to advertise a course OF
common sense for girls?