Part 1 (1/2)
Why go to College? an Address
by Alice Freeirls college doors are opening every year Every year adds to the number of reat city, felt when in talking of the future of his four little children he said, ”For the two boys it is not so serious, but I lie down at night afraid to die and leave hters only a bank account” Year by year, too, the experiences of life are teaching hters when accounts are large and banks are sound, but that on the contrary they take grave risks when they trust everything to accue Our A aware that they need the stie, the interests of the college in addition to the school, if they are to prepare themselves for the most serviceable lives
But there are still parents who say, ”There is no need that e?” I will not reply that college training is a life insurance for a girl, a pledge that she possesses the disciplined ability to earn a living for herself and others in case of need, for I prefer to insist on the iirl, noin so by which she can render society service, not amateur but of an expert sort, and service too for which it will be willing to pay a price The number of families will surely increase ill follow the exaiven each her specialty One has chosen one far with the best masters in this country and in Europe, so far that she now holds a high rank a musicians at home and abroad Another has taken art, and has not been content to paint pretty gifts for her friends, but in the studios of New York, Munich, and Paris, she has won the right to be called an artist, and in her studio at home to paint portraits which have a , if need be, by her exquisite jellies, preserves, and sweetmeats Yet the house in the mountains, the house by the sea, and the friends in the city are not neglected, nor are these young women found less attractive because of their special accoirls should go to college any o, it is nevertheless true that they should go in greater nuo because they, their parents and their teachers, do not see clearly the personal benefits distinct fro I wish here to discuss these benefits, these larger gifts of the college life,--what they
It is undoubtedly true that irls are totally unfitted by hoe course These joys and successes, these high interests and friendshi+ps, are not for the self-conscious and nervous invalid, nor for her who in the exuberance of youth recklessly ignores the laws of a healthy life The good society of scholars and of libraries and laboratories has no place and no attraction for her who finds no e in Plato, no beauty inof the stars over her head or the flowers under her feet Neither will the finer opportunities of college life appeal to one who, until she is eighteen (is there such a girl in this country?), has felt no passion for the service of others, no desire to know if through history or philosophy, or any study of the laws of society, she can learn why the world is so sad, so hard, so selfish as she finds it, even when she looks upon it froe cannot be, should not try to be, a substitute for the hospital, reforanized for the strong, not for the weak; for the high-eous spirits, not for the indifferent, the dull, the idle, or those who are already for their characters on the a people oration, new ideals, and unselfish purposes from their four years' coher physical, irls change so e that I have wondered if their friends at hoe, the unconsciousa story of new tastes and habits and loves and interests, that had wrought out in very truth a new creature
Yet in spite of this I have soe more than elsewhere the old law holds, ”To hiiven and he shall have abundance, but from him who hath not shall be taken away even that which he see life which is open and prepared to receive which obtains the gracious and uplifting influences of college days What, then, for such persons are the rich and abiding rewards of study in college or university?
Pre-eround of its being We go to college to know, assured that knowledge is sweet and powerful, that a good education emancipates the e which does not thoroughly educate can be called good, no et a little knowledge on e on soes she nificant fact that in all ti have been also the years of roes e is the condition of every college blessing ”Let no man incapable of mathematics enter here,” Plato is reported to have inscribed over his Academy door ”Let no one to who froly in my talk today I shall say little of the direct benefits of knowledge which the college affords These may be assue door But seeking this first, a good s are added I want to point out soe, or rather to draw attention to soe presents itself
The first of these is happiness Everybody wants ”a good tiood time, it is true, does not always in these years irl of eighteen plays with the doll which entranced the child of eight It takes some time to discover that work is the best sort of play, and some people never discover it at all But when hter happy?” ”How can I give her the best society?” ”How can she have a good tie,--to ale Send her because there is no other place where between eighteen and twenty-two she is so likely to have a genuinely good tiood tie life offers unequalled opportunities Of course no idle person can possibly be happy, even for a day, nor she whoto as are within, ant health and friends and work and objects of aspiration ”We live by ade abounds in all three In the college tience, enerosity are more natural than the opposite qualities often beco atmosphere pervades the place We who are in it all the time feel that we live at the fountain of perpetual youth, and those who take but a four years' bath in it beco, and full of proain; for a college is a kind of co for
It is usually planted in a beautiful spot, the chars and sti works of art
Venerable associations of the past hallow its halls Leaders in the stirring world of to-day return at each commencement to share the fresh life of the new class Books, pictures, music, collections, appliances in every field, learned teachers, mirthful friends, athletics for holidays, the best words of the best men for holy days,--all are here
No wonder that e life as upon halcyon days, the romantic period of youth No wonder that Dr Hole reunions everywhere; and gray-hairedcircle of home have not heard their first nae to college coeneration
Yet a girl should go to college not ain, which is often overlooked, and is little understood even when perceived; I ain in health The old notion that low vitality is a matter of course omen; that to be delicate is a mark of superior refinement, especially in well-to-do families; that sickness is a dispensation of Providence,--these notions o I saw in the e freshman's room this little formula: ”Sickness is carelessness, carelessness is selfishness, and selfishness is sin”
And I have often noticed aed to confess a lack of physical vigor, as if they were convicted ofscientific conviction that health is a ely under each person's control, that even inherited tendencies to disease need not be allowed to run their riotous course unchecked, there co and free
Fascinating fields of knowledge are waiting to be explored; possibilities of doing, as well as of knowing, are on every side; new and dear friendshi+ps enlarge and sweeten drea student cannot afford quivering nerves or sh manners, or a ill Handicapped by inheritance or bad training, she finds the plan of college life itself her supporter and friend The steady, long-continued routine of mental work, physical exercise, recreation, and sleep, the siular and unstudied diet, work out salvation for her Instead of being left to go out-of-doors when she feels like it, the regular training of the gyolf links, the basket ball, the bicycle, the long walk aical specimens,--all these and many more call to the busy student, until she realizes that they have their rightful place in every well-ordered day of every month So she learns, little by little, that buoyant health is a precious possession to be won and kept
It is significant that already statistical investigation in this country and in England shows that the standard of health is higher a any other equal nu also to observe to what sort of questions our recent girl graduates have been inclined to devote attention They have been largely the neglected problems of little children and their health, of home sanitation, of food and its choice and preparation, of domestic service, of the cleanliness of schools and public buildings Colleges for girls are pledged by their very constitution to make persistent war on the water cure, the nervine retreat, the insane asylum, the hospital,--those bitter fruits of the emotional lives of thousands of woain, life is so interesting and there is so irl said to e year And while her mother was in a far-off invalid retreat, she undertook the battle against fate with the sae which she put into her calculus problems and her translations of Sophocles Her beautiful home and her rosy and happy children prove the measure of her hard-won success Formerly the majority of physicians had but one question for the o to school?” And only one prescription, ”Take her out of school” Never a suggestion as to suppers of pickles and pound-cake, never a hint aboutand hurried day-time ways But now the sensible doctor asks, ”What are her interests? What are her tastes? What are her habits?” And he finds new interests for her, and urges the formation of out-of-door tastes and steady occupation for the irl froe does largely through its third gift of friendshi+p
Until a girl goes away froe, her friends are chiefly chosen for her by circuhbors in the sao to the sairlish intie with the entire conviction, half unknown to herself, that her father's political party contains all the honest men, her mother's social circle all the true ladies, her church all the real saints of the community
And the smaller the town, the e she finds that the girl who earned her scholarshi+p in the village school sits beside the banker's daughter; the New England farar plantation; the daughters of the opposing candidates in a sharply fought election have grown great friends in college boats and laboratories; and before her diploma is won she realizes how much richer a world she lives in than she ever dreamed of at home The wealth that lies in differences has dawned upon her vision It is only when the rich and poor sit down together that either can understand how the Lord is the Maker of thes we need the influence of enerous nature, of hospitality to new ideas, in short, of social iination But instead, we find each political party bitterly calling the other dishonest, each class suspicious of the intentions of the other, and in social life the pettiest standards of conduct Is it not well for us that the colleges all over the country still offer to their fortunate students a society of the most democratic sort,--one in which a father's money, a mother's social position, can assure no distinction and make no close friends? Here capacity of every kind counts for its full value Here enthusias manners, noble character, amiable temper, scholarly power, find their full opportunity and inspire such friendshi+ps as are seldootten y cannot bear examination; but all round the world there are e days, who have made the wide earth a friendly place to me Of every creed, of every party, in far-away places and in near, the thought of theeous in duty and h for many years we may not have had time to write each other a letter The basis of all valuable and enduring friendshi+ps is not accident or juxtaposition, but tastes, interests, habits, work, ae friendshi+p clings a romance entirely its own One of the friendsthe shy facts that hide beyond the microscope's fine vision, and the other may fill her hours and her heart with the poets and the philosophers; one may steadfastly pursue her way toward the command of a hospital, and the other towards the world of letters and of art; these divergences constitute no barrier, but rather an aid to the fulness of friendshi+p
And the fact that one goes in a siohich she has earned and made herself, and the other lives when at home in a s the girls care about and the dreams they talk over in the walk by the river or the bicycle ride through country roads? If any young lected, unfriended, if any girl lives solitary and wretched in her life at Wellesley, it is their own fault It reeable themselves Certainly it is true that in the associations of college life, more than in any other that the country can shohat is extraneous, artificial, and temporary falls away, and the every-day relations of life and work take on a character that is sienuine And so it coe life is ideals of personal character
To so ideals of what character should be, often held unconsciously, coiven by the persons whoreatest thing any friend or teacher, either in school or college, can do for a student is to furnish hie professors who transforh my acquaintance with them--ah, they were few, and I am sure I did not have a dozen conversations with theave me, each in his different way, an ideal of character, of conduct, of the scholar, the leader, of which they and I were totally unconscious at the time For many years I have known that my study with them, no matter whether of philosophy or of Greek, of ed my notions of life, uplifted my standards of culture, and so inspired me with new possibilities of usefulness and of happiness Not the facts and theories that I learned so ave this inspiration The co that it wants the personal influence of professors on students, but it is wholly wrong in assus or talks on miscellaneous subjects There is quite as likely to be a quickening force in the somewhat remote and mysterious power of the teacher who devotes hi treasures of scholarshi+p, or to patiently working out the bestsomewhat apart, still remains an ideal of the Christian scholar, the just, the courteous man or woh tohty cents in his pocket, and worked his way through, never a high scholar, and now in a business which looks very commonplace, told me the other day that he would not care to be alive if he had not gone to college His face flushed as he explained how different his days would have been if he had not knoo of his professors ”Do you use your college studies in your business?” I asked ”Oh, no!” he answered ”But I a the business; and when the day's work is done I live another life because of e experiences The business and I are both the better for it every day” How irl has had her whole horizon extended by the changed ideals she gained in college! Yet this is largely because the associations and studies there are likely to give her perift of college life of which I shall speak
The old fairy story which charmed us in childhood ended with--”And they were married and lived happy ever after” It conducted to the altar, having brought the happy pair through innumerable difficulties, and left us with the contented sense that all theday of unclouded bliss I have seen devoted and intelligent hters'
education and companionshi+ps precisely on this basis They planned as if these pretty and char to live only twenty or twenty-five years at the utmost, and had consequently no need of the wealthy interests that should round out the full-groo at forty than at twenty, and hty than at either
Eliness consists not in irregular outline, but in being uninteresting We love any forreat qualities shi+ne If command, eloquence, art, or invention exists in the most deformed person, all the accidents that usually displease, please, and raise esteerace is the head without the body