By Jane Frances Dove, Certificated Student of Girton College, Cambridge, 1874; Head Mistress of Wycombe Abbey School, Bucks; previously Head Mistress of St. Leonard’s School, St. Andrews, N.B.

The mistress as educator.As the object of school life, or rather of life at school, is not merely teaching but education, and as education, whatever the true derivation of the word may be, means the gradual drawing out and development of all the faculties of which the human being is capable, we shall speak in this chapter not of the “teacher,” but of the “mistress” as the person who in school life takes the place of authority analogous to that of the parent in the home, and upon whom falls the responsibility for the time being of seeing that a due balance is being maintained in the development of every faculty. The importance of this harmonious development of the powers is manifest. We do not desire girls to be brainless athletes any more than we wish that they should be delicate or stunted blue-stockings, and either of these exaggerated types is made doubly deplorable if, as sometimes happens, there is a deficiency of moral power.

Health conditions.The most important conditions for health are first of all a wholesome environment; secondly, wholesome occupation for the mind; and thirdly, proper exercise for the body.

The environment will be discussed later.

The occupation of the mind will also come chiefly under the head of mental training, but here it may be desirable to notice that the mind must receive much of its training through the exercise of faculties other than the intellectual. Meaning of recreation.This truth is of course the foundation of the whole idea of recreation, recreation consisting much more in change of thought and a difference in the objects on which the attention is fixed, than in the particular form of exercise through which this object is attained. It is for this reason that games of all kinds are so much more valuable than mere walking under ordinary circumstances, because walking is so purely mechanical, especially when exercised for limited periods among well-known surroundings, that the mind continues to occupy itself with the thoughts, and possibly with the intellectual problems, upon which it was before fixed. Some forms of recreation more valuable than others.Better than walking, as both an exercise and a recreation, I should count riding, rowing or bicycling. In riding and bicycling there is the great interest of managing the horse and propelling the bicycle, the exhilaration and quickened circulation produced by passing rapidly through the air, together with the refreshment gained through the eye by the contemplation of new and varied scenes, especially if they be beautiful. Every form of occupation or exercise that will keep girls in the open air is for that reason alone valuable, because there is no bodily want so imperious as the necessity of breathing fresh, unvitiated air; but as a true recreation the first position must undoubtedly be given to games, because in them there is always a special interest upon which the mind must be concentrated, and which therefore entirely prevents the possibility of the thoughts dwelling upon the subject of the last lesson, and sends the girl back braced and invigorated to overcome the intellectual difficulties that may be required of her. Games essential to a healthy school life.I think I do not speak too strongly when I say that games, i.e., active games in the open air, are essential to a healthy existence, and that most of the qualities, if not all, that conduce to the supremacy of our country in so many quarters of the globe, are fostered, if not solely developed, by means of games.

I have said that games are essential to a healthy existence; of course I mean that they are so under the circumstances of school life. Without this proviso the assertion would be an exaggerated one. For I think if it were possible, with a due regard for the necessities of their training, to make girls cultivate a farm, or even do all the work of a large garden, or build a house, or make a road, the interest of performing a real work of utility, together with the exercise of the muscles and other faculties, would give the necessary recreation and muscular exercise; but the initial difficulty can hardly be overcome, viz., that in building a house, or cultivating a farm, the exigencies of the work must be considered rather than the training of the workers. Games give exercise.Hence it is that games have been invented as a means of exercise in the open air, which will occupy varying numbers of players, which can be dropped and resumed according to the exigencies of the weather, varied according to the capacities of the players, which possess endless interests, develop numberless faculties, and yet which can be pursued upon limited spaces of ground, the possibilities of which for the purpose are never exhausted, and without the using up of valuable material. In fact for people who are to be intellectual workers, games are the modern adaptation of the old command “to till the ground,” which, like other laws of a fundamental nature, cannot at any time of the world’s history be neglected. Efforts have from time to time been made to carry out the injunction literally, as in the attempts of Mr. Ruskin to inspire Oxford undergraduates to try the experiment of road-making, or in the foundation of schools, which are meeting with a considerable measure of success, in which the boys perform, besides a certain proportion of indoor work, a good deal of agricultural, including woodmen’s, labour. Games waste the minimum amount of material and can be played on limited areas.But for most schools, with their limited possibilities as regards acres of land, trees and materials, games are the only possible means of satisfying the need. These ought to be as joyous and spontaneous as possible, and therefore should be of every possible kind to suit different tastes. The joyousness and spontaneity are so especially necessary for girls on account of their extreme conscientiousness and devotion to duty. Boys, for all I know to the contrary, may perform their duties equally well, but they are rarely inclined to worry over them as girls do, and they have such overflowing animal spirits that they always contrive to find relaxation, by means of fun and activity of all kinds at odd times, which either does not come naturally to girls, or which, if indulged in by them as well as by boys, would make life an unbearable pandemonium for their elders.

Let us then have games of all kinds; every game, with, I should say, the single exception of football, is suitable. Games for small numbers.Let us have lawn tennis, fives, bowls, croquet, quoits, golf, swimming, skating, archery, tobogganing, basket-ball, rounders and hailes, as many of these as can be provided for, and some at one season of the year, others at another. All these are useful, because only a small number of individuals, one or two, or at the most four, is necessary to make most of them enjoyable, and therefore they can fill up gaps of time when large numbers are not available for organised games. Let these games also be encouraged by means of tournaments and competitions held occasionally, and let prizes or challenge cups be offered for success in these competitions, and where there is a golf course arranged, let there be an autumn and a spring medal.

Their higher functions.Games, however, have a much higher function to perform in school life than any I have yet mentioned. Here is a splendid field for the development of powers of organisation, of good temper under trying circumstances, courage and determination to play up and do your best even in a losing game, rapidity of thought and action, judgment and self-reliance, and, above all things, unselfishness, and a knowledge of corporate action, learning to sink individual preferences in the effort of loyally working with others for the common good.

Necessity for the cultivation of corporate virtues. Women have plenty of devotion and unselfishness of an individual kind—that is to say, they can lose themselves entirely in the interests of their particular friends or of their husbands and children, but this personal devotion is quite compatible with what I may call family selfishness, and they may be, and often are, quite incapable of realising any interest whatever that is not bounded by the four walls of their home. The effect of this narrowness is to make their lives extremely mean and petty, and they have in consequence a deteriorating effect upon every member of their families and upon all society in which they mingle. It is true that the family is the unit which lies at the base of all national existence, and which forms the foundation stone for all teaching, moral and spiritual, but it is essential to remember that it is only a unit, and that an aggregation of such families or units forms a community, a nation, and that the members of a family are likewise citizens of kingdoms, political and spiritual. The woman who indulges in family selfishness is a bad citizen. To be a good citizen, it is essential that she should have wide interests, a sense of discipline and organisation, esprit de corps, a power of corporate action. Now the schoolmistress is the person who has the best opportunity of teaching these principles to women, and I would have her fully recognise her privilege and her responsibility. Men acquire corporate virtues, not only at school and at college, but almost in every walk of life; whereas comparatively few women ever find themselves members of an organised profession, and the proportion, even of those who have the advantage of college life, is still exceedingly small. It remains therefore for the school to teach them almost all that they will ever have the opportunity of acquiring of the power of working with others, and sinking their own individuality for the common good. The opportunity must be made the most of. In the life generally.Now girls are quite as susceptible as boys to the influences of school life. Therefore let us see that the influences are such as develop the best characteristics. Make them trustworthy by trusting them, open and straightforward by taking it for granted that they have nothing to hide. Give them beautiful surroundings; let the house be well managed and comfortable but not luxurious; satisfy every reasonable want liberally; do not keep their minds concentrated upon themselves by having a multiplicity of minute and irritating rules, but explain to them broad principles of conduct, and expect them to apply these themselves to the minutiæ of their own lives, pointing out patiently again and again where the girls’ application of principles clashes with the interests of the majority. By means of organised games.Thus the principles of corporate life are being imbibed every hour and minute of the day, though nowhere more completely than in the playground, and in the playground the large organised games, such as cricket, hockey and lacrosse, are the most useful for this purpose.

Area of playground.Of course it is exceedingly difficult to obtain space enough upon which to play these games, but if a school is to be a residentiary school at all in the full sense of the word, it must have several acres of ground immediately surrounding it. I forbear to specify the minimum number of acres, because though it may be desirable for the whole school to be able to play at one time every day, it is not essential, as it is possible by an expenditure of trouble on the part of the headmistress to economise both playground and schoolroom accommodation by arranging for each to be available in succession for the use of different portions of the school. A very useful guide, however, is to be found in the fact that, taking twelve well-known boys’ schools, the average area of the sites is twelve acres for every hundred boys.

There ought to be one ground levelled and turfed, about a hundred yards by fifty, for every thirty or forty girls. It is rarely that more than two and twenty, as in cricket, or twenty-four, as in lacrosse, are required for a game; but out of the whole number there will always be a few who are “not playing games to-day,” and the balance occupy themselves usefully with some of the other smaller games previously enumerated. Organisation of playground.The captain of the house or form, or whatever the subdivision may be that has the use of the “ground,” must arrange that every individual of the forty is put down to play in the organised game three or four, or as many times as is possible, in the week. The half-holiday will naturally be the day upon which foreign matches are played, or home matches with other divisions, or scratch matches arranged by the captain of the games. The captain of games and the captains of divisions are of course girls, selected in the one case by the whole school, and in the others by the girls of the division over which she presides. Of course if the number of grounds available is not as great as the number of suitable divisions, divisions must have grounds allotted to them in turn, and this reduces seriously the opportunities for practice. A good deal, however, may often be done with great advantage on a smaller piece of ground in practising for the game at the time in vogue, especially in cricket, where very useful coaching is given at the nets. Often special varieties of a game are developed by the local peculiarities of the only available spot for playing it. Every Etonian knows the correct shape for a fives-court, and how the peculiarity has been perpetuated from the balustrade of the stone stair in the quadrangle which leads to the chapel. The old Scottish game of hailes has likewise localised itself in the playground of the Academy, Edinburgh. It is desirable that there should be a mistress, whose special interest may be claimed by the girls in any particular game, and whose advice may be sought by the captain of games in the matter of answering challenges and providing the necessary apparatus. The captain should also be supported by another girl as secretary and treasurer, to collect subscriptions and keep the books.

Cycle of games.The experience of many years has evolved the plan of choosing regularly one game for each term, and always keeping to it. Thus lacrosse might be taken in the September term, hockey in January, and cricket in May, and if all schools adopt the same plan, outside matches are then possible, and there are few things which tend so strongly to keep up the esprit de corps of a school as meeting other schools on the playing-field.

There will be no difference of opinion as to the suitability of cricket for the summer term, but many schools play hockey in September, and carry it on for two terms. We have found, however, that there is not really enough interest in the game itself to keep up enthusiasm for such a long period, but inasmuch as it keeps nearly all the players in constant movement and requires the minimum amount of arrangement beforehand, and can therefore be begun at once on a cold day without loss of time, it is the best game for the January term, during which the most inclement weather of the year is usually experienced. Lacrosse.Football being quite out of the question, on account of its roughness, we have fallen back upon lacrosse, a game which requires the same qualities of combination, obedience, courage, individual unselfishness for the sake of a side—a player who attempts to keep the ball instead of passing it being absolutely useless—and is full of interest on account of the various kinds of skill required, fleetness of foot, quickness of eye, strength of wrist, and a great deal of judgment and knack. The game of lacrosse well played is a beautiful sight, the actions of the players being so full of grace and agility. The skill required, moreover, is so great that the attempt to acquire it is a splendid training in courage and perseverance.

Hockey.Hockey is so well known that it is hardly necessary to say much about it, excepting that it is a very great mistake to regard it as essentially a rough game. All that is necessary to prevent roughness is to have a strict rule against raising the stick above the waist, an offence of this kind giving a free hit to the opposite side. Of course, hard knocks are sometimes received, but is there no value in the lesson of cheerful endurance that may thus be learned, and is it possible to enjoy anything good in life or even to live at all, without running some risk of bodily harm? Hockey has besides its special advantages which I have already mentioned.

Cricket.As regards cricket, I am well aware that most real cricketers would laugh at the idea of girls attempting the game. I shall always remember the remark made by the head master of a public school, after watching the girls at play for some time with the keenest interest: “Yes, they will never make cricketers, but they are having splendid exercise in the open air”. This, however, was some years ago, and the girls have worked hard and improved since then, and I venture to think that if the same kindly critic could again see their play he would think somewhat better of it. Indeed, I am often surprised at the real pleasure and approbation expressed at what even to me seems our feeble attempts. Granted, however, that the game in the hands of girls can never be quite the same game that it is for boys, it is still a perfectly safe game when played between elevens of tolerably equal strength. It is, in my opinion, quite unsafe when played by men against women, or even by big boys against little ones, but admirable from every point of view so long as boys play boys and girls play girls of corresponding size and strength. The amount of interest and variety in the game is unsurpassed by any other, and it is so well known that an intelligent interest in its details can be taken by almost any one. No roughness is produced; all is gentleness and courtesy, combined with strength and determination. The traditions of the game are such that girls attempting to play it must throw themselves completely into it, and cannot allow themselves to give way to idleness and ineffectiveness. This is well illustrated by the remark of the captain of a team of ladies who recently played an eleven from a well-known school, and were beaten by them. She congratulated the head mistress, and said: “Your girls play like gentlemen, and behave like ladies”.

It is unfortunate that, broadly speaking, girls cannot throw and that the bowling in a girls’ eleven is apt to be lamentably weak. Deficiency of early muscular training.I have not been able to decide in my own mind whether this weakness is due to physiological disabilities or to the want of early training, but I am inclined to think the latter. It seems to be generally acknowledged in the nursery that it is of no use to attempt to keep the boys in strict control, that they must be allowed to have their fling, and create an uproar, and climb, and throw stones, but the whole force of the nurse’s authority is usually exerted to prevent the girls under her charge from falling under the opprobrium, in nursery etiquette, of being “unladylike”. I am the more inclined to this opinion, as I observe that where parents have the good sense to allow their girls the same facilities for activity, natural and necessary for the young animal, as their boys, the girls do learn to throw equally well, and attain the same easy gracefulness of movement which is natural to the untrammelled boy. Such parents, I grieve to say, are still very rare, with the result that not more than three or four per cent. of girls of fourteen have any idea of throwing a ball, and much less of bowling. This can scarcely be wondered at, seeing that “Sir B. W. Richardson lately stated that in his student days it was taught in all sobriety by anatomical authorities that the joint of a woman’s shoulder was more shallow than a man’s, so that she was almost sure to dislocate it if she threw a ball with force! Thus, comically, does preconceived theory upset the scientific vision.” However, great strides have already been made by girls in acquiring skill in games, and much greater strides will be made in the future, to the enormous gain, not only physically but mentally and morally, both of women in particular and of the nation as a whole.

Great value of Swedish gymnastics.We now come to the consideration of exercises, which though really recreative in their tendencies, are much less so than games, and first among these come gymnastics. Now no nation has more carefully thought out the subject of physical education than the Swedes, and at the Central Institute in Stockholm, under the superintendence of Professor Törngren, professors of gymnastics, both preventive and curative, are trained, who have a thorough scientific knowledge of their work, and can produce results in the way of physical training second to no others in existence. It has been my happiness for many years to watch the results of the work produced by one of the professor’s pupils, and I cannot speak too highly of the work she has accomplished. The essence of her method is a systematic training of all the muscles. She possesses a thorough knowledge of the structure of the human frame, both muscular and nervous. By a carefully thought out series of free exercises, supplemented by work upon the admirably devised Swedish apparatus, the muscular system of her pupils is thoroughly and harmoniously developed; and here let me say that, strongly as I believe in out-door games, Severe games not safe without gymnastic training.I do not consider it safe to allow girls to indulge in them absolutely without restriction, nor at all, at least in the severer games, unless they are receiving systematic muscular training in the gymnasium and make a practice of changing all their garments as soon as play is over. For this reason, the time during which it is possible for girls to play hard is carefully cut down to a maximum of an hour and a half. Also, no exemptions whatever are given from gymnastic lessons. By this means hard games are made safe, whereas otherwise there would be constant danger of overstrain, and mischief might ensue which would perhaps not be apparent at the time, but might seriously endanger a girl’s health in after years. Dangers of over-exertion.There is nothing in my opinion more dangerous for young people than physical and nervous exhaustion. The harm is done in a gay, thoughtless moment, which may not be overcome for years. This care is especially necessary in the case of girls, both on account of physical organisation and because their muscular system has, as a rule, been so imperfectly developed in childhood. There is still another and very important reason. It has already been stated that girls are so very good and conscientious. One form which this characteristic takes is that they will quietly attempt, and by pure nerve-force will perform, if the occasion seems to require it of them, feats for which their muscular development is entirely unfitted. This brings me to the reason why Swedish gymnastics are so greatly superior to the ordinary form of gymnastics, which used to be prevalent in boys’ public schools and army gymnasiums. In this kind of gymnastics, the attention of the instructor is far too much occupied in making his pupils perform feats, many of which are of an acrobatic nature, rather than directed to the harmonious development of the whole body; hence, in some cases, the shoulders become abnormally broad and square, and other unsymmetrical effects are caused. In fact, the amusement of the pupils is considered rather more than their physical welfare.

Physical defects discovered at gymnastics.Then, since every girl must appear twice a week in the gymnasium as long as she remains in the school, dressed in an easy-fitting costume, consisting of knickerbockers and tunic, the gymnastic mistress has every opportunity of noticing the physical development, and I have found that she very quickly detects even the slightest curvatures or other physical defects, and, with the parents’ consent, can give curative treatment, which is very speedily efficacious in curing weak or crooked backs, stoops, displaced shoulder blades, sprains and other ailments. The mistress also gives the girls a good deal of useful advice, according to their several needs. She notices how they sit or what postures they take for different avocations, and tells them if they are wrong, and why they are wrong. She does not undertake any medical responsibility, but having had, so far as the bodily frame goes, a thorough medical training, her work among a number of girls is simply invaluable, and no physical features that ought to be noticed escape her practised eye. It is well known to schoolmistresses, if not to parents, what a serious difficulty these physical defects cause in a girl’s moral training. Nothing is worse for a girl than to be forced by circumstances to think much about her own health. Therefore, it is our part to save them as much as we can from having to direct their thoughts upon themselves more than is required by ordinary common-sense. Think how hard it is for a girl who has a weak back, and is ordered to lie down for certain hours in the day. She cannot lie and do nothing, and therefore attempts reading as being apparently the only possible occupation. The difficulty of fixing the book in the right position and getting a proper light upon it is such that very frequently the eyes are overstrained and a new difficulty is produced. Curative gymnastics.Now most weak backs can be strengthened by strengthening the proper muscles. Muscle is strengthened by use, and the Swedish gymnast knows what exercises, or what rubbings, will produce the desired results, and proceeds to strengthen slowly and judiciously. The girl at the same time is allowed plenty of fresh air and suitable games, and soon recovers her normal condition, all the while pursuing the same kind of life as the others, though probably with some relaxation in the way of lessons. Defects often the result of ignorance, fashion or overwork.Such weak backs ought not to occur as often as they do, if proper attention were paid from the first to the physical conditions of life. I do not mean anything abstruse or difficult, but just the ordinary commonplaces; that high-heeled shoes throw the body out of its natural balance and overstrain some muscles; that hard, stiff clothing pressing upon muscles weakens them by causing atrophy, a frequent cause of weak backs; that a growing child must have abundance of sleep, food, fresh air and exercise, and while living in cultivated surroundings and being encouraged in intellectual pursuits, should not be expected to spend more than three or four hours each day according to age, in doing definite brain work. At the age of fourteen a healthy girl may be expected to begin to work as much as five hours a day. So much for gymnastics, the necessity for which it is to be hoped has been sufficiently demonstrated.

Dancing.Dancing is also a capital form of exercise, provided it is not pursued, as is sometimes the case, to the point of physical exhaustion. The art of fencing is also well worth acquiring. Also bicycle evolutions to music, and even roller skating.

Hours that may reasonably be spent in intellectual work.Having stated that three hours is enough for intellectual work for most girls up to the age of eleven or twelve, four hours up to fourteen, five up to sixteen, and that six is the utmost a girl of any age ought to attempt; having also said that an hour and a half in the day is enough for the organised games, it remains to fill up the rest of the day, which, excluding sleep and meals, and the necessary time spent in dressing, usually amounts to from two to three hours. The time-table of every girl in the school may be different; I append, as examples, the actual time-tables of twenty girls for a week, the total of forty-four hours being made up of five days of eight hours and one day of four hours.

SAMPLE TIME-TABLES.

And here it is important to note that a great deal of the training requisite to make a girl really useful, i.e., to make her industrious, prompt, intelligent, thoughtful, thorough and accurate, can quite as easily be given by means of work which is not intellectual, thereby saving the poor brain, which we have often strained to the uttermost in the past, from the weariness and fatigue consequent upon overwork, The true end of school life.and girls may be sent out from school not anæmic and weak-backed, hating the sight of a book, but healthy and vigorous, keenly alive to every opportunity that offers for self-improvement, earnest and self-restrained, with trained powers ready to devote themselves to the duties which offer. Occupations not purely intellectual.For the purposes of training then, I would suggest a variety of handicrafts,[32] such as bookbinding, needlework, the practising of various musical instruments, part singing, drawing and gardening. In some cases time also is given for general reading in the library—this may include English and other modern languages—and is often valuable in keeping up a modern language that has been acquired early, besides cultivating breadth of view and literary taste. The whole school ought also to be organised as a Fire Brigade and regularly drilled. It will be noticed at once that cooking, dressmaking, domestic economy, sick nursing, physiology and hygiene are omitted. These subjects are admirable at school age for girls who intend to make them their work in life, but for our own girls, though some of them suggest suitable holiday recreations, I believe that they are best acquired by devoting six months or a year specially to the purpose when school life is over. They do not seem to me to admit of a sufficient amount of training, in proportion to the amount of time they consume. The knowledge, so essential for the welfare of the individual, of phenomena, such as the properties of air and water and the laws of heat, is acquired and the practical applications are pointed out by every intelligent teacher during the study of physics and chemistry; and care of the health receives constant practical attention, so that it is unnecessary to emphasise it during school life by special lessons. Needlework is essential for every woman, and facility with the needle is more easily acquired early, say from ten to fourteen, when the fingers are really large enough to use such a delicate instrument as a needle; but, as with everything else, having acquired the elements thoroughly, it must be a matter of individual taste whether the worker proceeds to acquire the higher branches of the art. Handicrafts.The same may be said of piano, violin and drawing. Bookbinding, woodcarving and joinery give great scope for the development of neatness, accuracy and artistic talent. An immense deal of interest may also be excited by gardening, and much information of a practical and botanical kind, likely to be useful in later life, may be obtained. Every girl who wishes it, should have a small plot of garden to cultivate for herself.