Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/251

Rh supremely worth while to make herself an able woman physically, she is well on the way to the attainment of a poise of mind essential to her health and to her breadth of thought. Much of her narrowness may be eliminated by the public school and that very effective education which a child's companions supply. But there are certain chambers of a maiden's mind especially suitable for her mother's furnishing; in the most intimate relations of a girl's life she must naturally find her direction at home.

And is not this the conclusion of the whole matter? Undoubtedly the girl does need "the complementary wisdom of school and home," and sometimes when every precaution is taken at home the school work may be too hard for the girl at some particular time. In this case the parents must lay the matter before the teachers; in some way the work must be lessened, so that a growing girl does not come through each week exhausted. But in most cases it is found that it is not the work that exhausts.

The American girl needs the public school. She needs it for its democratic influence, really a powerful element in the mutual understanding between women, which alone can solve the "servant problem"; she needs the acquaintance with boys of her own age which banishes sentimentality; she needs the broadening influence of men-teachers. It does not seem on the whole that there are many points in which the school can do more for the girl than it is doing; it is not in general conditions that she needs more consideration. For it is true that "the teacher has to deal with the average; the parent must accommodate the particular," and that "it is to the parent that the child must look for his (and her) individual protection and care."

In brief, as soon as a girl comes to manifest her difference of sex, she needs especial and intelligent protection at home to free her from strain mental and physical. And when her health and future fulness of life are thus established, they must be guarded by continued oversight of her food and clothing and exercise and recreation and sleep. Her mental and nervous strength must be conserved by guiding her into orderly ways of thought in the personal and intimate matters that obviously do not belong to the public school. When these elements of her life are properly administered at home the American girl can in ordinary cases complete the course of study in the public schools without injury to her health.

The articles to which especial reference has been made are:

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