The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-29
Dorothy Dir Says
BY DOROTHY DIX
worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer
The Problem of the Boarding school.

burning question in thousands of fam
lily circles is whether Maude shall be
sent off to boarding school or not
Maude is crazy to go 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 dc
everything that Maude wants to do,
but it breaks her heart to think of her
little girl going away from her Father
doesn't want her to go because It is SO
expensive, and because he can't see
the reason for paying out hundreds OF
his good, hard dollars to send Maude
off to a school that isn't a 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 off
to boarding school. If the family
hasn't plenty of money keep her
home.
OF course if a girl has given dnnais-
taxable evidence that she is a real,
genuine blown-in-t he-bottle genius,
parents to make every possible Sacri-
flee to give her the opportunity to de-
| velop her talent. Also, If the girl
! is a serious, sober minded, strenuous
young woman who has shown from
the cradle up RI she is going to make
the sort of a woman who will espouse
a career instea of a man, it is he
, business of her father and mother
to give her the education that will
best enable her to fight her battle
with the world single handed
But we are not talking of femi line
geniuses. or lady doctors. or lawyers
/ or teachers now, but of just the ordi-'
! nary girly girlies who have nothing
/ heavier on their minds than their
! hair and whose only aspirations are to
ban Is, settle down in comforta BILE
homes and have a few golden curIed.
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 perfectly
good school at home, depends alto
gether upon fathers pocketbook II
papa can afford it, without pinching
the balance of the family, she should
go by all means.
So far as the girl herself is con-
| cerned it is highly educational exper-
| fence independent of what she learns
finds out for the first time IN her
young life that she is not he king pin
. In the universe and that the sun and
moon do not wait uIsn her whims
from the time she was born Maude
mas been the most important thing in
her home. What she liked and didn t
IKE to eat determined the family
menu. If she sulked everybody got
pussy trying to placate her. If she
had a headache there was as much
II as Il
the point of death
At school Maude shakes down into
! frer1 proper place in an overcrowdetl
world She's just one of the mass.
NOBODY Is interested in whether she
takes one spoon of sugar or two in
ner co1fee, 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
Ihere's no mother to pick up after
her when she strews her clothing
about the floor, or to darn her stock
ings or think for her She must dc
these things for herself or take the
consequences, and boarding school is
most useful in this, that it gives tic
Maude the discipline that her mother
And it corrects Maude's manners
with a ruthless disregard of her feel
ings. Mother may have told Maude a
million times about spotting the ia BILE
cloth, and holding her fork as if IL
were pick axe, or eating soup audi
} bly,, and Maude paid no attention tc
1t, but one giggle of derisiol4 from the
other girls at her table cures Maude
effectualy of her little awkward
nesses.
Tho chief aro,,,,a,,+ 1
| vor of sending Maude off to a board
ing school is that it bridges oyel
peaceably and amiably the hobbIede.
hoy stage of girls life when she and
t her family are at dagger's points over
the question of beaux and parties and
the amount of liberty and privilege.
that she shall enjoy. Maude think.
she's grown up Maudes parent.
thing she is still lutte girl and il
consequence of these divergent opin.
ions they are eternally on each other.
nerves.
Let Maude have a year or two away
from home and by the time she get
back her parents have reconciies
themselves to the fact that their chile
has followed the universal human Gus
tom of growing up. and they are read,
to meet her on that plane and b,
friends and companions with her.
But in sending Maude off to :
! boarding school 1 would urge parent
above all else to pick out one that i
/ in accordance with their means an,
| where their daughter will he throw
with girls who are in her own socia
status. Nothing else is s. demora liz
! ing as for a young girl, at the mos
( unreasonable time of her life, to b
/; associated with girls who a, far rich
/ err than she is and who Rove in cir
} cles to which she may net hope L
penetrate.
They fill her mind with slse ideals
: They give her false standards of liv
ing and teach her extravagant habit
f and tastes that will be thu ruin of he
o. father and the man she rn7rries. an
!, make her miserable with unsatisfie
desires to the end of her ife.
So much for the advanta ges of tn
boarding school if the family is wei
to do. If the family is poor keep tn
e girl at home. There is nothing els
= on earth so pathetic the useless an