CHAPTER XVII

_WHAT SCHOOLING SHOULD THE COUNTRY GIRL HAVE?_

Perhaps it need not be urged that the country girl be provided with the same general educational advantages as those outlined for the country boy, as the plain demands of justice would mean as much. She, too, must be thought of as possessing all the beautiful latent possibilities, and high ideals of personal worth and character should be constantly entertained for her in the minds of her parents. And then, they must allow no ordinary business concern about the farm home to stand in the way of her unfoldment in the direction of these higher ideals.

SPECIAL PROBLEMS RELATING TO THE GIRL

Over and above those provisions which relate to the general development of the country boy there are several special considerations in reference to his sister. For example, she has a more delicate physical organism which must be shielded, especially at times, against the heavy drudgery that will naturally fall upon her willing shoulders. And then, the standards require of her rather more of refined manners than they do of her brother. Moreover, it may be shown that a refined and attractive personality will become a larger asset in her life than in his. Comeliness and habitual cheerfulness and numerous other like qualities must be thought of as necessary and helpful characteristics of the well-reared country girl. It will also be much to her advantage to have some special training in at least one of the so-called fine arts. Let her have her musical education or some advanced work in literature or painting. A sum of money invested in something of this sort while the daughter is growing may be considered a far better investment than if the same amount were laid away to invest in a dowry.

PROTECTING THE GIRL AT SCHOOL

It is not merely obligatory that the farmer send his young girl to the district school regularly, and thus round out her nature symmetrically through instruction in all the common branches. The delicate nature of the normal girl requires far more protection than is often accorded it. Unlike the city walks and pavements, the country road leading to the schoolhouse is often menaced by muddy sloughs, tall vegetation, and deep snow banks. Wading through such places, especially in bad weather, gives undue exposure, the feet frequently becoming wet and the body thoroughly chilled. Many children sit all day in the schoolroom in this condition. As a result of the lowered vitality the incipient forms of various diseases enter the body, there perhaps to return intermittently and with more serious effects as the life advances.

What may be done as preventive measures, it is asked. Simply this: Prepare a better road from the home to the schoolhouse, by putting in foot crossings over ravines, by mowing weeds and grass, by filling and draining low places, and the like. On stormy days and on occasions when the young adolescent girl is passing through her monthly period of weakness--one especially endangering the health--it will be advisable to provide a conveyance to school and back.

Country parents also often need to be cautioned in regard to over-working the school girl. Some even require her to do practically the same amount of work as she could well endure were there no extra burdens at school. Manifestly, this is both unjust and injurious. Observe the conduct of the young school girl for a few days. If there is no song and laughter in her life; if she is not ruddy in complexion and buoyant of step; if she mopes and drones about the place; do not censure her, but seek a constitutional cause and watch for evidences of an over-requirement of work.

The close inspection of the health of school children, now conducted in many cities, brings out the somewhat startling fact that many boys and girls come to the class room every morning fatigued and depressed beyond the point of effective study. The old way was to call them dullards, to punish them, to shame them out of the school, to humiliate their parents. The new method of dealing with such children calls for scientific measures. First, the exact conditions are ascertained by experts; second, the parents are urged and helped to provide for the child more sleep, better food, more fresh air in the living chambers, more recreation, a relief from over-work, or some special medical care--as the particular case may demand.

If one wishes full evidence of the effective gain for studentship that results from the new manner of treatment of the dull and backward pupil, let him examine the many reports of individual cases as published in the _Psychological Clinic_ at the University of Pennsylvania, especially the issues of 1909-1910. The indifference or the thoughtlessness of country parents may easily allow for the existence of the foregoing bad physical conditions in the case of their own daughter, and as a result her otherwise promising life may become permanently blighted.

LESSONS IN MUSIC AND ART

The ordinary farmer needs to learn to take more pride in his daughter and in her accomplishments. The time will come when he will be far more proud of her wealth of character than he will be of her wealth of material goods. A country father of moderate means bought a first-class piano for his two girls and employed a music teacher. "You may think that I cannot afford such things," said he. "But I can. I am running this farm for the good it will do my family." He was a true philosopher, as well as a successful farmer.

It is entirely practicable and most helpful to her development to provide that the country girl be given instruction in music, or art, or something special and advanced in the form of needlework. In its best sense this special instruction will not be thought of as vocational training, but rather as a necessary manner of giving permanent expression to her æsthetic nature. The author believes that the matter should be stated even more emphatically. That is, not to give the normal girl some such means of indulging her æsthetic tastes is seriously to neglect her education, if not to do her a permanent wrong.

While vocational training and economic advantages are important secondary considerations in connection with the daughter's instruction in the fine arts, the father who helps her become an amateur in one of these lines thereby renders her a splendid service for life. It is neither very difficult nor very expensive to arrange to have the girl go to the near-by town or to a neighbor's once or twice per week where she may receive competent instruction in music or painting. To make the arrangement most effective there will need to be a musical instrument in her own home, a conveyance at her ready disposal, and a regular allowance of time for practice. No just and affectionate parents can deny their young daughter any fewer advantages than these, if the means for securing them can at all be acquired.

THE REWARD WILL COME IN TIME

The lessons in painting or fine needlework may be provided for in the same way. If the expense seems heavy, the far-sighted parents will think of their declining days of the future and imagine the large return the daughter may render them through the skill which they have been instrumental in developing in her.

But without waiting for old age to overtake them the father and mother of the girl artist may derive some benefits from her work. She may furnish the table service with hand-painted chinaware or adorn the walls of the home with attractive paintings. And also, as heretofore indicated, the daughter may herself in time conduct a class of amateur students of the fine art in which she has made preparation.

One word of precaution must be offered in reference to the training here considered. In the usual case the girl is not started young enough. Her advancement in the music, for example, is likely to be much more rapid and her skill much more marked, if the age nine to eleven, rather than five or six years later, be chosen as the beginning time. The author has witnessed many pathetic instances of adult girls in a desperate attempt to master the mechanical part of the introductory music. The extra amount of desire and effort possible at this more advanced age do not nearly compensate for the better memory and the greater facility of hand and finger movement possible at the earlier age. This same general law of early beginning probably holds good in respect to the other fine arts.

In relation to all the foregoing seemingly trivial matters there comes to mind what is perhaps the most serious problem that confronts practically every well-reared young woman; namely, that of her successful marriage to a worthy young man--a subject to be discussed at length in another paper. And so it is contended that if her future happiness or well-being be a consideration, if the realization of her fondest hopes and her instinctive desires be worthy of the thought of her parents; then, they must by all means see that some of the foregoing refining qualities become woven into her whole character during the formative period. Thus she may be given practically every possible advantage in finding that true life companion.

THE MOTHER'S OFFICE AS TEACHER

In his usual familiar and straightforward way "Uncle" Henry Wallace thus addresses the country mother through the medium of an editorial in _Wallaces' Farmer_:--

"It is the mother that shapes and molds the character of the girl. If she is sweet spirited, looks out upon the world hopefully and desirous of seeing the best in men and women, her daughters will as a rule have the same sort of outlook. If she permits gossip and fault-finding at the table, her daughters may reasonably be expected to do likewise. If she sharply criticises the preacher's sermon at the Sabbath dinner, she need not expect her daughters to become devout. If she is a poor housekeeper, how can she expect her daughters to excel in that finest of all arts? We know something of the depth and tenderness of a mother's love, how earnestly she seeks the welfare of her daughter; but if she has a wrong conception of what is best in life, even this unspeaking affection may be the source of evil instead of good.

"One of the first things you should consider about that girl of yours is her health. Give her plain food and plenty of it, sensible clothing, a well-ventilated and well-lighted room, and all the exercise that she wants, even if she does seem to be something of a tomboy; and, barring accidents, she will usually be healthy through early girlhood. When she begins to develop into womanhood is the time for you, mother, to do what no one else can. Tell her about herself, about the changes that must come, and about the care she must take of herself if she is to be a healthy and happy wife and mother. A mistake here through false modesty is often the source of trouble for years to come."

HOME-LIFE EDUCATION

This book is based on the assumption that every good young woman is good for something of a practical nature. In considering the make-up of such a character, it seems reasonable to assert that no other qualities stand out more prominently than the trained ability to carry on successfully the work of the household. The necessary drudgery of the home life seems to be the greatest burden that modern society has placed upon women. Proportionately great should be the preparation to bear this burden. The ideal to be realized is, perhaps, not that the girl may be enabled to do more of such work, but that she may be trained to be true mistress of it. Woman's work is never done, and it never will be, no matter how many worthy women kill themselves in an attempt to finish it. So the greatest thing to be desired in respect to this unending round of toil and drudgery is that of a well-poised, spiritually-minded character, such as may enable its possessor to sit down at the end of a working period unusually long and in spite of the confusion and unfinished business restore the composure and keep in touch with the higher implications of life.

It is not really a difficult matter to teach the ordinary growing girl to work and perform faithfully all of her assigned duties. It is more of a task to teach her how to quit when she has worked long enough and thereby to preserve her health and prolong her services.

EDUCATION FOR SUPREMACY

It is unquestionably a splendid aid to successful womanhood for the growing girl to be taught how to cook and sew and take care of a house. But as a guarantee of peace and happiness throughout life she had better be taught many specific lessons in self-mastery. And it seems certain that the farm home offers many more advantages for developing a poised character in the young woman than does the city home. So let it be seen to by country parents that their girls be trained from childhood to meet life's stress and storm with calm composure and sweet serenity. Only such training will suffice to tide the latter over the great crushing ordeals that tend at some time to fall to the lot of every good woman.

Conditions in the well-ordered country home may be made to contribute to another form of self-mastery in the growing girl. That is, she may be made supreme over the conventionalities of dress and the social customs that touch her life. By this it is not intended to prescribe in respect to such things as the style or appearance of the young woman's clothing. She may be first or last or medium in the list of the well-dressed. But it is here contended that she can be trained to subordinate these matters to a personal charm that is her very own, and that emanates from a beautiful and well-poised life within. It is quite as destructive to good character for one to be meanly clothed through necessity and at the same time envy and despise those who are better dressed as it is to be among the richly adorned and try to make mere adornment a mark of better and superior rank in society, or a means of lacerating the feelings of one's associates.

The country mother will let pass one of the rarest forms of opportunity for refining and beautifying the character of her daughter if she does not educate the latter rightly in respect to these conventionalities. Train her to be neat and attractive in appearance, but at the same time teach her that no manner of outer adornment can cover up or substitute for sweetness and purity of the inner life. The splendid effects of such an education will reveal themselves to best advantage in the young woman when she has finally entered a home of her own. If she cannot then and there shine in a light that emanates from her own soul, the sacrificial work of ministering to the needs of her own household will never be well performed.

AN OUTLOOK FOR SOCIAL LIFE

Provision will by all means be made that the growing country girl be introduced to the best social life within reach. She must mingle with those of her own age and learn how others think and act. She must attend parties and the other social gatherings, especially the literary societies if there be any available. For the sake of her training, if for no better reason, she may be brought into close relation to the Sunday school and the church. It will be good, indeed, if she find some congenial work in one or both of these organizations. Let it be remembered that the healthy-minded, well-matured woman is very probably at her best and is most highly satisfied and contented with life only when she has opportunities to perform some kind of worthy social service. Farm parents may well bring it about, therefore, that their young daughter have some specific deeds of altruism to perform. Let her carry a small gift or a word of cheer to the door of the sick or the infirm. Let her make with her own hands some simple, inexpensive present to be carried to the one who needs it most and whose heart will be made glad by it.

Above all things else, it must be provided that something more than the mere grasping nature of the young country girl be indulged and developed. Some there are who still contend that life for men is, at its best, a game of chance and contention. But such an ideal, if held up to the growing girl, will tend to check or destroy all that is best and most beautiful in the feminine nature. Young women especially must learn through practice that the best and most beautiful character is altogether consistent with the performance of deeds of service and altruism.

Finally, educate into the daughter as much habitual cheerfulness as possible, let her heart be made glad again and again, not merely because of what she has, and because of what she receives day by day, but also and especially on account of what she gives out of the best and sweetest of her own nature in behalf of those whom she may find occasion to help and cheer on their way over the journey of life. All this will help to make her a creature of whom not only the other members of her family, but also the entire community will be most proud.

REFERENCES

My Escape from Household Drudgery. Mary Patterson. _Success Magazine_, August, 1911.

Proceedings of Child Conference of Research and Welfare. Beulah Kennard. Page 47, "The Play Life of Girls." G. E. Stechert & Co., New York.

Women's School of Agriculture. I. H. Harper. _Independent_, June 29, 1911.

The Girl of To-morrow--Her Education. E. H. Baylor. _World's Work_, July, 1911. Prize essay.

Education of Women for Home Making. Mrs. W. N. Hutt. Annual Volume N.E.A., 1910, p. 122.

Give the Girls a Chance. Canfield. _Collier's_, March 12, 1910.

The Durable Satisfactions of Life. Charles W. Eliot. Pages 11-57, "The Happy Life." Crowell.

The Kind of Education Best Suited for Girls. Anna J. Hamilton. Annual Volume N.E.A., 1907. p. 65.

Parasitic Culture. Dr. George E. Dawson. _Popular Science Monthly_, September, 1910.

Training the Girl to help in the Home. William A. McKeever. Pamphlet. 2 cents. Published by the author. Manhattan, Kan.