There should be in every coeducational school a dean of women. The duties of such a position include regulation, as far as possible, of social relations between the young men and young women of the institution as well as actual instruction, if necessary, on the more important matters of social etiquette. In this official, young girls of the institution should find a friend to whom they may go for advice on vexed questions. Where there is no formal office of the kind named, the service indicated may sometimes be rendered by women members of the faculty. Some years ago, in a western town, the Chair of English Literature was occupied by a woman who took upon herself the burden of improving the manners of the student body, largely composed of sturdy young farmers and girls from country towns. Once a year in the college chapel, she gave a lecture on this subject in which she stated plainly what she thought necessary for the social improvement of the school. Many a young man was helped over awkward places by her advice; many a young woman saved from some escapade which she might have blushed later to own. The value of such instruction is inestimable.
When opportunity offers for consultation with such a guide and teacher, the uninstructed student should avail himself of it. When such a privilege is not procurable, one’s own sense of propriety, if diligently sought for and obeyed, will often lead one out of an awkward situation for which one does not know the formal rule.
HIGH-SCHOOL PARTIES
Many parents who intend to send their daughters to women’s colleges allow them to take a preparatory course in a coeducational high school. The best high schools of that character now take the very important precaution of hiring a dean, whose duty it is especially to watch over the girl students. High-school sororities and all secret organizations are frowned on if not positively prohibited in these schools, as it has been demonstrated that they interfere with proper attention to studies and lead to many undesirable relationships. Class hops and receptions suitably chaperoned furnish sufficient diversion. One hopes that one of the results of the appointing of deans in the high schools will be a change in the manner of dressing of many high-school girls. It is too often both inartistic and in bad taste. A schoolgirl should be dressed prettily, but in a quiet and appropriate way.
CHAPTER XIV
THE CHAPERON
IN some parts of America the chaperon is, like Sairey Gamp’s interesting friend, “Mrs. Harris,”—a mere figment of the imagination. Nowhere in America does she occupy the perfectly defined position that she holds in Europe; nowhere in America are her duties so arduous as those imposed on her in older countries. The idea that a chaperon for young people is necessary on all occasions offends the taste of the American. It is even opposed to his code of good manners. That a young woman should never be able in her father’s house to receive, without a guardian, the young men of her acquaintance, is alien to the average American’s ideal of good breeding and of independence in friendship. In addition, his sense of humor sets down constant attendance on the very young as a bore and wearisome in the extreme.