Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-06-04
THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF OUR
GIRLS.

In his address to the graduates of
Bryn Mawr President Taft took es-
pecial pains to dissent from the view
so many people still seem to enter
tain that a higher education units
women for the duties of wifehood and
motherhood, and results in the forma-
ton of a class of highly intellectual
spinsters, competing with men III the
world of business and professional
activity, and entirely missing the
happiness that is derived by woman
from womans particular and pecu-
liar sphere
The presidents remarks are entire
ly timely and we'll put. They have
their application in the South IS
in other sections The multiplica-
ton of colleges for the higher edu-
cation of girls is one of the signif-
cant trends of Southern development.
1t is with pride that Georgia points
to Wesleyan, the oldest woman's col
lege in the United States, and hears
of the continued uplift of the curri-
culum in the other leading female
educational Institutions. They are all
rapidly getting abreast of tie highest
type of such schools in the North.
The South has set its face toward
more and greater opportunities for
the higher education of it's girls, the
money win be forthcoming to equip
and endow such institutions, and the
fact that there are some men and wo-
men who fail to appreciate the value
of a high quality of mental as well as
spiritual and physical culture for the
future women of this section will not
in the least abate the generous ar
dor of those who are behind this
movement.
In speaking to the girl students Of
Bryn Mawr President Taft said:
1t is even suggested that the higher
| education of women rather units
them to discharge the duties of a wife
1'd mother; that u some manner or
0 he~ it ,obs them Of a charm aud
gives them an intellectual indapend-
ance that is inconsistent with Their
being the best wives and mothers. I
utterly dissent from this view.
utterly dissent from this view The
companionship of married life is the
chief charm and reason for it's be-
ing, so far as it relates to the two
persons concerned. The enjoyment
of the home with children and theI
training of them, of course, are
among the most important duties ana
pleasures of married life, and it GER
tainly does not detract from the
power of a woman to make good
companion or to teach nj train her
children up to high i#as that size
should have the advantage of higher
education. 1t is not essential that 4
woman who knows much should con-
form to the unattractive manner and
ways of the conventional blue stock
ing; that she should make the extent
of her knowledge source of discom-
fort to those with whom she asso-
ciates, or that she should lose her
interest in the sentiment and emotions
OF life, or fail to have an apprecia- !
ton OF beauty and romance.
| am quite ready to concede that
marriage and motherhood are a nor
NAL status for woman, and otLer
things being equal she is happier in |
that condition than in any other. BIT
this is far from saying that a woman's |
life is failure, because she has not
married and that her life may not be
a failure because she has married.
One of the great advantages Of
the higher education for woman, in |
my Judgment, is in the independence
that it gives her in the choice of the |
kind of life which She is to lead
l do not think we can estimate
the enormous advantage that the
present generation has enjoyed and |
that the future generations are to |
profit by in the increasingly sound |
and thorough education of mothers Of
families.
do not think we can estimate the
increased happiness that men and |
women have experienced who, as hus-
bands and wives, have enjoyed the
higher sense of companionship that IS
made possible by the intellectual sym
pathy and association of ideas be- |
tween two thoroughly educated peo-
pie
The higher education of women |
should be wrought without regard to +
either profession or matrimonial am
billions.