Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

work is not arduous and is generally "rushed through" in the last week of the holidays, it adds a heavy burden to the already long educational bill. The tendency is to send boys to school as early as possible, so that the total cost of this education is a very expensive luxury; but a hard struggle is always made, even by parents who are comparatively poor, to give boys a public-school training. The standard of education and the average results are undoubtedly higher than heretofore, but it is a question whether by our system we get the most out of our best boys.

The early training of girls from the nursery to the school-room is carried on generally with their brothers, the same governess supervising them all.

spirit of emulation which a mixed class of pupils creates is on the whole good. It stimulates the girls to greater effort and acts as a spur to the boys, who realize the indignity of being beaten by their sisters.

A much more radical change has taken place in the education of girls than in that of boys. The whole curriculum of girls' study has been enlarged and the adoption of the more serious side is now a sine quâ non in all families of whatever rank. The training begins in the nursery and little girls go into the school-room at about the same age as their brothers. The subjects they learn are generally the same, for a knowledge of Latin and advanced arithmetic, as well as mathematics, is now considered essential for well-educated girls. The standard lesson books are of great variety and the method of explaining and teaching is carried out as much as possible by illustration and practical demonstration. The new methods of teaching reading are not adopted in the schoolrooms of which I speak, as a girl has probably mastered the elements of reading before she leaves the nursery. The tendency of modern education is to concentrate a girl's energies on those subjects for which she has a distinct vocation. In these days no one wastes time on teaching music or singing to a child who has no inclination or ear for it, and drawing is taught only to one who shows a distinctly artistic talent. Much more time is now given to the study of languages and every girl can

speak French, and many German, while a large number take up other languages. Girls are now allowed a much wider range of literature than formerly. The foreign classics are open to them and the days are past when they were forbidden to read Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot. In fact, in this endless supply of subjects the instructor is called upon to guide the pupil into some systematized course so as to avoid the dangers of desultory reading.

There is and always has been in England a deep-rooted objection to sending girls to boarding-school, hence the need of a highly trained and accomplished governess.1 The supply is very good and large and the governess in an English family, whether she be foreign or English, is usually remarkable in attainments and character. In spite of contrary assertions, English mothers are most anxious and careful as to the person who must see more of their children than any one else. Indeed, in many cases English mothers are so anxious about the education and ambitious for the success of their children that I think the pressure put on them to learn is sometimes excessive. There is no more "willing horse" than a keen, intelligent girl, and her inclination is always rather to do too much than too little. The strain of education comes at a moment when her health may be affected by the changes incident to her sex, and she probably requires all her strength to carry her over a period during which, from a physical point of view, she should take her life a little more easily.

We show more consideration in our treatment of animals than in our treatment of our girls and boys. We do not expect our yearlings or two-year-olds to perform any very arduous work during the early part of their life: what work they are called on to carry out is done slowly, with distinct periods of rest, and is very carefully subdivided in its amount and duration; but we ask of young people, boys and girls, at a period when they are growing and their constitutions are forming, to carry out a system of education which no one can characterize as easy. In the case of boys, the drawbacks are modified by the distinctly male instinct not to

1 The reader is reminded that Lady St. Helier is discussing her subject from the point
of view of the aristocracy and not of the upper middle classes.

do more work than they are compelled to; but with their sisters that consideration hardly ever applies, and the standard of knowledge and the excellence of the work done by girls in England are remarkably high. Though the instruction of girls in their early years is given by a governess, there are many excellent classes largely attended held by some of our best professors, not only in London but also in the large provincial towns. In London, some of the classes are taught in French and German, and during every term at the large colleges for women, such as Queen's College and Bedford College, as well as at the London University and University College, lectures on special subjects are given by the best authorities. These are popular and are largely attended by girls belonging to the professional and upper classes. The subjects of the lectures are announced and papers are prepared at home by the students under the supervision of the governess, and an examination at the end of each term is held to see what progress has been made. The advantage. of such classes is no doubt a great one, for it creates a happy spirit of rivalry, and applies just the stimulus which is wanting in home instruction.

Some girls take the Oxford and Cambridge local examinations and go in for a pass. The first examination is not very severe, but the higher certificate is a stiffer undertaking, yet thousands of girls pass, with great distinction, every year. It is no unusual thing to see all the girls in a family working for it. A story is told of two daughters (twins) of one of our most eminent judges, who went up together for the Oxford and Cambridge local examination, as they did for everything else, and who generally came out equally successful. A great air of mystery however hung over this examination, which caused much interest among their friends. It became known only after some time that one twin had passed and that the other had failed. The subject was so painful and the broken. record of mutual success so overwhelming, that the subject was never alluded to by the family.

One characteristic of the education of English girls is the thoroughness with which every branch of it is carried out; there is no shirking, no compromise. What they learn is learned thoroughly,

and any one conversing with a well-educated English girl of the class of which I write, will find it very difficult to get her out of her depth. Many girls carry on their studies long after they have done with the school-room and their reading is wide and diversified; they also embark on subjects which, for want of time, they have been unable to take up earlier. But the "pose" of the earnest but ill-informed young and pretty woman is always amusing, as well as the tender charity of their male adversaries. At present, the practice of public speaking is fashionable and weekly debating classes are held for girls at some of the houses of the leading political people in London, where they are taught not only how to speak and use the voice, but to discuss and argue the question clearly and carefully from the point of view which they have adopted. Women take so prominent a part in public life in England that a certain amount of training in elocution and public speaking is most valuable.

It is now also becoming the fashion for English girls whose parents can afford the time and expense to spend a year or more in some French or German educational center before they come out. Some go to Paris, but the majority prefer Germany, where they can combine a further acquaintance with German literature and the study of music. In most cases they are sent under the charge of their governess or live in a pension where no one speaks English and where they are obliged to converse in German. The influences of German life and education are very powerful and leave a distinct impress on a girl's mind. They possibly develop the romantic side of her character, but they also give her a breadth of view and a wider aperçu of life, and remove the purely insular point of view from which we are only too liable to regard other countries and people.

Athletics also play an important part in the life and education of English girls, especially among those of the upper classes, where the question of cost is not a consideration. Open-air life has done. more for their welfare and strength than almost any other influence. It is undoubtedly true that English girls are stronger and taller than formerly and possess a greater fund of endurance than they have

ever enjoyed before, and this is largely due to the outdoor life which they lead. In games such as croquet, golf, and lawn-tennis, they can hold their own with boys of the same age. Even cricket is getting to be more widely played, but until some modification of the skirt is arrived at it is a game in which a woman must always be at a disadvantage. The playing of games has not unsexed our girls, nor injured their health, as was prophesied when they first adopted open-air sports and athletics once the monopoly of their brothers.

As the intellectual side of girls' lives has become more developed, the more homely and wifely occupations of their mothers and grandmothers have lost favor, and needlework and the domestic interests of life have taken a back place. It was inevitable that such should be the case, but it is in many ways unfortunate that these occupations have fallen into desuetude. Few of the girls I speak of can cook a chop, make an omelet, darn a stocking, put on a patch, or make a buttonhole. Perhaps in time housewifery may become part of their curriculum, as it is now in our elementary education scheme. A good knowledge of housekeeping, of the management of servants, of the keeping of accounts, and of cooking goes a long way to secure domestic happiness.

I think in England we are satisfied that, with certain limitations, our system of education for the classes of which I write is laid on fairly good lines. We have certainly uprooted and changed the whole scheme of education which existed, but the new one has the merit of developing the individuality of each child, of teaching it self-reliance and courage. It does not in any way cramp or confine the bent of its inclination or study, but it brings out, we hope and believe, what is best and strongest in its character.

[blocks in formation]

our cold uncertain climate has made it impossible, and the pretty pictures one sees in Paris of a family group, consisting often of grandparents, parents, and children, are unknown with us. What is true of our working-classes, is even more distantly characteristic of our higher classes. The love of family and children is not one bit less deep in England, but we are a reserved, undemonstrative race. It may be our insular arrogance which has always caused us to regard the open, demonstrative affection of foreigners to their children, as sentimental, that has made us err in the opposite direction. Every English mother knows, however, the pang with which she leaves the school at which she has deposited her beloved boy for the first time, and the effort it costs her to say good-by to him without letting her tears mingle with those that are so nearly gushing from his eyes-but it is not "good form," in boyish parlance, to cry, and the mother has to live up to the standard of self-control of the little hero of perhaps seven or eight years of age.

The separation during these early years certainly intensifies the affection of boys for their mother, and the holidays are a bright spot in the year. There is always, I think, a shade of fear of his father in a boy's heart, even of the most indulgentbut time dispels that, and though there may be a sort of feeling that "the governor is a little out of date" when he vetoes some of the youthful suggestions during the holidays-the feeling of friendship and equality grows as time goes on, and there are no truer or stancher friends than an English father and his son.

The effect of education and life in England has no doubt helped to diminish parental control and strengthen the independence of the young, but the love and reverence of children still remains, though they undoubtedly regard their parents from a much nearer and more familiar standpoint. It is impossible with our English system of education that it could be otherwise. Children are our equals; they criticize, discuss, and analyze us, and if we survive that ordeal—and it is a severe one-we should feel thankful that, if the awe and fear of the past has disappeared, the new order of things has not diminished their deep love and affection.

THREESCORE AND TEN

BY AUSTIN DOBSON

"Age never droops into decrepitude while Fancy stands at his side"

O Landor wrote, and so I quote,
And wonder if he knew;

There is so much to doubt about,-
So much but partly true!

Can one make points with stiffened joints?
Or songs that breathe and burn?

Will not the jaded Muse refuse

An acrobatic turn?

There was a time when dancing rhyme

Ran readily to cantos;

But now it seems too late a date
For galliards and corantos.

One must beware, too, lest one's pace
Disgrace one's Roxalane,

For e'en decrepitude, my friend,
Must bend-in a pavane.

No! on the whole the fittest rôle
For Age is the spectator's,-
Reclined in roomy stall behind

The "paters" and the "maters"

That fondly watch the pose of those
Whose thought is still creative,-

Whose point of view is fresh and new,
Not feebly imitative.

Time can no more past Youth restore

Or rectify defect;

But it can clear a failing sight

With light of retrospect.

A RUMOR IN THE BAZAAR

AN ANGLO-INDIAN STORY

BY MARY ANABLE CHAMBERLAIN
Author of "Life in an Indian Compound"

the it must be Cavendish was the question. There

understood, is a thing like breath or air. You cannot follow it. You cannot put your finger on it. Yet it is there, a real and often an important thing. It was with such a rumor that this story started.

The Padre, robed in a long white cassock, girded with a cord and tassel, crowned by a mushroom topee, a plain black cross outlined against his breast, was passing through the Rayalpur bazaar when he saw a group of Brahmans, clad in bangles, discussing something with conspicuous zest. Heaped up between them, in ravishing harmonies of hue, were piles of ocher, saffron, sulphur, indigo, verdigris, vermilion, in shades that melted, one into the other, like pigments ready to be mixed for painting rainbows.

The voluptuous, copper-colored backs of the conversing Brahmans were toward the Padre. They were speaking in their vernacular, and he did not understand just what they said, but, as he paused an instant to admire the marvelous prismatic beauty of the group, he distinctly heard them mention Anna Harding's name.

The Padre was a Church of England chaplain and Anna Harding was a member of his flock. Although he had been ten years in India, he still had several things to learn about the natives, but this one thing he knew-that the mention of a young girl's name in the bazaar is usually in the way of gossip, is usually in connection with the other sex, and is always undesirable. It disturbed him, therefore, not a little, to hear these unctuous and unclothed Brahmans using Anna Harding's

name.

The Padre had a quick, intuitive mind.. He drew the inference at once that George

was, in his opinion, little room for doubt that the Brahmans were discussing, in their loathsome, Oriental way, the relations between George Cavendish and Anna Harding, and, if so, he must force his own mind to discuss them, too.

He owned that, until now, although they had been constantly together, he had thought little, if anything, about it. What would you expect when a girl is pretty and a man is young in a country where it is always either spring or summer? They had not, so far as he knew, been alone together. Still, his conscience told him that with his wife and the wife of Captain Towers both in England, and with Cavendish and Hawkins both unmarried, he, as the shepherd and bishop of the station souls, should have been a little more on guard.

The natural handmaid to the Padre's conscience was the specter of his own responsibility, an uncomfortable pair of twins with which to saddle a padre's soul in a country where the bars are down, where there is no beaten track for the morals of youth to run in, no grand stand, no judge, but an open field of bunkers and pitfalls for the steed that has the bit in his teeth, the spur in his side of his own desire, the grip on his bridle of his own headlong will. The Padre had seen youth's twoand three-year-olds "come a cropper" more than once when released from their snug little island paddock and turned loose into the great Indian pasture. The thing was to head them off in their first gentle canter, before they had felt the spur and the grip-to head them right in time. The Padre earnestly hoped that the rumor had not reached his ears too late for him to

« AnkstesnisTęsti »