Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 20, 1912

Avoiding the Appearance of Evil

A CORRESPONDENT of the Sunday School Times inquires of the editor if she shall allow her sixteen-year-old daughter to dance with girls. To this question the editor replies in his issue of May 25, 1912, and offers the following sensible suggestions:—

Does dancing with girls make it easier not to dance with boys? If a girl becomes proficient in the various graceful dance steps, and finds great enjoyment in dancing with other girls, are these facts going to prove an additional safeguard to her as she grows up into young womanhood, and is urged to dance with her boy and young men friends? Or, when the invitations crowd in upon her, if she quietly answers that she does not know how to dance, has never learned, is she at a safer distance from the border-line? There would seem to be but one answer to these questions. The decision to leave dancing entirely out of life may seem very hard to a girl. She will be in a very small minority, for the present. And dancing with other girls is harmless enough, in itself. But it certainly exposes her to a temptation from which she may keep well away, if she will. No one's life is ever the poorer for being unable to dance. What is lost in the way of certain social opportunities may be a great deal more than made up in other ways which are not only far more important, but are more enjoyable as well. If this view be lovingly suggested as the parents' conviction and desire, not as a command, children may be led to see its wisdom and to adopt it as their own.