The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-08-24
The Romance Of Modern Educatom-The Little Girl : :

ter will send her to such a school, even
though it involves a sacrifice. Yet, as
there is current in some quarters the
utterly unfounded belief that these
schools for girls are social rather than
educational, it may be we'll to ask and
to answer the important question:
What do these schools teach and how
well do they teach it?
Not Schools for Snobs.
And here let us be perfectly frank
IN discussing the issue involved. For
reasons which need not be dwelt upon,
some have found it policy to discredit
the educational standards of our
schools for girls, or else to decry them
as schools for snobs." Were there the
least foundation for this, one might
question the wisdom Of intrusting a
girl to such teachers, for one feels that
while one wishes a girl to have the
advantage of every honorable tradi-
ton, one expects the girl to know the
things she is supposed to learn. But
the facts will dissolve any doubt that
may reasonably exist in the minds of
any one, and the facts may be stated
concisely: in the girls schools of Vir-
ginia there is to-day the highest
standards of efficient work the State
has ever known. Every year marks
an improvement in the curriculum;
every year sees new record estab-
lished
Our girls are not veneered with
smattering of literature" of history"
so-called, of the history of art" and of
alleged Conversations" French. They
are grounded in the rudiments of
sound learning, and they are founded
on the bedrock of Latin, mathematics
and grammar. Before they are allowed
to wander into the pleasant by-paths
of culture, they are conducted along
the highways of true scholarship, and
they are sent to the colleges we'll
equipped with the very best prepare
tory training that can be given.
Take, for instance, the training in
Latin which is given our little girls in
the best preparatory schools of the
State. Some may think it superficial;
others may think it unnecessary some
may even scott at.the idea of trying to
teach a young girl Latin But the
parent who will examine the course in
this great fundamental subject has a
surprise in store for him. Realizing
that without Latin, English can never
be mastered, our preparatory school
principals drill their girls admirably in
grammar, carry them through the
Gallo War of Casar-when will we
ever substitute a more suitable text
for this bloody narrative and ground
them well in Cicero, before they admit
them to the college examinations. One
might name half-a-dozen schools for
girls where the tuition in Latin will not
compare unfavorably with that of the
best boys preparatory schools.
Learning English.
Or take the training in English
language and literature which is given
our girls in the preparatory schools.
Here the object in view is twofold-
first, to give the girls mastery of the
mother tongue that will enable them
to write and to express themselves
properly, and, second, to familiarize
them with the great works of our beau
tiful literature. AS for the latter, one
has only to question the pupil at any
one of the girls schools mentioned in
this section to see how well they are
learning English literature and how
truly they appreciate it. The girls are
not allowed to know Shakespeare
through Lambs Tales only, or to think
themselves masters of our literature
when they have read the "Idyls of the
King" and Mrs. Browning's Sonnets.
They are carried from piers Plow-
man" to Robert Louis Stevenson, and
they know literature far better than
some of us who may boast academic
degrees.