What a Schoolgirl Ought to Know

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 19, 1911

What a Schoolgirl Ought to Know

OUR subject has no reference to book knowledge, but to a few common things every girl ought to know before leaving home to attend school.

She should have been taught correct personal habits; the proper time, frequency, and kinds of baths; the right clothing for different occasions and the necessary changes to suit the weather; to have order in her room; to avoid placing clothing by an open window at night or in damp weather; to hang up her clothes, and not leave them on chairs or on the floor; to carry umbrella and overshoes when likely to be needed; to take her meals regularly, and not go to recitations without breakfast, for the sake of an hour longer in bed; to eat a varied and generous diet, that she may not suffer for lack of mother's dainties; and especially she should be taught how to care for her health. All these simple things should have become fixed habits, so that she may not be dependent upon her mother for information upon every occasion.

A girl should know how to indorse a bank draft, buy a railroad ticket, check her baggage, send an express package, keep an expense book, pack her trunk, do simple mending and shopping, and many other ordinary things. She should know how to deport herself on the cars and in other public places, so that she may not appear too trustful or too independent, but may be both dignified and courteous, the fullest meed of which can come only by both knowledge and experience.

All this may seem very commonplace, but it is a commonplaceness constantly displayed. The writer has known girls to be offended because they could not without identification cash a draft; has slowly seen them try to send a package by express on a railroad ticket, and imagine they could check boxes without handles, and do many other things which make them appear very unsophisticated.

For their own comfort, happiness, and safety, girls should be fortified with knowledge on all possible points before they leave home for school or elsewhere.

—Selected.