Our Girls by Aleph

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 2, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 14.

Our Girls.

By Aleph

WHAT is the most common defect in the training of our girls? What principles of conduct are most important, and what habits most essential to the development of a useful and noble womanhood? These and other similar questions have long occupied the thoughts of anxious fathers and mothers, solicitous for the well-being of their children, and of the wisest and best minds generally throughout the length and breadth of our country.

Theoretically woman has already reached the elevated sphere for which God intended her, but practically, there are many who yet sit in darkness, slaves to their own weakness, or the foolish criticism of an idle world.

That there are defects in the training of girls is evident; that a remedy is needed is equally clear. Lack of physical health and vigor is painfully noticeable among the girls in our schools and colleges, where large numbers are brought together from town and country, from homes of ease and homes where hard work and self-denial reign.

There is no result without some cause, and to find this cause we must go back to the first years of life. If we look among the little children, we shall find the girls as robust as the boys; that they do not remain so is largely due to the fact that parents do not realize the power that lies in their hands of forming the physical, mental, and moral characters of their children. Carpenter, in his "Mental Physiology," says: "Order and regularity should begin even with infant life; the bodily habits thus formed greatly help to shape that mechanism whose subsequent action mainly determines not only the physical, but the intellectual and moral character."

The mother who does not teach her child the necessity of air and sunlight, of regularity of diet and healthful modes of dress, neglects one of the chief duties of maternity. Give the little girls plenty of outdoor exercise in all suitable weather; be not so wickedly weak as to shut the sunshine from those little hands and faces lest they lose their delicacy. Let their dress be such that every muscle can be called into action; and not only do they need the sunlight out-of-doors, but it is quite as necessary within, in sleeping-room and sitting-room, warming and purifying the whole atmosphere.

The shut-up exterior and chilly interior of some houses is enough to brand with dyspepsia even the third and fourth generations. Let the habit of systematic open-air exercise be formed in childhood, and it will not be forgotten in later life. The lack of such recreation is one of the prominent defects in the training of American girls, and a great promoter of disease.

Another hindrance to woman's highest physical development is her dress, which is often lacking in warmth, and almost always worn in an injurious manner. In this matter of dress we see the need of wisdom in parents; the child that is taught the necessity of light, loose clothing, properly adjusted to the body, and is made to understand some of the laws of health, does not in womanhood become a devotee to the foolish, injurious fashions which every intelligent person must denounce.

We have been much interested in an article on this subject of girls, by Washington Gladden, from which we quote some of the opinions of several women of note whom he consulted in the matter. One lady, whose opportunities for observation have been great, says: "From the time the little one can totter to the mirror to see how sweet she looks in her new hat, to the hour when the bride at the altar gives more thought to the arrangement of her train and veil than to the vows she is taking upon herself, too large a share of time and thought is devoted by mothers and daughters to dress."

Another says: "I have heard a vain mother say of her beautiful baby, 'I'm so glad it's a girl; I can dress her finer than I could a boy.' O woman! woman! to what depths of degradation you have sunk when you can look into the face of a child that God has given you to train for the service of earth and the glory of Heaven, and have such a thought as that find a moment's lodgment in your mind. The pity of it, that children should ever be given to such women! It is one of the inscrutable things of Providence. What can such a woman do but destroy the souls of her children?"

These are not the words of ignorant nobodies, bitter because they can't dress, but the candid opinion of some of our eminent women. We would not have girls bestow no thought on dress, for we believe in becoming, tasteful attire, neatly and hygienically worn; but do not make it the all-important thing. Carry Christian principle into dress, then you need not fear its belittling influence on yourselves or others.

There is also a lack of industrial training among girls, seen quite as often in families of moderate means as among the wealthy. It is a great mistake that so many girls are taught nothing about the "practical duties and serious cares" of life. "All women," says one, "should have a practical knowledge of manual labor. To know how to cook, sew, care for the sick, etc., should form a part of every thorough education. To attain to a symmetrically developed womanhood, there must be industry, thoroughness in study and work, and self-reliance in thought and act."

Mothers, take a little time from the work and worry, or the fashionable idleness of your daily life, and examine the training your daughters are receiving at your hands. Remember you are stamping upon their white souls impressions which will but increase their beauty, or leave a stain which neither time nor eternity can efface. Girls, if the experience of early womanhood has shown you grave defects in your childhood's training, earnest, persistent effort will do much to remedy the evil. Be strong in thought and deed, dare to follow right and your own good sense, whether fashion thus decrees or not. —Aleph, in Christian at Work.