The Little Review, May 1914 (Vol. 1., No. 3) — John Shaqi
The Little Review, May 1914 (Vol. 1., No. 3)Various
General
The Little Review, May 1914 (Vol. 1., No. 3)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
And speaking of training--an interesting thing in March Atlantic about
The Education of the Girl has set me thinking. How am I going to bring
up my daughter? The education of a boy is, compared to that, a simple
matter. Too ridiculous, too, the answers to my query returned to me by
different friends and relatives. "Make her a good girl," says one. But
surely "Be good, fair maid; let those who will be clever," has been
ridiculed to a timely demise. Another said: "I hope I shall be able to
bring up my daughter so that when she is grown she can persuade some
nice man to take care of her, as her mother did." No mention is made, of
course, of what happens if the plan miscarries. It sometimes does. And
it is too funny when one realizes that several decades ago, when
absolutely no question was raised as to woman's sphere (home and the
rearing of children), she received in college a severely classical or
scientific training; and now, when it is by no means admitted without
argument that home is her one vocation, noted educators are recommending
that women's colleges abolish Greek and Latin or treat them and science
as purely secondary and take up domestic science, economics, nursing,
etc., in their place. How can I tell beforehand which of the two my
daughter is going to need? I think of myself, filled to the brim with
Greek, Latin, French, and German, producing in my early married life a
distinctly leathery and most unpleasant pie, or rushing to the doctor
with my baby to have him treat a dreadful sore which turned out to be a
mosquito bite, and my tearful struggles with the sewing machine on my
first shirtwaist which I christened a "Dance on the Lawn," for obvious
reasons ... and I wonder. Never would I willingly give up my classics
and the joy they gave me. But a soupçon of domesticity would surely have
done me no harm. Miss Harkness, in this article, is inclined to think
that it does us all harm. She says:
Would men ever get anywhere, do you think, if they fussed around
with as many disconnected things as most women do? And the worst
of our case is that we are rather inclined to point with pride to
what is really one of the most vicious habits of our sex.
But in the meantime that daughter of mine! Suppose she prefers to run a
house and be the mother of six children! Some women do, and are
wonderfully fitted for it. Won't she be happier if she knows beforehand
how to do it most efficiently? I hope, of course, she will choose,
besides, a career of her own; but if she doesn't want to? And to give
both does mean a scattering of potentialities! Which brings me back to
the statement that the education of the modern girl is a complex--oh,
but a very complex problem.
You remember Stevenson's poem to his wife. I speak of it in this
connection because it throws light on one facet of the feminist problem
which perhaps is not sufficiently illuminated. He says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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