Part 1 (1/2)

Three Addresses to Girls at School

by Ja addresses were printed for private circulation a those to whom they were delivered But they fell also into other hands; and I have been frequently asked to publish them I hesitated, on account of the personal and local allusions; but I have found it impossible to remove these allusions, and I have therefore reprinted the addresses in their original form

JMW

CLIFTON COLLEGE,

_Sept 1890_

I

EDUCATION

Now that I have given away the certificates it will be expected that I should make a few remarks on that inexhaustible subject, Education My remarks will be brief

I take this opportunity of explaining to our visitors the nature of the Higher Certificate exainally to test the efficiency of the highest forms of our public schools, and to enable boys to pass the earlier University examinations while still at school The subjects of study are divided into four groups In order to obtain a certificate it is necessary to pass in four subjects taken froroups A certificate therefore ensures a sound and fairly wide education The subjects of the groups are languages, lish history, and lastly science One concession is irls which is not made to boys They are allowed to pass in two subjects one year, and two others the next, and thus obtain their certificates piecemeal Boys have to pass in all four subjects the sah School sent in seventeen candidates for the examination in two or three of the subjects--History, Elementary Mathematics, French, German, and Latin,--and fifteen of these passed in two subjects at least: and, inasmuch as seven of them had in a previous year passed in two other subjects, they obtained their certificates The rest carry on their two subjects, and will, we hope, obtain their certificates next summer; six of them appear to be still in the school

This is a very satisfactory result The value of these certificates to the public is the testi These examinations are not of the standard of the Junior or Senior Local Examinations They are very lance that a school that ventures to send in its girls for this exah The certificates for Music, given by the Harrow Music School exa a considerable value But on this subject I cannot speak with the sae

The value of these exauide and standard for teaching We are all of us the better for being thus kept up to the mark Their value to you is that they help to make your work definite and sound: and that, if it is slipshod, you shall at any rate know that it is slipshod

Therefore, speaking for the Council, and as the parent of a High School girl, and as one of the public, I h value on these examinations and their results They test and prove absolute merit Now, you may have noticed that one of the characteristics of this school is the absence of all prizes and personal cos out the relative merit of individuals I dare say you have wondered why this should be so, and perhaps gru ho ho so--why don't we?” And not only you, but soive prizes--for it is a great pleasure to give prizes--have sometimes wondered why Miss Woods says ”No” I will tell you why Miss Woods holds--and I believe she is quite right--that to introduce the element of competition, while it would certainly stimulate the clever and industrious to more work, would also certainly tend to obscure and weaken the real ht to outlive, but do not always outlive, the age at which prizes are won

Intelligent industry, without the inducement of prizes, is a far more precious and far more durable habit than industry sti are alike the better for the absence of this element, when possible I consider this to be one of the h School, and one of which you ought to be most proud It is a distinction of this school And when you speak of it, as you well et that it is due entirely to the genius and character of your Head-mistress I believe that one result will be, that you will be the more certain to continue to educate yourselves, and not to iine that education is over when you leave school

Is it necessary to say anything to you about the value of education? I think it is; because so many of the processes of education seelimpses and reery are cheering and encouraging The reason why it is worth your while to get the best possible education you can, to continue it as long as you can, to ence and industry and vivacity, and by resolving to enjoy every detail of it, and indeed of all your school life, is that it will make you--_you yourself_--somore pleasant to others,sphere of influence, but also her development of your own nature

Let us look at two or three ways in which, as you s

Education increases your interest in everything; in art, in history, in politics, in literature, in novels, in scenery, in character, in travel, in your relation to friends, to servants, to everybody And it is _interest_ in these things that is the never-failing charhly uneducated woman?--a country irl She would bore one to death in a week Now, just so far as girls of your class approach to the type of the milkmaid or the ossips and bores to friends, family, and acquaintance, in spite of a interests, a life and aims capable of expansion--the fruits of a trained and active mind--are the durable char the results of a really liberal education Education does sonorance Of all sorts of massive, impenetrable obstacles, the hly ignorant and narrow-minded woman of a certain social position It foruht And renorance are responsible for far more evils in this world than ill-nature or even vice Ill-nature and vice are not very common, at any rate in the rank of ladies; they are discountenanced by society; but the prejudices of ignorance--I am sure you wish me to tell you the truth--these are not rare

Think, ence of a few does to render the society in which we move more enjoyable: how it converts ”the rando and enjoyable intercourse and stimulus: everybody can recall instances of such a happy result of education This can only be done by educated woht be done if there were reat increase of trained intelligence in our own class--a such as you will be in a few years--would increase the power of dealing with great social questions All sorts of work is brought to a standstill for want of trained intelligence It is not good will, it is not enthusiasm, it is not ood sense, trained intelligence, cultivated minds Some rather difficult piece of work has to be done; and one runs over in one's iven up One lacks the ability--another the steadiness--another the training--another the mind awakened to see the need: and so the work is not done ”The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few” A really liberal education, and the influence at school of cultivated and vigorous ood in the world unless you have wide and strong sympathies: wide--so as to e--so as to outlastis the first step to sythens our synorant prepossessions, and in this way alone it doubles our powers, and fits us for far greater varieties of life, and for the unknown demands that the future may make upon us

I spoke of the narrowness and inorance There is another narrowness which is not due to ignorance so e of ideas adht The tendency of all uneducated people is to view each thing as it is by itself, each part without reference to the whole; and then increased knowledge of that part does little more than intensify the narrowness Education--liberal education--and the association with e, as well as your teachers, is the only cure for this Try to understand other people's point of view Don't think that you and a select few have a monopoly of all truth and wisdom ”It takes all sorts to make a world,” and you must understand ”all sorts” if you would understand the world and help it

You are living in a great age, when changes of ress in our political and social and religious ideas There never was a greater need of trained intelligence, clear heads, and earnest hearts And the part that women play is not a subordinate one They act directly, and still more indirectly The best h ideals to the influence of noble woed in the serious work of the world, in the effort to purify public opinion and direct it aright, but is helped or hindered by the worading influence of the uninterested and placid amiability of woenerous or noble aim--whose whole sphere of ideas is petty and personal It is not only that such wo themselves--they slowly asphyxiate their friends, their brothers, or their husbands