If homes were ideal it would be an easy task. If it were possible for
the majority of homes to approach the ideal it would seem an easier
task. But with poverty, ignorance, inefficiency and indifference
clutching at the very center of dynamic power, the task is one of the
greatest which men have as yet been asked to meet. If homes were ideal,
from the moment the little girl comes into the world, and even before
her coming, sensible, rational care would be taken of her body, not only
to make it beautiful but that it might do its work for her in healthful,
normal fashion and be a good servant throughout her life. Her mind would
be awakened and trained to think, her will to act and to control and all
her sense of reverence, wonder and worship developed while her love for
the good and the beautiful, the heroic and self-sacrificing was
stimulated.
But homes are not ideal and the majority have neither accepted nor
considered deeply the task of preparing the _whole_ girl for life. Some
prepare her physically and let the rest of the triad develop as it will.
Some prepare her mentally and morally while both body and spirit suffer.
Some seek to prepare her spiritually by fitting on as a sort of garment
what they believe to be religion while body and mind receive little
attention and some let all three develop as convenience and chance may
dictate.
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