The Washington herald., 1917-08-27
The Problem Of the BOARDING. School.
By DOROTHY DIX.
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

= This is the time of year when the
burning question in thousands OF Fam
lily circles is whether Maude shall be
sent on TO boarding school or not.
Maude Is crazy to 60 because Mamie
Perkins and Sally Jones are going.
and she's heard lurid tales of the Joys
of stolen fudge parties. and because
her young soul cries out for change
and adventure. Mother wants Maude
to go because she wants Maude to
do everything that Maude wants to
do, but 1t breaks her heart to think
OF her little girl going away from her.
Father doesn't want her to go be-
cause 1t is so expensive. and because
he can't see the reason for paying
out hundreds of his good, hard dol
lars to send Maude OF to a school
that isn't whit better school than
the high school on the next block.
So the argument goes round and
round the family circle. And what
are they to do?
So far as my opinion goes, the one
determining factor in the case is
| money. If the family has plenty of
money by all means send Maude on
to boarding school. If the family
hasn't plenty of money keep her
home.
or course IL a girl has given unmis-
taxable evidence that she is a real.-
| genuine Observation-Disclosures genius,
then 1t is the bounden duty Of her
parents to make every possible sacri-
nee to give her the opportunity to
develop her talent. Also, IL the girl
| is a serious, sober minded, strenuous
young woman who has shown from
the cradle up that she is going to
make the sort OF a woman who will
lespouse a career instead OF a man, 1t
| is the business OF her father and
mother to give her the education that
will best enable her to fight her bat
tie with the world single handed.
But we are not talking of feminine
geniuses. or lady doctors. or lawyers
or teachers now, but of Just the ordl-
nary girly girlies who have nothing
heavier on their minds than their
| hair and whose only aspirations are
to have good time. catch nice hus-
| bands, settle down in comfortable
homes and have a few golden curled,
blue-eyed babies playing about their
feet
They are just sweet normal girls
the kind that keeps the world going
and whether such should be sent off
to school, when there's per-
fectly good school at home. depends
| altogether upon fathers pocket book.
II papa can afford 1t, without pinch
\ ing the balance OF the family, she
should go by all means.
So far as the girl herself is con-
cerned 1t is a highly educational ex-
perience independent OF what bhe
learns out Of books. To begin with,
Maude finds out for the first time in
her young life that she Is not the king
pin in the universe and that the sun
and moon do not wait upon her whims.
From the time she was born Maude
has been the most important thing in
her home. What she liked and didn't
like to eat determined the family
menu. IL she sulked everybody got
| busy trying to placate her. II she
had headache there was as much
ado about II as II some one was az
the point OF death.
| At school Maude shakes down into
her proper place in an over crowded
world. She's Just one Of the mass.
| Nobody Is interested in whether she
takes one spoon of sugar or two in
her coffee, or wants to hear about her
| little aches and pains, or notices
whether she's glad or sad, which is a
most wholesome experience for any
girl. No girl ever comes out OF a
boarding school wearing the same
sized hat she wore when she went in.
Likewise boarding school teaches a
girl self reliance and independence.