THE SUPERFLUOUS COLLEGE GIRL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8690, 16 October 1913, Page 6

THE SUPERFLUOUS COLLEGE GIRL.

The self-expression Miss Marjorie Alexander lias achieved in her article on "The Superfluous College Girl" /ending'in the lone, lost cry "What's

tobeconio of me?" makes pitiful read-

ing! It says such a lot for her schoolspecialisation and so little for her good

sense! It ignores in totality the common fact that the girl who goes to Girton or Kcwnhanl goes in a large percentage on ,a ; generous scholarship which defrays heavy fees and deadens the thought for a, year or two that she "is there to be equipped , at somebody else's expense, to earn her living, not te add to the knowledge of the universe, not to "prove herself a Mine. Curie or a Margaret Audoux, but just to earn her living, to share for herself not the honour and glory but just the work of the world. Miss Alexander seems to regret- the large number of college girls whose only " recourse" is to teach AB C and Le pere et la mere (with an indtilgent smile in favour of the latter). She omits to mention the fractional proportion teachers bear to the great Body of women-teachei's. rFirst, she should disabuse her mind

of being the first and finest thing going, and get rid of any idea of parallel be- • tween herself and the rich man's son at Oxford. When the son finishes at Oxford the daughter' finishes on the Continent. Very, few women' finish at Girton —they begin there, not with the

idea of teaching as a last resource, but with teaching—high school teaching if lucky—as the prime ideal. The college girl is real, is terribly earnest, and •merges wide-eyed with the world's wisdom and raised-eyebrowed for anything not Girtonian in quality!