98 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



best years of one's life spent in the company of noble thoughts and 

 high ideals cannot fail to leave their impress. To be wise, and at the 

 same time womanly, is to wield a tremendous influence, which may be 

 felt for good in the lives of generations to come. It is not forms of 

 government by which men are made and unmade. It is the character 

 and influence of their mothers and their wives. The higher education 

 of women means more for the future than all conceivable legislative 

 reforms. And its influence does not stop with the home. It means 

 higher standards of manhood, greater thoroughness of training, and 

 the coming of better men. Therefore let us educate our girls as well 

 as our boys. A generous education should be the birthright of every 

 daughter of the republic as well as of every son. 



It is hardly necessary among intelligent men and women to argue 

 that a good woman is a better one for having received a college educa- 

 tion. Anything short of this is inadequate for the demands of modern 

 life and modern culture. The college training should give some basis 

 for critical judgment among the various lines of thought and effort 

 which force themselves upon our attention. Untrained cleverness is 

 said to be the most striking characteristic of the American woman. 

 Trained cleverness, a very much more charming thing, is characteristic 

 of the American college woman. And when cleverness stands in the 

 right perspective, when it is so strengthened and organized that it 

 becomes wisdom, then it is the most valuable dowry a bride can bring to 

 her home. 



Even if the four K's, 'Kirche, Kinder, Kuchen and Kleider,' are 

 to occupy woman's life as Emperor William would have us believe, the 

 college education is not too serious a preparation for the profession of 

 directing them. A wise son is one who has had a wise mother, and to 

 give alertness, intelligence and wisdom is the chief function of a college 

 education. 



2. Shall we give our Girls the Same Education as our Boys ? 



Yes, and no. If we mean by the same, an equal degree of breadth 

 and thoroughness, an equal fitness for high thinking and wise acting, 

 yes, let it be the same. If we mean this : Shall we reach this end by 

 exactly the same course of studies ? then the answer must be, No. For 

 the same course of study will not yield the same results with different 

 persons. The ordinary 'college course' which has been handed down 

 from generation to generation is purely conventional. It is a result of 

 a series of compromises in trying to fit the traditional education of 

 clergymen and gentlemen to the needs of a different social era. The 

 old college course met the needs of nobody, and therefore was adapted 

 to all alike. The great educational awakening of the last twenty years 

 in America has lain in breaking the bonds of this old system. The 



