If one wishes full evidence of the effective gain for studentship that results from the new manner of treatment of the dull and backward pupil, let him examine the many reports of individual cases as published in the Psychological Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania, especially the issues of 1909-1910. The indifference or the thoughtlessness of country parents may easily allow for the existence of the foregoing bad physical conditions in the case of their own daughter, and as a result her otherwise promising life may become permanently blighted.
Lessons in music and art
The ordinary farmer needs to learn to take more pride in his daughter and in her accomplishments. The time will come when he will be far more proud of her wealth of character than he will be of her wealth of material goods. A country father of moderate means bought a first-class piano for his two girls and employed a music teacher. “You may think that I cannot afford such things,” said he. “But I can. I am running this farm for the good it will do my family.” He was a true philosopher, as well as a successful farmer.
It is entirely practicable and most helpful to her development to provide that the country girl be given instruction in music, or art, or something special and advanced in the form of needlework. In its best sense this special instruction will not be thought of as vocational training, but rather as a necessary manner of giving permanent expression to her æsthetic nature. The author believes that the matter should be stated even more emphatically. That is, not to give the normal girl some such means of indulging her æsthetic tastes is seriously to neglect her education, if not to do her a permanent wrong.
While vocational training and economic advantages are important secondary considerations in connection with the daughter’s instruction in the fine arts, the father who helps her become an amateur in one of these lines thereby renders her a splendid service for life. It is neither very difficult nor very expensive to arrange to have the girl go to the near-by town or to a neighbor’s once or twice per week where she may receive competent instruction in music or painting. To make the arrangement most effective there will need to be a musical instrument in her own home, a conveyance at her ready disposal, and a regular allowance of time for practice. No just and affectionate parents can deny their young daughter any fewer advantages than these, if the means for securing them can at all be acquired.
The reward will come in time
The lessons in painting or fine needlework may be provided for in the same way. If the expense seems heavy, the far-sighted parents will think of their declining days of the future and imagine the large return the daughter may render them through the skill which they have been instrumental in developing in her.
But without waiting for old age to overtake them the father and mother of the girl artist may derive some benefits from her work. She may furnish the table service with hand-painted chinaware or adorn the walls of the home with attractive paintings. And also, as heretofore indicated, the daughter may herself in time conduct a class of amateur students of the fine art in which she has made preparation.
One word of precaution must be offered in reference to the training here considered. In the usual case the girl is not started young enough. Her advancement in the music, for example, is likely to be much more rapid and her skill much more marked, if the age nine to eleven, rather than five or six years later, be chosen as the beginning time. The author has witnessed many pathetic instances of adult girls in a desperate attempt to master the mechanical part of the introductory music. The extra amount of desire and effort possible at this more advanced age do not nearly compensate for the better memory and the greater facility of hand and finger movement possible at the earlier age. This same general law of early beginning probably holds good in respect to the other fine arts.
In relation to all the foregoing seemingly trivial matters there comes to mind what is perhaps the most serious problem that confronts practically every well-reared young woman; namely, that of her successful marriage to a worthy young man—a subject to be discussed at length in another paper. And so it is contended that if her future happiness or well-being be a consideration, if the realization of her fondest hopes and her instinctive desires be worthy of the thought of her parents; then, they must by all means see that some of the foregoing refining qualities become woven into her whole character during the formative period. Thus she may be given practically every possible advantage in finding that true life companion.