In contrast we learn that in the spring of 1913 about one thousand children from Moslem homes were in attendance at Protestant missionary schools in Persia, over two hundred of them being girls.

Early marriage a barrier to education.

In Mohammedan and other lands the custom of early marriage is an almost insuperable barrier to an adequate education for a girl. That this custom must be changed, if men are to have worthy wives and if children are to be properly trained, is a truth that is beginning to be realized. The recent great awakening and desire for education is creating a marvelous change in age-long customs.

Lord Cromer on conditions in Egypt.

Lord Cromer says: “The position of women in Egypt, and in Mohammedan countries generally, is a fatal obstacle to the attainment of that elevation of thought and character which should accompany the introduction of European civilization, if that civilization is to produce its full measure of beneficial effect. The obvious remedy would appear to be to educate the women.... When the first efforts to promote female education were made, they met with little sympathy from the population in general.... Most of the upper-class Egyptians were not merely indifferent to female education; they were absolutely opposed to it....

“All this has now been changed. The reluctance of parents to send their daughters to school has been largely overcome.... The younger generation are beginning to demand that their wives shall possess some qualifications other than those which can be secured in the seclusion of the harem.”

In 1912 Lord Kitchener states that “There is probably nothing more remarkable in the social history of Egypt during the last dozen years than the growth of public opinion among all classes of Egyptians in favor of the education of their daughters. The girls’ schools belonging to the Ministry of Education are crowded, and to meet the growing demand sites have been acquired and fresh schools are to be constructed, one at Alexandria and two in Cairo. Very many applications have, however, to be refused.”[66]

Mission schools in the lead.

To these quotations Dr. Sailer adds the significant words,—“The missionary schools for girls are yet in the lead in their moral atmosphere. The government officials were prompt in acknowledging that missionary teachers brought to their work a spirit which money could not buy.”

Scant justice can be done in these few pages to the whole vast subject of the education of girls in the East, and the rapid changes that are taking place in regard to it. A careful study of the subject will well repay the thoughtful woman. Now is the time to educate the future mothers. As all roads lead to Rome, so all reading and observation along this line will lead the candid student to one conclusion:—Now is the time to determine the character of the mothers of the next generation of children in non-Christian lands. What those little bright-eyed baby girls of Africa and India, Turkey and Korea are to be and do, what their homes are to be like, what start in life their children are to have, will be largely determined by what we Christian women do or fail to do for them today. If it is too late to do much for their mothers before these children have left their homes, why not gather the children into kindergartens and primary schools, why not teach the little ones now while their minds are plastic and impressionable? Why not do our share toward bringing Christian civilization into darkened lands by educating in Christian schools today the mothers of tomorrow?

Teaching children to play.

In the preceding chapter great emphasis was laid on the necessity for teaching the children of many mission lands how to play, not only for the benefit of their health and to bring joy and brightness into their lives, but also in order to teach them what “fair play” and co-operation mean. It is the missionary school, from kindergarten up to university, that gives the golden opportunity for this teaching, as is shown by the testimony of a missionary from Tientsin, China:—“We believe that such games teach them to be honest in business dealings later, to be truthful, unselfish, quick-witted, and self-controlled. The change which I have seen in these little, un-taught, ill-cared-for children after five years in the mission school is due in part, I believe, to the lessons of ‘fair play’ learned in their games.”