Recently, four names, the names of women, were presented to classes of
girls in the last year of the grammar grades and the four years of the
high school. The girls were asked, "Did you ever hear of Frances
Willard? What do you know about her?" Then followed the names of Mary
Lyon, Clara Barton, Alice Freeman Palmer. The show of hands and the
written replies were pitiful. Some had a vague idea that they had heard
the name somewhere, a few gave one or two facts. Clara Barton seemed the
one most familiar but knowledge concerning her was very limited.
Then Jane Addams' name was tried, the same meager replies resulting.
Finally the name of the wife of a noted and notorious insane criminal
was given and scarcely a hand was down in answer to the first question,
and pencils flew over the paper in answer to the second. What does it
mean? It does not condemn the school, nor does it hold the school
responsible but it does suggest that there might be some substitute
characters for the mythical ones of ancient history, or that possibly
the lives of great and noble women might be studied with greater profit
by the girls of today than certain abstract problems in physics. In many
of the classes where the questions were asked that fresh, clear,
vitalizing atmosphere charged with reality, seemed lacking.
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