THE SCHOLARLY GIRL

Hokitika Guardian, 5 March 1921, Page 1

THE SCHOLARLY GIRL

A PROBLEM TO HER MOTHER

“.Mother's brains do not rise above meals.”

These words, spoken scornfully by a 15-vear-old schoolgirl state curtly, hut expressively, a problem which many mothers in these days are trying to solve.

Their daughters, with sufficient brains to take advantage of tho present scholarship system, have passed from the elementary to the secondary school, and have tho prospect of a university career before them. Their mothers, in tho meantime, are slaving to keep them properly fed and clothed. They have not ( time to think of an “h” more or less. They have scarcely even heard of half the subjects that are of such vital importance to their daughters.

A father can, if lie will, keep pace to some extent with his daughters’ activities, by reading and attending evening lectures. But for the mother this is impossible. There is no eight-houi day for her, for her work' is never done. Besides, all her powers of concentration are required to make the household money last. Yet if a mother cannot share in her daughter’s work, how can sin; share in her pleasures? The result is that, the scholarship girl often lives her life apart from her parent. “Poor old mother,” she thinks. “Of course she can’t, help it; but it is really awfully awkward not lacing able to ask one’s friends to tho house.” She has n. feeling of shame and pit-.v for her parents. Even though she may not admit it. she scorns their shabby clothes and their illiteracy. That brainworkers must be fed is no answer for her, and her mother is left to wonder why the three “R’s” which comprised her education in he,- young days are not sufficient for her daughter. Sometimes she wishes they were.