Alumna

“ Jerry and Ginny linked arms as they walked away with the others behind Uncle Johnny. The shadow dispelled—in youth the sun is always so happily close behind all the little clouds—the girls' spirits went forth, joyously, to meet the interests of the moment, the class oration, the class gift, the class song, Isobel's graduating dress, the Senior bouquets—the hundred and one exciting things about the proud class of girls and boys who were, in a few days, to pass forever from the school life—graduates. ”

“ Our school must not have the air of a school, or we that of school-mistresses. It must be like a great household of which we are the mothers. We will try and teach them love as we understand it, by word and deed. ”

“ Not a sound is heard, until the college song-leader hums a pitch. Then the Alma Mater hymn goes up with all the thrilling reverence in it of a song of love sung to the college mother. If one were near the singers, it would be possible to see, how, when the song deepens in theme, the sophomore unconsciously throws his arm over the shoulder of the freshman, and the senior throws his over the shoulder of the junior: all brothers as the melody unfolds itself. ”

“ As we meet in thy name, Alma Mater, to-night, All our hearts and our hopes are as one, And love for the mother that nurtured his youth Beats high in the breast of each son. The sweet chords of Memory bridge o'er the Past, The years fade away like a dream, By the banks of Cephissus, beneath the green trees, We tread thy fair walks, Academe. ”

“ It’s a College! And what’s this with a grey gown and a black velvet cap? it’s a father! And what’s this with a clarionet? It’s an uncle! And what’s this in dancing-shoes? It’s a sister! And what’s this straggling about in an idle sort of a way? ”

“ I—I guess I might have mentioned it before, mother, but—but—oh, hang!—when a fellow's a senior it—it's all he can do to get home once in a while and—and—what's the use talking about a thing anyway before it breaks right, and—well, everybody knows it's up to us college fellows—college men—to lead the others and show our country what we're made of now that she needs us—eh, little dressed-up mother? ”

“ And my dear little girl, remember this, whenever regrets come up for the school days brought so suddenly to a close, that school is only to prepare us to meet the tests of life, and already you have met one of its greatest—'To renounce when that shall be necessary, and not be embittered!' And you are doing that so bravely that I want you to know how much I admire and love you for it. ”

“ The ingenuous student, having completed his term of years—a classical Olympiad—amidst the restraints of the academy, in the daily pursuits of the lecture-room, observant of forms, obsequious to the college curfew, at length renounces these restraints, heeds no longer the summoning bell, throws off the youthful gown, and now, under the auspices of Alma Mater, assumes the robe of manhood. ”

“ Every person whom you know may be in some way pleased and benefited by your experience. There are little girls who are examining you as only a little girl can, and are making up their minds whether they, too, will go to college some day. When you see this bright child peering at you,—there 72 is your chance to be something adorable!
No one follows you with more sympathy than the teachers who have fitted you for college. They have a share in you, remember; for teachers have a reward beyond money in the futures of their pupils. ”

“ Here is the “real thing” in a girl’s college story. Older authors can invent situations and supply excellently written general delineations of character, but all lack the vital touch of this work of a bright young recent graduate of a well-known college for women, who has lost none of the enthusiasm felt as a student. Every activity of a popular girl’s first year is woven into a narrative, photographic in its description of a life that calls into play most attractive qualities, while at the same time severely testing both character and ability. ”

“ Her mother never having been in a Sunday-school herself, scarcely knew how to explain to her daughter the difference between it and an ordinary day school. So she simply said:
“It is not a school like ours down at the ‘Cross Roads,’ but one in which we read the Bible, and sing and pray, and are taught to love the Saviour.”
“O, mother!” exclaimed the child, “then [43] I would like to go. Do tell the man to have one in our school-house. Will you mother?”
“Yes, child, I will ask him if he gets well again.”
“I hope he will get well soon,” said Eliza, and bounded off to tell Henry the news. ”

“ Tell me why you wish to gain other knowledge?”
“Because, ma’am, I am most wishful to be useful to my parents. They are poor, and have a large family to bring up. If I could but open a little school in our village, what a blessing should I be to them!”
“Well, Catherine,” said Miss Arden, [121] after considering a little, “I will do what I can for you—I mean if Miss Damer approves; for I dare not trust to my own judgment. Meet me in the school-room early to-morrow morning, and I well tell you how it is to be.” ”

“ A middle way, perhaps not so impracticable, would be to choose from the graduating class of each year girls for whom college has been rather a general training for life than a specialized preparation for some one profession—girls who could afford to give a year’s time and who would gladly do so in return for board and lodging, special college privileges, such as graduate courses, and so on, and the not invaluable experience that they would gain by acting as these house mothers. ”

“ I was a girl again; the past was bridged over; it stirred a host of chaotic feelings of mingled sweetness and sadness—longing for my lost girlhood, and exultation at the successes and achievements of to-day—the Spell of the Past was in that bell.
A fine high-school building, well equipped, now stands [Pg 48] where the old Academy stood. To the younger generation it will doubtless mean all that the old school meant to us, but how like an interloper it is! ”

“ You can not separate and classify these acquisitions and tell who taught you this, who gave you that, but the diploma you receive witnesses your possession. To-night your novitiate ends. Your Alma Mater will watch anxiously, lovingly, the line of light which marks your past. Think not, it makes no matter if your taper vanish. One spark extinguished, leaves darkness in its place. Each new thought which you may awaken, each new aspiration you may enkindle, each new impulse for good you may stimulate, flashes back to her a thrill of joy and makes the fire on her altar burn more brightly. ”

“ Professor Sprague's tabulation of the careers of Vassar college graduates, made from official records of the college, is worth quoting in full, for the light it throws on the histories of college girls, after they leave college: [Pg 264]
If the women's colleges were fulfilling what the writers consider to be their duty toward their students, their graduates would have a higher marriage and birth-rate than that of their sisters, cousins and friends who do not go to college. ”

“ She has remained in school during the summer vacation, and within two years has entered day-school with enough to her credit to finish her education. When the happy parents return to see their daughter graduated, after six or seven long years, their faces are radiant because of their realized hopes. When they see their white-robed daughter transformed from the girl they brought here clad in the homespun of the [70] old days, and receiving her certificate, the tears come unchecked, and the moving lips no doubt form a whispered prayer. ”

“ My children having reached the ages of ten and twelve, could be safely left, the daughter under the charge of a governess, and the son at a boarding-school in an adjacent township, where the wife of the Principal with whom he was to reside having been an early acquaintance of mine, would extend to him some degree of maternal attention. ”

“ Graduation was the goal they had been striving for four years to reach, but graduation meant also the parting of the ways, and as the four chums looked back over their High School life it seemed to them that they could never again have quite the good times that they had enjoyed in one another's society.
"'We who are about to die salute you'" quoted Nora O'Malley, as the four girls strolled home from school on the Friday preceding commencement. ”

“ Ilse recited at our school concert last week and everybody thought her wonderful.
“Aunt Ruth told me today that she expected me to be a star pupil. She wasn’t punning on my name—oh, no, Aunt Ruth hasn’t a nodding acquaintance with puns. All the pupils who make ninety per cent. average at the Christmas exams and do not fall below eighty in any subject are called ‘Star’ pupils and are given a gold star-pin to wear for the rest of the term. ”

“ A typical contemporary writer [1] thinks the question whether a girl shall receive a college education is very like the same question for boys. Even if the four K's, Kirche, Kinder, Kuchen, and Kleider (which may be translated by the four C's, Church, Children, Cooking, and Clothes) , are her vocation, college may help her. The best training for a young woman is not the old college course that has proven unfit for young men. ”

“ A newspaper woman in my office recently told me a story of a mother who finished her high-school education, took some work in a university, and who yielded to the earnest pleas of her lover-classmate through grammar school, high school and college—and married him. ”

“ Admitting that it is the profession of our sex to teach, we perceive the mother to be first in point of precedence, in degree of power, in the faculty of teaching, and in the department allotted. For in point of precedence, she is next to the Creator; in power over her pupil, limitless and without competitor ”

“ In social walk or civic strife,
In church or home or school, her life
⁠Uplifts and sweetens all.
What becomes of the college girl,
⁠From college classes flown?
Praise spoils her not, nor blame dismays ”

“ I who stand in the guardianship of youth have frequent occasion to miss a favorite pupil, boy or girl, who throws up a college training and goes home—often, in my judgment, mistakenly—to support, or merely to cheer, the family there. ”

“ I want to prove to father that, college fits a girl for anything,—even practical life, and if I keep the house in order, discipline the children, and have some excellent meals, I think he’ll be convinced. ”

“ AT BOARDING SCHOOL One day my mother took me on her knees and said to me, “You are a big girl now, and you must learn to read and write.” I was then seven years old, and could neither read, write, nor count, as I had been five years with the old nurse and two years ill. “You must go to school,” continued my mother, playing with my curly hair, “like a big girl.” ”

“ FATHER or PRÆLECTOR. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., one of the fellows of a college, who attends all the examinations for the Bachelor's degree, to see that justice is done to the candidates from his own college, who are at that time called his sons.—Gradus ad Cantab.
The Fathers of the respective colleges, zealous for the credit of the societies of which they are the guardians, are incessantly employed in examining those students who appear most likely to contest the palm of glory with their sons.—Gent. ”

“ When the teacher has resolved to make the effort to reach out for the girl who is leaving the Sunday-school in large numbers, the clear and challenging question, “What makes a class attractive to the girl in her teens?” ”

“ "It is, sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it." ”

“ CHAPTER FIVE Norm/Marriage
As the years aged to decades, college became the educational replacement for high school. My dad attended, and graduated from high school in an era when, in some areas, relatively few accomplished that feat, and fewer still furthered their academic standing by enrolling in a college. Mom, born ten years later, was able to earn a teaching certificate after two years of college. ”

“ Perhaps she has some one at home who is straining every nerve to send her to college. Perhaps there is a father, mother, sister or brother who has made untold sacrifices to give her a college education. ”

“ Have you a great dog at school?”
“O dear, no; I mean the lady who hears my lessons before I say them to Miss Adair.”
“Is that all!” The boy stepped on one side, and looked up at the house. [150] “No, I see nobody; there is not a creature in the windows. But I’ll tell you what, you shall stop here, and I’ll go to the lady of the school. ”

“ The girls in their white dresses and ribbons, with the beautiful flowers they carried, made a pretty picture on the platform; but this time, our boys were more interested in the other portion of the graduating class. They watched the boys as they went forward to receive their diplomas, and wondered if they themselves would be able to make as graceful a bow as some did, or if they should be as stiff and awkward as other poor fellows who became sadly embarrassed when they found themselves in such a conspicuous position. ”

“ When we look at our dear teachers, our hearts warm to you with no common love, because you led them to leave the sweet place of their nativity for our sakes. You have been parents to them, wiping away their tears with the soft hand of a mother, and sharing their trials with a father's heart. ”