Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-09-03
HOW SHALL WE EDUCATE OUR
GIRLS?
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Highest Paid Woman Writer

ONCEDING, as. most people do,
that marriage is the chief end Of
~ woman, and that d woman as a
general proposition is happiest her
erlf and OF most use to the world
when she follows the ancient aVoca'
ton of. wife and mother, how shall
We best fit our girls for this career!
How shall we educate them? What
shall We teach them so that they may
capture husbands in the first place,
and hold their husbands after they
capture them in the second place?
Shall we teach them domesticity or
dancing? Shall we teach them the
differential calculus or the different
ways OF flirting? Shall we teach
them how to roll their eyes effec;;
lively or efficiency in rolling per-
ambulator?
A Western millionairess has at
tempted to solve this great problem
of female education by having her
young daughter taught all the arts of
allurement-how, to dance, how To
dress. how to play and sing, and CO.
quette-without wasting any time on
such prosaic matters as reading, writ
ing and 'rithmetic.
This girls parents were arraigned
in the probate court of their city for
neglecting her education, and in JUS
tifying their course the mother said
that inasmuch as every woman of
good fortune and family had to fight
with chorus girls, cabaret dancers,
actresses and singers, vampires and
coquettes, for the interest and affec-
ton Of men, a wife's only safety COLI
sisted in being able to beat profess
sional fascinators at their own game.
This is a novel and interesting sug-
gestion of how to solve one of the
Oldest and most difficult problems in
the world, but, alas, it has one fatal
defect. II does not provide any way
of keeping the wife perpetually young
and beautiful, and this is absolutely
necessary in dealing with the type OF
man whose ideal of perfect home
is a place that you can go to when
the curfew rings in the cafes.
The theory that IL you teach
girl to dance like ballerina her
husband will fox trot down the years
with her without wearying, or that
If she knows every move IN the game
of filtration that she can Keep him
always romantic and signing lover,
is a good one. The only trouble with
il is that, like so smany other good
theories, it doesn't work out in actual
practise. Facts are facts. A mans.
wife is his wife. Age will come. Gus
tom will stale. And the man who
finds his greatest interest In life in
dancing and flirting is bound 10 have
a change of partners, somebody al
ways younger and fresher, to give
zest to the game, even IL his wife is
past mistress Of both arts.
Equally fallacious is the idea that
a man finds coquetry as alluring in
the home circle as out of 1t. before
marriage il undoubtedly stimulates a
mans interest in a girl and his de.
sire for her IL she keeps him guess
ing as to the state of her affection
and whether she really prefers him
to some other man. But after mar.
rage. trust and faith are essential
to domestic peace and happiness, and
the strongest hold that any wife has
upon her husband is Just his surety
of her unfaltering devotion and the
knowledge that no matter If all the
world turned against him she would
stand unfalteringly at his side.
Undoubtedly, however, the mascu-
line moth is eternally attracted by
glare and glitter and the girl who is
pretty, and snowy, and smartly
dressed, and who is good dancer,
and who has the best repertoire of
tricks and wiles, has men swariihg
around her like bees around honey
pot, while her prim, demure, domes-
tic, puritanical sister is left TO paper
the wall, with never man in tele-
phoning distance of her.
That's fact No. /. Fact No. is
that although a man may be daught
by glare and glitter, he doesn't often
desire to spend the balance of his life