,,the ,,girl ,,in ,,her ,,teens ,,by ,,margaret ,,slattery ,the ,pilgrim ,press ,boston--,chicago ,copyright #aibj ,by ,a4 ,w4 ,fell ,,the ,,jordan ,,and ,,more ,,press ,,boston ,,contents - ,,chapter ,i--,,the ,,teen ,,period - ,,chapter ,,ii--,,the ,,physical ,,side - ,,chapter ,,iii--,,the ,,mental ,,side - ,,chapter ,,iv--,,the ,,spiritual ,,side - ,,chapter ,v--,,the ,,social ,,side - ,,chapter ,,vi--,,her ,,relation ,,to ,,the ,,sunday-,,school - ,,chapter ,,vii--,,her ,,relation ,,to ,,the ,,church - ,,chapter ,,viii--,,her ,,relation ,,to ,,the ,,bible - ,,chapter ,,ix--,,her ,,relation ,,to ,,the ,,everyday - ,,chapter ,x--,,her ,,teacher ,,chapter ,i--,,the ,,teen ,,period ,she was a beautiful1 well-developed girl of thirteen4 ,her bright1 eager face1 with its changing expression1 was a fascination at all times4 ,it seemed unusually earnest and serious that particular morning as she stood waiting the opportunity to speak to me4 ,she had asked to wait until the others had gone1 and her manner as she hesitated even then to speak made me ask1 ,are you in trouble1 ,edith8 ,no1 not exactly trouble1--,i don't know whether we ought to ask you1 but all of us girls think1--well1 we wish we could have a mirror in the locker-room4 ,couldn't we8 ,it's dreadful to go into school without knowing how your hair looks or anything6 ,i couldn't help laughing4 ,her manner was so tragic that the mirror seemed the most important thing in the educational system just then4 ,i said ,i would see what could be done about it1 and felt sure that what all the girls wanted could be supplied4 ,she thanked me heartily1 and when she entered her own room nodded her head in answer to inquiring glances from the other girls4 ,as ,i made a note of the request1 ,i remembered the ,edith of a year or more ago4 ,edith1 whose mother found her a great trial2 she didn't care how she looked4 ,it was true4 ,she wore her hat hanging down over her black braids1 held on by the elastic band around her neck2 she lost hair ribbons continually1 and never seemed to miss them4 ,she was a good scholar1 wide-awake1 alert1 always ready for the next thing4 ,she loved to recite1 and volunteered information generously4 ,in games she was the leader1 and on the playground always the unanimous choice for the coveted it of the game4 ,she was never in the least self-conscious1 and1 as her mother had said1 how she looked never seemed to occur to her4 ,and now she came asking for a mirror6 ,her hair ribbons are always present and her hat securely fastened by hat pins of hammered brass4 ,she spends a good deal of time in school arranging her hair4 ,sometimes spelling suffers1 sometimes algebra4 ,before standing to recite1 she carefully arranges her belt4 ,contrary to her previous custom1 she rarely volunteers1 although her scholarship is very good4 ,if unable to give the correct answer1 or when obliged to face the school1 she blushes painfully4 ,one day recently1 when the class were reading ,as ,you ,like ,it1 she sat with a dreamy look upon her sweet face1 far1 far away from the eighth-grade class-room2 could not find her place when called upon to read1 and1 although confused and ashamed1 lost it again within ten minutes4 ,what has happened to ,edith1 the child of a year ago8 ,she has gone4 ,the door has opened4 ,edith is thirteen4 ,the door opened slowly1 and those who knew her best were perhaps least conscious of the changes1 so gradual had they been4 ,but a new ,edith is here4 ,one by one the chief characteristics of the childhood of the race have been left behind1 and the dawn of the new life has brought to her the dim consciousness of universal womanhood4 ,womanhood means many things1 but always three--dreaming1 longing1 loving4 ,all three have come to her1 and though unconscious of their meaning1 she feels their power4 ,edith has seen herself1 is interested in herself1 has become self-conscious1 and for the next few years self will be the center and every act will be weighed and measured in relation to this new self4 ,fifty other girls1 her friends and companions all just entering their teens1 share the same feelings1 and manifest development along the same general lines4 ,more than one of those fifty mothers looks at her daughter growing so rapidly and awkwardly tall1 and says1 ,i don't know what to do with her1 she has changed so4 ,and more than one teacher summons all her powers to active service as she realizes that for the next two years she is to instruct one of the most difficult of pupils1 the girl who is neither child nor woman4 ,but the awkward years of early adolescence1 filled with the struggle to get adjusted to the new order of things1 with dreams1 with ardent worship of ideals embodied in teachers1 parents1 older girls1 imaginary characters1 quickly pass4 ,if they have been years of careful training1 if the eager1 impetuous day-dreamer and castle-builder has been guarded and shielded1 if she has been instructed by mother1 teacher1 or some wise sympathetic woman in all the knowledge that will help keep her safe and pure and fine1 then she is ready for the wealth of emotion1 the increase of the intellectual and spiritual power to be developed within her these next few years4 ,but if not--if the earliest years have been filled with questions for which no satisfactory answers were given1 if great mysteries that puzzle are solved for her only by what schoolmates1 patent medicine advertisements1 and imagination can teach1 then she does not have a fair chance4 ,she is not well equipped for life1 and if in some moment of trial which we fondly dream will never1 never come to her1 to others perhaps1 but not to her1 she is overwhelmed1 then we who have left her unguarded are to blame4 ,if at thirteen she was awkward and sometimes disagreeable1 at sixteen we forget all about it1 for now she is charming4 ,the floodtide of life is upon her1--it is ,june1 and all the world is her lover4 ,to be alive is glorious2 she shows it in all that she says and does4 ,she laughs at everything and at nothing1 and she dearly loves a good time4 ,she makes use of all the adjectives in her mother tongue1 and yet they are not enough to express all that she feels4 ,superlatives abound1 and a simple pronoun1 third person1 singular number1 masculine gender1 is introduced so often into her conversation with her girl friends that it reveals at least one prominent line of interest4 ,but she is a dreamer still of new1 deeper dreams in which self plays a large part1 but a different and more altruistic one2 and the longings that dawned on her soul with adolescence have grown in power4 ,she not only longs for the concrete hats and gowns and beautiful things1 to sing and play1 to be admired1 to be popular1 but she longs to be good and to do good4 ,now1 when all her powers have awakened1 obeying instincts of her womanhood1 she is ready to give herself in loving service to some great cause1 to serve the world4 ,all teachers of ,english composition can testify to the desire to serve which stands out so clearly in the essay work of girls at this period4 ,hazel is a type of hundreds4 ,she attended a lecture a while ago and saw pictures of the tenements2 the crowded conditions1 wretched poverty and suffering children stirred her soul4 ,every composition since has been a record of her dreams and longings4 ,in every written sketch or story a wretched child of the tenements appears4 ,a girl of means1 about sixteen years of age1 with plenty of spending money1 seeks out the child1 often crippled or blind1 gives it food1 clothing1 a wheel chair1 or takes it to a great physician who makes it well4 ,sometimes the heroine finds work for father and mother1 and they move to a cottage in the country and are happy4 ,always in the story misery is relieved and hearts are made glad4 ,always the heroine is self-sacrificing and those helped are touched with deepest gratitude4 ,in the last story1 ,little ,elsie sat comfortably back in her wheel chair too happy even to move it about4 ,her mother tried to find words to express her gratitude1 but could only murmur her thanks4 ,the child looked up into the face of her kind friend with a celestial smile that paid for all the sacrifice4 ,this desire to give all in altruistic service1 this longing to make the whole world happy1 this worship of the ,good reveals itself too in the girl's effort to find her ,lord and worship ,him4 ,the religious sense1 so strong in the heart of the race that man must bow down and worship something1 some one1 be it fire1 the moon1 the stars1 the river1 ancestors1 idols of wood or stone1 is strong in the heart of the girl in her teens4 ,and if rightly taught and presented1 the ,christ unfailingly becomes her great ideal4 ,all the qualities she most admires she finds in him4 ,bravery1 courage1 purity and strength1 patience and sympathy1 all are there and she worships him4 ,for him she can perform deeds of quiet heroism of which no one dreams1--struggle desperately to overcome her faults1 and sacrifice many a pleasure willingly4 ,her prayers are ardent and sincere1 and must rise to heaven as an acceptable offering4 ,i saw such a girl bow her head in prayer in the crowded church on ,easter morning4 ,her face was good to see4 ,death and the grave meant nothing to her1 but oh1 ,,life--it was so good4 ,sixteen found her hard at work in the cotton factory4 ,but looking at her in her new suit and hat and gloves1 and at the one bright yellow jonquil she wore so proudly1 you would never have guessed that a week of toil lay behind her and another awaited her4 ,that night she sang a brief solo in the chorus choir1 and did it well2 one of the boys in the church walked home with her1 they talked a few moments1 and ,easter was over4 ,at five-thirty next morning she rose1 ate her hasty1 meager breakfast1 and went to work in the rain4 ,a week later1 when we were talking after ,sunday-school1 she said1 ,i don't know as ,i ever had such a happy ,easter4 ,it was such a beautiful day4 ,and then hesitatingly1 ,i made up my mind ,i ought to be better than ,i have been1 and ,i'm not going to let my sister go to work in the mill1 no matter what it costs me4 ,i'm going to send her to high school next year instead of taking singing lessons4 ,i decided ,easter night4 ,i could see her sitting in her bare1 hopeless little room1 with the memory of the sunshine1 the new suit and the jonquil1 the solo1 and the ,risen ,lord filling her soul as she made her sacrifice1 letting the cherished plan of singing lessons go4 ,what made you want to do it8 ,i asked4 ,i don't know1 she said1 ,i felt that ,i ought to1 and ,easter makes you think of those things4 ,i think ,christians ought to be more like ,christ1 as ,dr4 ---- said in his sermon4 ,that was the explanation4 ,she was following1 the best she knew how1 the pathway of the ,christ--her ideal4 ,god bless her1--the sacrifice will pay4 ,failing to find the ,christ1 the religious sense satisfies itself with lower ideals4 ,intensified longings1 dissatisfaction1 and a restlessness not found in the girl who truly gives her allegiance to the ,christ and feels his steadying power1 are very evident in the girl who has not yet found the one whom she can call ,master and ,lord4 ,keeping pace with the deepening and broadening of the religious sense and the physical growth and development1 the intellectual powers have been busy grasping new truths1 eagerly seizing new facts that relate to life1 comparing1 rejecting1 reasoning1 indeed for the first time independently thinking4 ,before her friends realize it1 the years have hurried past and the time has come when only one more teen remains4 ,she is eighteen4 ,eighteen may find her plunged into life as a wage-earner1 one of the procession of thousands of girls facing realities that are hard4 ,it may find her already in the whirl of social life1 struggling to meet its demands1 or in college facing its problems4 ,wherever it finds her1 two things are true of her4 ,she thinks for herself1--and she is critical4 ,many of the theories of life and religion which she accepted unquestioningly she questions now4 ,doubts assail her1 and she is perplexed by the evidence of wrong and evil resulting not only from weakness1 but from deliberate planning4 ,if all her ideals fail her1 if the men and women she has trusted disappoint her1 she grows cynical1 and tells you that no one is what he seems4 ,now1 more than at any time in her life1 she needs to meet fine men and women1 that they may overbalance those whom she thinks have failed4 ,she needs to know definitely the good being done everywhere in the world1 to study great sociological movements1 to see the efforts being made to meet the special needs of the day1 the problems of the cities1 and the salvation of the individual4 ,biography is good for her1 and sketches of real men and women living and working for and with their fellows strengthen her faith and steady her4 ,now is the time when she so easily develops into a gossip1 and she needs anything and everything that will help her despise it1 and provide her with something to talk about beside her neighbors and associates4 ,she is keenly critical1 because she is comparing theories and life--because her ideals are high and her requirements match her ideals4 ,she is scornful1 because she has not lived long enough to realize how easy it is to fail1 and she has not learned to let mercy temper justice4 ,she doubts because she is not able to adjust things which seem to conflict1 and experience has not yet helped her find harmony in seeming discord4 ,she still loves a good time1 and has it4 ,her ability as leader1 manager1 or organizer reveals itself quickly if opportunity is given4 ,her tendency toward introspection and self analysis often makes her unhappy1 dissatisfied and restless4 ,she longs unspeakably to find her work1 to be sure she is in the right place in the great world4 ,she needs patience1 real sympathy1 and understanding from those with whom she lives2 to be led1 not driven1 by those who control her2 positive teaching on the part of all who instruct her1 concrete interests1 social opportunities1 and some one to love4 ,what does the girl in her teens need8 has been asked these past few years1 by fathers1 mothers1 and teachers of girls1 with increasing desire to find a real answer4 ,as yet1 not enough thoughtful people have even attempted to meet the question to make us sure that we have a safe and universal answer4 ,yet we may be reasonably sure of a few things4 ,she needs love4 ,but1 comes the reply1 we do love her4 ,from the time when she lengthens her dresses and does up her hair1 to twenty when we greet her as an equal and consult her about all things1 we love her4 ,who could help it8 ,but she needs intelligent love1 which is really sympathetic understanding and keen appreciation wisely expressed4 ,and she needs1 from thirteen to twenty1 to be taught two things3 to work and to play4 ,the girl in her teens needs to be helped to realize her dreams in action4 ,she has the dreams1 the hopes1 desires and longings4 ,we must furnish the opportunity to work them out into reality4 ,real1 healthful1 natural enthusiasms for all phases of life1 she can furnish if she be a normally developed girl4 ,the opportunity to express that enthusiastic abundance of life legitimately is ours to supply4 ,it sometimes seems as if ,shakespeare must have been thinking of the adolescent period of life when he said3 ,there is a tide in the affairs of men1 ,which taken at the flood leads on to fortune1 ,omitted1 all the voyage of their life ,is bound in shallows and in miseries4 ,the teen age is the period where the battle for an honest1 clean1 pure1 righteous type of manhood and womanhood must be waged and won4 ,having realized this1 it now remains for us to bend all our energies and summon all our skill to meet the task4 ,,chapter ,,ii--,,the ,,physical ,,side ,that mankind has a spiritual1 mental and physical side to his nature has been acknowledged for many centuries4 ,that they are of equal importance has been accepted but for a comparatively short time4 ,time was when the spiritual nature was developed1 the mental side cultivated1 and the physical scorned and abused4 ,the pale face and emaciated form were indications of the pure heart4 ,the starved body meant the well nourished soul4 ,when men were most deeply concerned with the future beyond the grave1 and this life was but a penance1 a period to be endured1 a terrible battle to win1 having little joy1 and almost no pleasure not labeled wicked1 it was natural that they should treat with a measure of scorn or ignore altogether the physical body in which dwelt so much of evil4 ,but when man realized that eternity begins here and now1 he turned his thoughts to the present welfare of his fellows1 and the physical side assumed a new importance4 ,in some cases the importance attached to physical welfare is out of proportion4 ,it is always difficult to keep a sense of proportion when new light on any line of truth bursts upon men's minds4 ,but in the main the place of the physical side is not exaggerated4 ,every teacher in the public school realizes it as she sees what a tremendous difference has been made in the spiritual and intellectual development of a child who after years of ineffectual struggle to see has been given glasses that make it possible for him to do the same work as his classmates4 ,she realizes it as with astonishment she sees a boy transformed before her eyes1 changed into an entirely different child as the weeks and months pass1 because the troublesome and deadening adenoids have been removed4 ,she realizes it as she sees a poor1 weak little girl1 undersized and underfed1 changed into a new being under treatment1 with plenty of nourishing food and fresh air4 ,the experience of the past ten years alone1 in the public schools1 will convince one of the value of the physical4 ,certain it is that the physical side exists1 and is to be reckoned with in the development of human life to the highest possible point4 ,the more we know about the physical side1 the more we stand in awe of ourselves1 and the more we appreciate the wonderful machine with which we are to do our work in the world4 ,i saw recently two locomotives that taught me again what it all means4 ,one had been in a wreck and lay pitched over on its side1 its splendid power gone4 ,its size and its powerful strength made its ruin more pitiful1 and its utter helplessness appealed strongly to all who looked at it4 ,near it on the second track1 all hot and panting1 ready and waiting to pull its heavy load up the steep grade1 was a fellow engine1 in full possession of its powers3 how strong1 how complete1 how perfectly able to perform its task it seemed as it stood there on the track beside its helpless brother4 ,for days ,i could not forget the picture1 and when ,i looked into the faces of my girls in their teens all it suggested impressed me anew4 ,how ,i should like to have them fully equipped physically to meet the demands which life will bring to them6 ,the girl in her teens has a physical side of tremendous significance and importance1 for it is during these years that she develops her powers or wrecks them4 ,it is her time of rapid growth1 of severe tax upon every part of her physical being4 ,it is during these years she meets her crises4 ,we have seen that early in her teens a girl begins to care how she looks4 ,she should be encouraged to look well4 ,she should dress carefully1 which does not mean expenditure of much money1 but does mean thought4 ,she should be taught that dress means much1 and physical condition even more4 ,but all this1 some teachers may say1 belongs in the home4 ,it is the duty of the home to look after these things4 ,yes1 it is true4 ,and it is a cause for thanksgiving that in so many homes1 sweet1 patient1 wise mothers watch over their girls and give them what they need4 ,but every ,sunday-school teacher of girls in their teens has at least one girl whose mother does not or can not help at the time when help is most needed4 ,some have had no training themselves and do not see the need2 some are crushed by the multitude of burdens1 some are careless1 and some have no knowledge as to how to cope with the wilfulness of girls which sometimes appears in the years of adolescence4 ,the whole need not a physician1 but they that are sick1 the great ,teacher said once1 and it is true to-day4 ,both the public school and the ,sunday-school exist to cultivate all of good that appears in the girl's life1 and develop what she lacks4 ,here is a group of girls in a certain ,sunday-school class1 most of them well taken care of physically1 but with very little of direct teaching and development morally4 ,they are selfish1 self-centered1 and vain4 ,the teacher's task is clear4 ,here is another class in a nearby church1 suffering not only from moral and intellectual neglect1 but from physical as well4 ,again the teacher's task is plain4 ,we have seen that buried deep in the heart of every adolescent girl is the desire to be attractive1 to be popular1 to have people like her4 ,this desire prompts her often to little acts of courtesy and kindness and efforts to be agreeable2 more often it prompts her to make herself physically attractive4 ,take a walk through any park1 along the boulevards1 up the main street of small manufacturing towns1 or watch any high school group at the hour of dismissal3 if your eyes are open you will be conscious of the struggle to be attractive1--to look well4 ,it is registered in hair and hats1 bows and chains and pins4 ,sometimes it appears in fads in dress1--low shoes and silk stockings in winter1 or the strange combination of no hat1 a very thin coat1 and a huge muff4 ,these are the things that make the people of common sense ask the very pertinent question1 ,what are these girls' mothers thinking of8 ,it is a hard question to answer satisfactorily4 ,often the mothers have helplessly yielded under the power of that insistent phrase1 ,all the girls do4 ,if once these girls can be made to see the attractiveness of absolute cleanliness1 of the charm of simple but spotless clothing1 of teeth1 hair1 hands and skin that show care1 a great deal will have been done toward helping their general physical condition4 ,anything which has to do with personal appearance must be handled with great tact1 for the adolescent girl is sensitive and she resents direct criticism4 ,but on the other hand she accepts eagerly anything which promises to help her look well4 ,if a teacher does not feel equal to the task of assisting the girl to make the best of her physical side she can find some one to help her4 ,i know of one class of girls in their teens who will never forget the talk given by a bright1 attractive1 clever woman at the monthly social1 on ,tales ,told by ,belts1 and not a girl in the ,girls' ,club1 ,i know1 ever forgot the talk on ,sometimes the ,head ,rules and ,sometimes the ,feet4 ,more girls than usual wore rubbers the next rainy day1 and some high heels disappeared4 ,perhaps one of the most helpful of the little incidental ways by which the ,sunday-school teachers may help is through praise4 ,i have in mind now a girl of sixteen who usually selected her own clothes1 and seemed to have a talent for putting together the wrong colors4 ,one spring1 she1 in some way1 was persuaded by another girl to have her coat1 dress and hat all in browns that harmonized4 ,one can hardly imagine the change it made in the girl4 ,she realized it4 ,that ,sunday in the hall1 ,i told her very quietly that she looked dear1 that she must never wear anything except soft colors that harmonized2 that ,i loved to look at her4 ,she showed her pleasure4 ,the next ,january she asked me one night if ,i thought dark blue would be all right for her new suit if she got everything to match4 ,no one can associate sympathetically with the girl in her teens week after week and not be concerned about her physical welfare4 ,there are so many pale1 anemic1 tired girls that move one's heart4 ,some work too hard4 ,many live under unhygienic conditions4 ,many can not stand the pressure and rush of school and social life4 ,great numbers suffer from improper food1 and many more because they do not get enough sleep4 ,almost every ,sunday ,i hear some girl say she went somewhere every night last week4 ,this mania for going seizes so many of our girls just when they need rest and natural pleasures1 the great out-of-doors1 and early hours of retiring4 ,so many of our girls are nervous4 ,a bright1 interesting eighth grade teacher told me recently that she had fifty girls in her class and that according to their mothers forty-one were very nervous4 ,it seemed to her a large proportion even for girls in their early teens1 and she began a quiet study of some of them4 ,one of the very nervous girls who1 her mother thought1 must be taken out of school for a while1 takes both piano and violin lessons1 attends dancing school1 goes to parties now and then1 and rarely retires before ten o'clock4 ,another very nervous girl takes piano lessons1 goes to the moving picture shows once or twice a week1 hates milk1 can't eat eggs1 doesn't care much for fruit1 and is extremely fond of candy4 ,in each case investigated there seemed to be much outside of school work which could explain the nervousness4 ,it is most interesting to note the gain1 physically1 made by almost every girl in her teens who enters a good boarding-school1 where plenty of exercise1 a cheerful atmosphere1 regular hours and wholesome food is the rule4 ,just how much the ,sunday-school teacher who is a real friend of the girl in her teens can help is a question1 but ,i know of enough cases where an earnest interview with the father or mother has resulted in better care of the growing girl1 with more attention paid to her food and rest1 to make me sure that it pays to attempt to help4 ,if it only means that the girl in her teens shall not go to school or to work without breakfast1 it pays4 ,i can almost hear some troubled teacher ask1 ,where in the ,sunday-school hour is there time for this8 ,it can not be done in a ,sunday-school hour except incidentally4 ,but those who are at work with girls in their teens must teach more than a lesson on ,sunday4 ,they are teaching girls to live1 if they have entered whole-heartedly into the work4 ,every girl in her teens is interested in her physical self4 ,the ways in which she strives to satisfy her curiosity and desire for knowledge are often pitiful1 often to be deplored4 ,from my experience ,i am convinced that anything which tends to center her interest upon the physical is unwise4 ,for this reason ,i very much doubt the advisability of class instruction1 except in general matters of hygiene4 ,what the whole class is interested in they will discuss4 ,it will be the main topic of conversation among chums as they separate after class1 and the effect ,i am convinced is bad1 simply because it centers thought upon a subject which to the girl in her teens should not be the chief interest4 ,then1 too1 the individuals in a class vary so much that the instruction to be given needs special wisdom1 tact and comprehensive knowledge of girls which not every teacher possesses4 ,that instruction should be given1 and that questions must be answered1 is true4 ,a girl's mother is the natural and best agency through which knowledge should come to her1 and the ,sunday-school teacher may very easily enlist the mother's sympathy1 urge her to be true to her daughter's need1 and show her how necessary it is that she faithfully instruct her child in the things she needs to know4 ,if the mother says1 as is often the case1 that she can't1 that she does not know how1 etc41 then the teacher may offer to help with suggestions1 with books1 or1 if the mother asks her to do so1 may talk with the girl herself4 ,such a conversation on the part of the teacher should never be forced1 but introduced naturally and easily in some opportune moment4 ,sometimes1 if there is real confidence and sympathy between pupil and teacher1 the girl herself will open the way4 ,in a hundred ways1 both in teaching and in conversation with the girls1 the ,sunday-school teacher may show her own respect for the physical side of life1 the marvel of it all1 and the need on the part of every woman to obey its unchanging laws1 from which1 if broken1 there is no escape4 ,in scores of ways she will frankly and naturally reveal to her girls her sympathy with womanhood everywhere1 in every walk of life1 and especially her respect for mothers1 and her love for helpless childhood4 ,girls learn so much more1 and the impressions made are far deeper1 through this almost unconscious influence of the teacher than through the lecture or lesson4 ,i shall not soon forget the impression made upon a class of girls of eighteen years of age by the preparation of a complete outfit to be presented to a poor woman whose child was to come into the world in a tiny third-story room amidst deepest poverty4 ,as one of the girls said1 ,it will be a lucky baby1 after all1 with eight of us to look after it4 ,both teacher and girls felt new bonds of sympathy long before the last tiny garments were finished1 and the girls had learned much4 ,it is not good for girls in their teens1 especially in the latter part of the period1 to be closely associated with women who are cynical1 who have forgotten the tenderness of their own girlhood dreams1 or who are out of sympathy with the great fundamentals of life4 ,the teacher may so easily reveal1 too1 her respect for the conventionalities of life4 ,in her escape from the narrowing influences of the conventionalities of older countries1 the ,american girl has gone so far into liberty that she does not realize the protection that lies behind simple conventionality4 ,while it is perfectly true that a girl may travel alone from one end of this country to the other with safety1 it is not true that it is wise for her to do so4 ,fathers are beginning to realize it1 and daughters though not in society are enjoying the assurance that1 if obliged for social or business reasons to be out late1 their fathers will call for them4 ,it will mean an effort on the part of the father1 but it brings a reward1 for his daughter1 feeling herself guarded and protected1 develops into a finer type of woman4 ,the girl in her teens is interested always in the influence of the passions and emotions upon the physical nature1 and knowledge given in a simple direct way is good for her4 ,why do some people get very pale and others very red1 when they are angry8 asked a fourteen-year-old girl one day4 ,sometimes you tremble when you are angry1 said another2 and you usually talk very fast1 added a third4 ,the discussion which followed was interesting and helpful4 ,they were astonished at the reports made by physicians and students of the effect upon digestion of angry words1 or sullen silence1 during dinner4 ,they learned in a new way the value of the temper controlled1 and of self-mastery in all lines4 ,they were interested enough to bring into class instances of self-control under trying circumstances1 and of calamities following complete loss of control for only a few minutes4 ,i think they realized in a new way the majesty of the perfect self-control of ,christ in the most trying moments of his life4 ,we talked over with profit the effect upon the physical life1 of hurry1 of fear1 of worry and useless anxiety1 and have tried to find why the ,christ was free from them all4 ,the conclusions reached by the girls themselves have been helpful in every instance4 ,as long as we live1 the physical will be with us2 it is not to be despised1 but respected2 not to be ignored1 but developed2 not to be abused1 but used4 ,it demands obedience1 and exacts penalty when its laws are broken4 ,it is so complicated that no one can understand it4 ,we may study and analyze1 but how much of the physical is mental1 and how much of the spiritual is physical1 no one to-day is able to say4 ,of this we may be sure1--the physical side of the girl in her teens is a tremendous force that must be reckoned with1 and demands for its fullest development and her future well being all the sympathy1 patience1 and wisdom that parents and teachers can supply4 ,,chapter ,,iii--,,the ,,mental ,,side ,the girl in her teens does think4 ,she has been called careless1 thoughtless1 inattentive and a day-dreamer4 ,though these things are often true of her1 she is on the whole a thinker4 ,her day-dreams are thoughtful4 ,in building her air castles she uses memory and imagination1 and sometimes one wonders if these factors to which we owe so much do not get as valuable training from dreams as from algebra4 ,certain it is that many women who have helped make the world a more comfortable place in which to live laid plans for their future work on sweet spring days1 or long autumn afternoons when ,latin grammar faded away in the distance1 and things vital1 near1 and real came to take its place4 ,when ,lucy ,larcom stood by the noisy loom in the rush and whirl of the big factory1 day-dreaming while her busy hands fulfilled their task1 memory and imagination were being trained1 and one morning the world read the day-dream4 ,at first it was a picture of flowers and fields and cloudless skies1 then it came back to the tenements on the narrow streets and said3 ,if ,i were a sunbeam1 ,i know where ,i'd go1 ,into lowliest hovels1 ,dark with want and woe4 ,till sad hearts looked upward1 ,i would shine and shine4 ,then they'd think of heaven1 ,their sweet home and mine4 ,this and many another gem the imagination of the factory girl wrought out beside the loom4 ,the day-dreams1 the castles reared by the imagination of girlhood1 must find expression1 and they do--in diaries1 literary productions and poems at which we sometimes smile4 ,but who shall say that the mental side of the girl in her teens does not get as much valuable training through the closely written journal pages1 or the carefully wrought poem which perhaps no one may ever see1 as through the daily theme or the essay written according to an elaborate outline1 carefully criticized by the teacher4 ,the ambitions of the adolescent girl along literary lines often receive a rude shock when her essay is returned with red lines drawn through what1 to her1 are the most effective adjectives and most beautiful descriptions4 ,many a literary genius has been destroyed by the red lines of an unimaginative instructor4 ,but there are some wise enough to allow the girl to express herself in true adolescent fashion1 criticizing only when errors in punctuation1 sentence formation or spelling occur1 and letting her gradually outgrow the glaring wealth of imagery that is the right of every girl in her teens4 ,but the adolescent girl does not think in dreams alone4 ,she thinks in the hard terms of the practical and the every day4 ,her mental life1 expanding and enlarging1 is stirred to unusual activity1 as is her physical nature1 and she makes so many discoveries absolutely new to her that she thinks them new to all4 ,she gives information of all sorts to her family and expects respectful attention4 ,she knows more than her mother1 criticizes her father1 gives advice to her grandmother1 and is willing to decide all questions for the younger members of the family4 ,she has a new idea of her own importance1 and sees herself magnified4 ,it seems but yesterday since she was just a little girl1 willing to be guided1 directed1 ruled by her elders4 ,now she resents the direct command1 persists in asking why1 and is not satisfied with because ,i think best4 ,she chafes under strict discipline1 rebels openly1 sulks1 or yields with an air of desperate resignation when her dearest desires are denied4 ,she thinks she knows best4 ,that is her chief trouble4 ,the things she wants to do seem best to her1--she thinks they will mean her real happiness1 therefore she chooses them4 ,that were she allowed to follow her own choice1 ten years from now she would sadly regret it does not influence her much1 for the now is so near and so desirable4 ,i was calling one evening in the home of a friend who has a sixteen-year-old daughter4 ,a few moments after ,i was seated she came into the room wearing a simple evening gown of pale blue silk1 her hair arranged in the latest fashion1 and her eyes dancing with excitement and anticipation4 ,i could easily pardon the look of satisfied pride upon the faces of both her father and mother4 ,after greeting me cordially she said1 ,mother1 ,i may do it just this time1 mayn't ,i8 ,please1 mother6 ,do what8 said the mother4 ,you know1 the carriage4 ,harry's father gave him the money1 and it's so much nicer than the crowded car4 ,i told you this afternoon what ,i thought about it1 said the mother1 but you may ask your father4 ,she referred the matter to him4 ,harry wanted to have a carriage and drive home after the party1 his father was willing and had given him the money4 ,and now mother objected6 ,all the nicest girls were going to do it1 but mother preferred a crowded street-car6 ,supreme disgust and a sense of injustice showed in voice and manner4 ,her father smiled1 as he said1 ,well1 ,i think your mother is about right4 ,still the girl persisted until her father said sternly1 ,mildred1 you may do as we wish or remain at home4 ,sullen silence followed1 while she made preparations to go4 ,as her mother helped her on with her wrap1 she said kindly1 ,i'm so sorry1 ,mildred4 ,it is hard for us to deny you1 but a few years from now you will understand and be grateful4 ,the daughter's answer came quickly3 ,that is what you always say1 but ,i know ,i'm missing all the pleasures the other girls have4 ,the mother was discouraged4 ,i don't know what to do with ,mildred1 she said1 after her daughter had gone1 she seems to have lost all confidence in us4 ,no1 ,i said1 she hasn't4 ,she has supreme confidence in herself4 ,if you had frankly told her your reason for refusing her request1 or simply said that it was not the proper thing1 since you could not furnish her with a chaperon1 it might have helped4 ,but if you treat her as patiently for the next few years as you have done to-night1 she will come out all right4 ,i am sure she will4 ,the rapid development of her mental life is showing through her will4 ,the years are coming when she will need to choose for herself4 ,the power to choose is being developed now4 ,inexperience leads her to make unwise choices1 and so the experience of older and wiser people must guide her1 and if necessary decide for her4 ,but wherever it is possible for her to choose for herself1 whenever the issue at stake is not too great1 the wise parent and teacher will allow her to choose1 yes1 even require her to do so1 that the power of choice may be developed and the mental forces strengthened4 ,and when she has chosen they will help her carry out her choice1 that she may see the result and judge of its wisdom1 thus helping her in the struggle to develop both will and judgment4 ,the time when parents attempted to break the will is passing4 ,the wise parent and teacher of the girl in her teens knows that she needs1 if her future is to be useful and happy1 not a broken will but a trained will4 ,training is a slow and steady process and requires unlimited patience4 ,the aim of every one in any way responsible for the education of the girl in her teens is to help her to see the right and desire it4 ,if that can be done for her1 she has at least been started on the road that leads to safety4 ,this is the time when those who teach her may help her to see the value of promptness1 absolute accuracy1 and dependableness4 ,when she promises to do a thing it is the duty of all who teach her to help her keep that promise4 ,but she must always see the value of the thing taught4 ,the mind must be satisfied2 she must know why4 ,the girl in her teens is developing the individual moral sense1 and if the years are to bring strength of character every open avenue to the mind must be used to help in constantly raising standards and impressing truth4 ,the awakening of the girl in her teens to new phases of mental activity reveals itself in her passion for reading4 ,it is true that some girls before twelve read eagerly all sorts of books1 but most girls develop a genuine love for reading with adolescence4 ,they then become omnivorous readers4 ,when one looks over lists of ,books ,i ,have ,read prepared by high-school girls he is astonished by the number and variety4 ,it is most interesting to note the books designated in personal conversation as the dearest story1 just great1 dandy1 perfectly fine1 elegant1 beautiful1 and the best book ,i have ever read4 ,that these books have a tremendous influence on the mental life in forming a taste for literature1 and furnishing motives for action1 ideals1 and information1 no one can doubt4 ,who helps these girls to satisfy their hunger for a good book to read8 ,many have no help1--they read what they will4 ,sometimes the parent acts as guide1 often the book lists gotten out by the city librarian1 or graded lists of books prepared by teachers in the public school1 although many times at just the period when most reading is being done the lists disappear from the schoolroom4 ,seldom does the ,sunday-school teacher guide her girls in their choice of books1 yet this is one of the most valuable and helpful things a woman can do for a girl4 ,one often wishes there were more books of the right sort for the girl in her teens4 ,with the exception of the old standards that remain helpful to succeeding generations there are comparatively few books for girls that are interesting1 fascinating1 wholesome1 and free from those problems on which few women and no girls can dwell with profit4 ,modern writers have given us a few fine1 inspiring stories for girls1 and the teacher who seeks them out1 reads them1 and then passes them on to her girls is helping in a real and definite way to deepen and broaden character4 ,all teachers of girls are hoping that1 now so many good books for boys have been written1 our writers will turn their attention to girls and their needs4 ,girls in their teens need biography and enjoy it4 ,they need to know fine women who have actually lived4 ,if the lives of such women could be written for girls they would find eager readers4 ,the author of the life of ,alice ,freeman ,palmer has presented an inspiring and helpful gift to the girls of all time1 and its influence can never be estimated4 ,we need more such books4 ,no one of us would return for a moment to the stories of heroines so good that in the last chapter they died and went to heaven1 but we do need books in which girls and women are sane1 reasonable1 and good1 yet live1 and enjoy living to the full4 ,the world is full of wholesome1 true1 womanly women1 and our girls need to know about them in fact and fiction4 ,the mental activity of the girl in her teens reveals itself also in her great desire to know4 ,during the period of her teens the girl so often appears superior to the boy mentally4 ,sometimes she is1 but more often the seeming superiority can be explained in two ways3 the hunger for knowledge and longing to understand life come to her earlier than to the boy2 she desires to excel1 and feels more keenly the disgrace of low rank and unsatisfactory progress in her studies1 which leads her to devote more time and conscientious effort to master them4 ,while her brother is buried deep in athletics1 she is buried in dreams1 romances and facts4 ,she wants things explained4 ,after sixteen1 there dawns the period when she demands that her teacher shall know4 ,she must have knowledge4 ,some teachers of girls in the later teens hold their interest through a charming personality1 a knowledge of the heart of a girl1 and a clever presentation of lessons4 ,still1 such teachers are unable oftentimes to help the girl in her struggle to straighten out tangles of what she calls faith and knowledge4 ,she asks with a new earnestness1 ,are the miracles true8 ,is the ,bible different from other books8 ,only last week a girl of eighteen1 suffering with her dearest friend1 whose brother had been sentenced to a term in prison for gross intoxication1 said to me3 ,that man prays often when he is sober to be kept from drinking1 how can ,god let him do it when it is just killing his mother and all the family8 ,i don't see how it can be true that ,god loves men when he lets them be so wicked1 and when people suffer so1 and starve and die in wrecks and fires and--it's terrible4 ,i know you will think ,i'm awful1 but sometimes ,i don't believe in ,god at all4 ,her voice trembled1 and ,i knew the hurried sentences represented months of thinking4 ,i did not consider her awful4 ,god help her--she has looked the old1 old problem of evil squarely in the face for the first time1 and is staggered by it4 ,how to help her in this crisis we shall consider in our discussion of the ,spiritual ,side4 ,she needs now more than ever a teacher who can understand her1 who has thought things out for herself1 who can teach positively1 who is too near life to worship creed1 and too large to be dogmatic4 ,one so often wishes1 when looking into the face of some thoughtful girl1 with mind keen1 alert1 active1 but perplexed and confused by knowledge that seems to contradict itself1 for some miracle by which for a moment the ,great ,teacher might come and speak to her the words that made his doubting pupil say1 ,my ,lord and my ,god4 ,the mental activity of the girl of to-day reveals itself in the later teens by a keen and deep interest in social questions1 in the great problems that concern women4 ,but a few weeks since ,i looked into the faces of scores of earnest college girls1 many in their later teens1 who were discussing at a week-end conference1 ,the ,individual and the ,social ,crisis4 ,it was not a mere discussion4 ,these girls had plans1 they had facts1 they were looking at the question on all sides4 ,within the month ,i met another group in conference4 ,they were a ,welfare ,committee for an organization of working girls4 ,they knew what they were talking about1 they had plans1 and were seeking solutions for problems that needed to be solved4 ,the girl in her teens is a dreamer at thirteen1 seeking to realize her dreams in real life at nineteen4 ,during those six wonderful years of repeated crises1 the mental life of the girl is being shaped and determined by environment4 ,to some extent the teacher may influence that environment1 and become a real part of it4 ,it is her privilege to furnish the imagination1 through prose and poetry1 with fields in which to wander afar1 broaden the vision through books of travel and information which she may put in the girl's way1 increase her love of music and pictures through occasional concerts and visits to the art galleries1 and in scores of little ways open new doors to the greater realms of knowledge which1 if unaided1 she would have passed by4 ,it is a great thing to be able to help another mind to think for itself4 ,that1 the wise teacher is always striving to do4 ,she challenges her girls to think4 ,this is the reason why she wants the girl in her teens to know something of the history of the church2 to be acquainted with the young men and women on the mission field1 and know what they are doing2 to know what the cities are trying or refusing to do for the housing of the poor1 and for the protection of women and girls2 to know the laws of home hygiene1 and to use her mental faculties to help answer the question of the relation of the church and the individual under existing conditions in her own community and in the world4 ,the girl in her teens is interested most in the very thing in which the ,great ,teacher was himself interested--life1 the life of his own day1 and he so instructed his disciples that the eyes of their understanding were opened and they began to think for themselves and of their fellow-men4 ,we have to-day1 in the girl in her teens1 who in large numbers is still in our ,sunday-schools1 a tremendous mental force4 ,were it awakened and developed1 helped to see and interpret life according to the principles of ,jesus1 in fifty years the church would find most of its present problems solved4 ,for hard to realize as it is when looking into the faces and training the minds of the girls in their teens of to-day1 still it is true that we are looking at and training the women of to-morrow1 yes1 those who a few years hence holding their children in their arms1 shall decide all unknowing what the next generation of men and women shall be and do4 ,to encourage the girl in her teens to use her mental powers to the utmost1 to help her gain knowledge and self-control1 to guide her in her thinking1 is the task of every parent and teacher1 and it is a task tremendously worth while4 ,,chapter ,,iv--,,the ,,spiritual ,,side ,all civilization begins in sensation and feeling4 ,the most abstruse and abstract thought of to-day is possible because ages and ages ago men living in caves were hungry and sought food1 were cold and sought warmth1 felt fear and sought protection4 ,they conquered in battle with fierce animals and neighboring tribes1 and felt the joy of victory and the satisfaction of possession4 ,the self sensations and feelings are at the foot of the ladder of civilization by which man1 with almost infinite patience has climbed thus far4 ,but self is not all4 ,as the ages passed1 man's pleasure of protection included his neighbor in his feeling and thought4 ,misfortune evoked pity1 and suffering called forth sympathy1 the desire for fair play for self grew until it became a sense of justice which included the other man1 and the moral sense developed and was strengthened by experience through the succeeding ages4 ,from the beginning the spirit of man sought ever to speak4 ,at first he would propitiate the spirits of air and fire1 the rulers of earth and sea1 the harvest and the battle1--please them and buy their favor that he might be happy4 ,in weird chants and dances1 in feast days and fast days1 by sacrifice and penance1 he endeavored to appease the spirits of his gods and insure happiness for himself4 ,great multitudes of the human race have gone no farther4 ,after all the progress of thought their prayers are still intense appeals for blessing upon self and self-interests1 and they still keep the feasts and fasts1 and bring offerings with hope of personal reward4 ,but every century brings an increasing number so filled with the sense of another's need that in some measure at least they forget self4 ,their prayers are petitions for others1--their gifts are poured out without thought of recompense2 the spiritual nature within them1 awakened and developed1 triumphs and manifests itself in a thousand varying deeds that bless mankind4 ,this spiritual nature1 which from the beginning has sought after its ,creator that it might worship him1 is not a thing apart1 living in a separate house1 but rather a phase of man's complexity4 ,it depends for its growth upon both the physical and mental sides of man's nature1 and cannot be divorced from them4 ,at the foot of the path that reaches to the very height of spiritual life1 we find feeling as sensation and emotion4 ,the myriad sensations which express themselves in bodily consciousness through the physical1 and the emotions which find expression through mental consciousness1 can not escape their share of responsibility for the development of the spiritual side4 ,as year after year he sees successive classes of children repeat the development of their predecessors1 one stands in awe and reverence before the presence of laws which seem universal in the development of child life4 ,he notes the days when life means food and clothing furnished by another4 ,he notes the strong development of the self interests to the exclusion of others4 ,he sees the gradual development of the sense of justice1 of pity1 of sympathy4 ,he watches the development of altruism in adolescence4 ,he sees the rapid change of body1 mind1 and spirit1 and witnesses the struggle for control1 sometimes on the part of one1 sometimes the other1 until at last physical1 mental or spiritual emerges in control of a life4 ,or in the rarer cases1 where a more perfect development has come1 all three work together in the effort to make a perfectly balanced man4 ,we saw in our brief study of the physical side that a girl in her teens can feel4 ,her whole being is sensitized1 ready at a moment's notice to respond4 ,in our study of the mental side we saw that she can and does think1 is capable of the heights and depths of emotion1 and is able in a limited way to make comparisons and reach sane conclusions4 ,as the physical side of her nature is awake and the mental side keen1 curious and eager1 so the spiritual side feels the thrill of new life and opens to all the wealth of impression4 ,she is close to the great mysteries of life1 and whence came ,i1 what am ,i here for1 where am ,i going1 press her for answer4 ,in her early teens she accepts gladly the theories and creeds of those who teach her4 ,there are comparatively few unbelievers from thirteen to sixteen4 ,the average girl at this period is religious in the truest sense of the word4 ,her moral sense is keen1 her conscience is alive1--she longs unspeakably to be good2 to overcome jealousy and envy2 to be truthful1 thoughtful of others2 and a score of minor virtues she longs to possess4 ,yet in strange perversity she is often none of these things4 ,she finds it easy to pray1 and a song1 a picture1 a story filled with deeds of deepest self-sacrifice1 awakens immediate response4 ,she can be appealed to through her emotions1 and her deepest religious sense touched and developed4 ,the awakening of her spiritual nature thus through the emotions is perfectly legitimate4 ,the appeal should never be sensational1 and never under any circumstances awaken an hysterical response4 ,not tears but unbounded joy should be the result of her response to an appeal to all that is best in her4 ,if the ,sunday-school were equipped with just the right teachers1 and able to so influence parents and home conditions that the girl in her early teens were regular in attendance1 very few would reach the age of sixteen without having determined to love and obey ,god and to live in the world as ,christ lived4 ,almost all would unite with the church1 which is the visible expression of the religious life1--and be ready to throw themselves into its work4 ,in all my experience with ,sunday-school girls of this period regular in attendance and interested in the work ,i have found when talking with them that they invariably say1 ,i think ,i am a ,christian1 ,i am trying hard to be good and to be a ,christian1 ,i am willing to sign the card1 ,i have been trying to be a ,christian for a long time1 etc41 etc4 ,then1 having so expressed themselves1 if later ,i talk over with them the matter of uniting with the church1 ,i find only a few objections repeated year after year by successive classes4 ,my father and mother think ,i am too young1 ,my father says ,i would better wait until ,i know what ,i am doing1 ,i am afraid ,i am not good enough1 and the one most reluctantly expressed1 ,if ,i join the church ,i am afraid ,i'll have to----1 then follow the things which perhaps must be given up4 ,i have yet to find the girl from thirteen to sixteen who has been a regular attendant at ,sunday-school since primary age who has no desire to call herself a ,christian4 ,the splendid devotion to duty1 the sympathy1 the service to the world1 the marvelous love and compassion1 the supreme sacrifice of our ,lord1 makes the strongest possible appeal to the spiritual nature of the girl4 ,we may confidently expect her to respond1 and she does4 ,but if the girl has been irregular in attendance1 has lost interest in class or teacher1 is permitted to enjoy the stimulus of social life while too young1 comes to church only on special occasions1 has little or no definite moral instruction at home1 and does not come into close touch with rich spiritual life1 she will drift through the years of adolescence with her spiritual nature undeveloped and expressing itself only in vague longings unsatisfied4 ,the chances are that such a girl will never have anything but a superficial interest either in her own development or the vital life of the church expressed in its various agencies4 ,two years ago1 at a conference1 a girl of sixteen from a fashionable boarding-school1 coming from a home where fads and fashions rule1 said to me1 ,i never knew ,christ was so wonderful1 but then ,i have never thought much about it1 though ,i go to morning service in the winter4 ,i have never met women and girls like those ,i have seen this week2 they are so interesting1--they are doing so many things to help people1--they seem to love to live4 ,i don't want to live a mean1 selfish kind of life4 ,i am going back to school for my last year4 ,what can ,i do8 ,how can ,i help8 ,i have met many girls of whom she is the type4 ,little is being done for the spiritual side of their natures4 ,the ,sunday-school at present does not reach them to any great extent4 ,one of the greatest problems facing the fashionable church is how to reach in any way girls in their teens who are members of its congregation4 ,such girls with their abundance of life have at least a right to those things offered in the ,sunday-school which will mean the awakening and developing of the spirit4 ,they need teachers especially equipped in every way to meet them and help them4 ,to find such teachers is one of the problems that must be met within the next few years4 ,perhaps we may look confidently for help before long to the girls of culture and refinement now in our colleges hard at work upon every kind of problem dealing with the development of a better life for girls and women4 ,for these girls are beginning to look at the ,sunday-school seriously as the means of bringing moral and religious education to girls of all classes1 and are asking how they may best equip themselves for service in its various departments4 ,the problem of the other girl is just as great4 ,she works all the week1 and when on ,sunday morning she is tired1 the family sympathize4 ,she gradually drops out of ,sunday-school1 is not able because of her long hours to enter into the work of the church1 does not come into contact with any vitalizing spiritual force1 and slowly this part of her nature1 lacking food and stimulus1 begins to die4 ,she spends ,sunday afternoon and evening socially1 and enters upon the new week's work with no uplift of soul and spirit to help her when temptations come4 ,she needs a real teacher1 sympathetic and appreciative1 to hold her during the first years of her working life4 ,one who can make the class a social factor1 and by her effort and personality make the ,sunday-school hour interesting enough to insure attendance4 ,then the teacher has an opportunity at least to bring the girl into contact with ,christ1 and through instruction to feed and develop her spiritual nature until it is ready through exercise to develop itself4 ,the spiritual nature needs food as does the physical4 ,if the physical life is poorly nourished in this time of the most rapid development1 a loss of vitality and power is the inevitable result4 ,the same is true of the mental life4 ,there must be healthful1 attractive1 abundant food for interesting1 enjoyable thought4 ,and just as surely the spiritual life1 unless the emotions and moral sense are nourished1 will yield to slow paralysis or run into wrong and wasteful channels4 ,but there comes a time in the spiritual experience of the girl1 usually about sixteen1 when she wants to do something to express the longing to give herself which is growing more intense each year4 ,if the ,sunday-school and church are together able to provide her with work she is fairly safe for the next few years4 ,the work will mean definite interest1 will call for some sacrifice1 and will bring the satisfaction of accomplishment4 ,the spiritual side of her nature will find in this way opportunity for immediate expression1 and we must never let the fact escape us that without opportunity for expression abundant life is impossible4 ,sooner or later there is bound to come to the average girl in her teens a period of doubting1 anxious questioning4 ,most often it appears at the very end of the period4 ,the outcome of this longer or shorter period of turmoil in thought may be a much broader1 deeper faith in the ,christian ideals and the realities of life1 or it may be a drifting away from the church and the loss of definite faith in anything4 ,there are in the world many more people who will not do than who will not believe1 but a large and growing number of young women are questioning1 doubting1 and finally deciding that we can not know1 and that the faith of our childhood is without reasonable foundation4 ,some of these will seek satisfaction for the spiritual nature in later years in all sorts of isms1 ists1 and cults2 some will drop all definite terms of faith and find a measure of satisfaction in educational work among the poor4 ,some will grow hard and cynical1 lose all interest in any visible form of religion1 and give themselves over to a good time4 ,the doubters and questioners are often thoughtful1 sincere young people1 with mental ability of the best sort and high moral sense1 and every ,sunday-school teacher who has any influence with them must put forth every possible effort to save them1 for their own sake and that of the world4 ,for the world can ill afford to lose its women of faith4 ,occasionally1 the girl who asks questions is not sincere in her desire to find answers2 she just wants to argue4 ,argument with such a girl is not helpful4 ,as a rule1 doubts expressed grow stronger4 ,in talking with a girl who wants to tell all that she doubts1 ,i have found it helpful to lead her to make positive statements as to what she believes1 and urge her if she feels that she must part with her old faith to start a new one with what she does believe4 ,to treat her as wicked1 or to be shocked by her expression of unbelief is exceedingly unwise4 ,positive teaching1 free from dogmatism1 along the line where her doubts seem to lead will help to strengthen her1 and work with actual problems of a social and altruistic nature will act as a good balance4 ,those who are at work with actual life problems have invariably the strongest and broadest faith because they come close to humanity and see its worth as well as its weakness1 and in the long run can not explain what they see without the presence of ,god in the world1 nor help the deep needs they realize without the aid of ,christ4 ,if the girl who questions is sincere1 and is troubled and unhappy because she can not believe1 she deserves and should have the deepest sympathy4 ,the teacher to whom she comes for help is to be envied1 for she has the great privilege of an opportunity to help her see4 ,oftentimes it is such a little thing that hides from her the whole great range of ,christian thought4 ,i shall remember always the little hill that hid my view of the ,white ,mountains ,i had made such a sacrifice to see4 ,i had reached my stopping-place late at night1 in the rain1 and when morning came with a flood of sunshine ,i went eagerly forth to catch a first glimpse of the mountains4 ,they were nowhere in sight4 ,a quiet country road1 shaded by tall trees1 and a long1 low range of hills was all ,i saw4 ,deep disappointment filled my soul4 ,i determined to go back4 ,before noon my companion climbed the hill opposite the house and beckoned eagerly for me to follow4 ,i shall never forget what ,i saw6 ,there they were1 clear1 blue1 reaching up to the bluer sky4 ,how ,i loved them that summer1--touched with fire at sunset1 purple and gold in the deepening twilight1 soft and far away in the early morning mist2 and when clouds shut them in1 hid them from sight1 ,i knew they were there1 calm1 still1 immovable6 ,i had seen them4 ,yet for a whole morning a little hill shut them from my vision1 and ,i had concluded that some one had deceived me1 that from the little town they could not be seen4 ,the greatest power of the teacher is that of beckoning to the pupil that he may follow1 helping him to climb the little hills1 that he may open his eyes and see4 ,the mental questions must be answered as far as possible4 ,the difficulty in the way must be surmounted4 ,the hill must be climbed4 ,if the teacher feels that she can not meet the task herself1 friends and books may help4 ,the girl usually doubts the miracles2 doubts the deity of ,christ1 thinks the ,bible is not different from other books1 asks the old1 old question1 ,if a man die1 how can he live again8 ,she questions the existence of a ,god of power in a world where so much evil and misery abound2 says the foundation of everything is gone1 and that she is wretched and unhappy4 ,it seems to me a most helpful thing to make her feel that all thoughtful men and women have at some time in their experience asked these questions4 ,both the teacher and the girl must accept the fact of mystery1--that there is much that we cannot hope to know1 many laws of mind and matter of which we know just a little1 and many more of which we know nothing4 ,mystery is a fact4 ,that the spiritual sense can reach into a realm where the mental faculties cannot follow1 and that the spirit of man can perceive what the mind alone cannot comprehend1 we have a right to believe4 ,when so much has been acknowledged the teacher may tell her pupil what she personally believes about the disputed questions1 and what the scholars of the world believe on both sides of the question4 ,the teacher's belief is often the strongest argument1 especially if she has met the questions1 found an answer1 and her own faith is positive1 sane and strong4 ,but if the teacher meets the troubled1 anxious mental state of the girl with dogmatic argument1 insisting upon the definite phraseology of some creed1 she will most certainly fail to help4 ,what we want to do is not to inculcate a creed1 but to help a girl to come into living1 vital touch with her ,maker1 that she may live with confidence and be a help in the world4 ,in time she will find the creed that expresses for her in the most satisfactory way what she has come to believe4 ,one of the most keen and interesting girls ,i have ever met1 a junior in college at nineteen1 said to me after stating all that she could not believe and why1--,can't ,i believe that ,christ was the finest man that ever lived1 and try to live and work in the world as he did8 ,i can't believe anything else4 ,yes1 ,i said1 that is true1 believe that4 ,i think he was more1 but start there4 ,do all you have planned to help the needy1 but don't forget to read again and again what he said about himself and what those who have served the world most fearlessly and faithfully say of him4 ,two years later at the conference she told me she had come to the conclusion that what he did and said and his present influence in the world can't be explained unless he was in a sense different from ourselves1 divine4 ,this was her conclusion1 reached by thought and study4 ,it was worth much more than any insistence two years before that she believe as ,i did4 ,the way to help most effectually the girl who doubts1 so far as my experience has gone1 is to help her to see that she can start1 standing firmly on what she believes1 and then to help her faith grow by giving her work to do and by putting in her way books that give constructive teachings4 ,then one may supply her with stories of those who have lived what they believe1 and if possible bring her into contact with fine1 sane men and women of strong faith who love and enjoy life4 ,sometimes all the doubts and questionings come because life is so hard and seems so unfair and unjust4 ,then the troubled girl needs to know just one thing--,god is love2 and only the teacher who loves can help her1--she will know how4 ,nothing can so stimulate the teacher's own faith as to be brought1 year after year1 face to face with world-wide questions hurled at her from the lips of girls in their later teens4 ,she learns at last to anticipate the time when doubts will trouble by giving during the early teens definite constructive teaching that will strengthen faith and deepen the spiritual sense4 ,the girl in her teens is a worshiper of the ideal1 and the teacher's business is to furnish her with ideals so beautiful1 so strong and so desirable that with irresistible power they woo her until she is ready to leave all and follow4 ,if she is possessed by a great ideal nothing is too difficult for her to do1 no price is too high to pay in the effort to realize it4 ,ideals are the things in life most real1 for they determine action4 ,in impressing high ideals upon mind and spirit the teacher of girls in their teens has advantages over those of any other period4 ,all nature is ready to help1 the wealth of emotion waits to be stirred to action1 the spirit waits to be led4 ,if the spirit of the teacher is to lead1 it must itself be led4 ,it must be dominated by great ideals4 ,the girl in her teens needs a teacher whose deepest longings are not all satisfied--then she understands4 ,she needs a teacher who is not afraid to let her emotions speak--who knows that the greatest deeds possible to man have their birth in the emotions4 ,she needs a teacher who sees amid all the joys and real pleasures of the world1 as well as amid the petty cares and dark and puzzling problems which are our common lot1 the ,spirit of her ,creator working out in man for ultimate good the great plan of which she is a part4 ,such a teacher can open the eyes of her girls and help them to see the ,father for whom the human spirit is ever seeking--and will not be satisfied until it finds4 ,,chapter ,v--,,the ,,social ,,side ,i have been spending the day with adolescence1 surrounded by boys and girls in their teens and young men and women just outside4 ,it is now the evening of ,memorial ,day1 and ,i have spent most of the day at the popular pleasure resort just outside the city4 ,my companion1 a young woman just out of her teens1 had taken her holiday to come to the normal school to arrange for entrance in the fall4 ,she has worked hard for two years1 saved her money1 and now plans to take a full course at the school to fit herself to become an expert teacher in ,china4 ,she wanted to spend the rest of the day with me and talk about it1 and ,i took her to ,w4 ----1 that we might enjoy the out-of-doors4 ,we sat in a secluded corner of the big open dining-room1 and during dinner she talked of ,china's need1 of the great opportunity1--hurled facts about the darkness of ,china at me until ,i gazed at the animated encyclopdia in astonishment4 ,her face glowed with enthusiasm2 it is a sweet face1 girlish and eager1 and ,i could but wonder as ,i looked at her how ,china's need had gotten such a hold upon her4 ,while she seemed for a few moments lost in thought1 my eyes wandered over the room crowded with youth4 ,all sorts and conditions were there1 but all young4 ,it was ,memorial ,day1 but they had not waited to see the short procession of those who still remain to us of the hundreds who went out with their lives in their hands at the country's bidding4 ,the procession and all it signifies meant little to them4 ,they were jolly1 happy1 light-hearted1 rough and very crude1 and yet--they were just the ones who1 if the country should call again1 would answer2 the boys promptly1 willingly1 offering their lives1 the girls laying their hearts on the altar of their country's need4 ,but to-day was just a holiday4 ,at the table near us was a group of four1 none over seventeen4 ,the discussion and final ordering of the dinner was most interesting4 ,they talked over prices1 too1 with great frankness1 ,that's too much1 and we don't need coffee1 that will take ten cents off for each of us4 ,i have seldom seen four people enjoy a dinner as they did4 ,the girls' dresses manifested the effort to attain the latest thing1 and the boys were not behind4 ,when they left the dining-room and walked down toward the boat-house they tried to look so unconcerned6 ,how they had saved for this day6 ,this one little day6 ,at every table were groups just as interesting4 ,the grounds were crowded with other groups1 laughing and shouting and joking4 ,the jokes no one save themselves could appreciate4 ,the skating rink was crowded--the dancing pavilion--the open air theater--every incoming trolley brought more intent upon having a good time4 ,i forgot ,china until a direct question brought me back4 ,here she was1--my eager1 intense1 enthusiastic girl1--looking forward with joy to ,china with its crushing weight of ignorance1 its impossible language and its almond-eyed people neither asking nor desiring to be helped6 ,what has made the difference between her and those all about me8 ,before ,i could answer her question or my own1 three automobiles passed1 filled with laughing girls and boys1 all in their teens4 ,their faces were different from those in the grove1--their laughter more musical1--the automobiles bore their country's flag1 the girls wore flowers4 ,i knew some of the faces--it was a house party1 and they were off for a good time4 ,suddenly it surged over me that this was but one little spot in the great country--and the rush of the other thousands1 the shop girls1 clerks1 the office girls1 the students1 all in search of a good time oppressed me1 and before my mind hurried back to a ,chinese kindergarten1 my heart cried1 ,oh1 ,lord1 how shall the world play with real pleasure and profit8 ,is this the way8 ,i heard no answer4 ,the problem is too big for me1 yet ,i cannot let it alone1 for the world must play1 and always the most eager players are young1--and always the girl in her teens is the center of the game4 ,man is social4 ,he must have companionships and pleasures in common with his kind4 ,only when physically deficient1 mentally deformed1 abnormal1 does he become anti-social4 ,this is true all through life and especially true in adolescence when nature is most keenly conscious of elemental powers and passions4 ,it is true that the girl in her teens is often alone4 ,alone she dreams her day-dreams1 writes her poems1 floods her imagination with all the things that are to be4 ,in common with all humanity she meets her deepest experiences alone4 ,yesterday a girl of nineteen tried to tell me of the happiness her engagement to a fine1 strong man had brought to her4 ,she said1 all that it means can't be said4 ,last week a girl of eighteen tried to tell out all the loneliness and crushing disappointment her mother's death had brought1 but she ended her appeal for help with the old cry1 no one can really help1 ,i've just got to bear it4 ,before the teens have passed so many girls learn that great joy and great sorrow must be met alone4 ,but for the common life of the every day1 man lives with others4 ,he can neither work alone nor play alone1 and with adolescence comes the realization of it sweeping into the life4 ,the gang1 our crowd1 our set1 work and play together4 ,the girl who loves and seeks solitude continually is ill mentally1 physically1 or spiritually1 and needs watchful1 sympathetic care1 which shall discover the cause of her morbidness and help her to escape from it4 ,environment fixes largely the companions of the girl1 and her place in the social scale predetermines to some extent how she shall play4 ,if she is in a home where the family is closely related to the church in all departments of its active work and life1 the church becomes her natural social center4 ,its entertainments1 suppers1 young people's socials1 etc41 furnish the means for her amusement and the place where she may form friendships4 ,if she is a working girl boarding in a strange city or living in a home in no way connected with the church1 unless the ,y4 ,w4 ,c4 ,a4 through the gymnasium or other classes reaches her1 where shall she find her social center where she may enjoy the society of other young people1 form friendships and have a good time8 ,in summer the public parks answer that question4 ,in winter1 the skating rink1 the dancing party1 the moving picture show4 ,if the girl lives in a happy home surrounded by wealth1 together with culture and refinement1 her social life will be guided and guarded during her teens and she will be helped to have a good time4 ,if she be that happiest of all girls1 the one whose own home is the social center1 where music1 games and fun abound1 and where friends are always welcome1 she is safe4 ,such homes might solve the whole problem1 but there are not enough4 ,when the teacher looks seriously at the social side of her girls in their teens and realizes the craving of the whole nature for companionship1 laughter and fun1 she finds it hard to say ,don't even to the things of which she does not personally approve1 because she must meet the question clear and frank1 ,what can ,i do then8 ,that question has been answered1 so far as the church is concerned1 only here and there4 ,some splendid and successful attempts have been made that give us hope for the future4 ,most ,sunday-school teachers of girls in their teens have awakened recently to the fact that unless the demands of the social side be satisfied in a sane1 healthful way1 the girl's spiritual nature suffers1 and the mental and physical as well4 ,when once the teacher really sees it she can no longer be content to meet the interested members of her class just an hour on ,sunday1 to discuss the lesson of the day4 ,the crowded parks1 the trolleys1 the parties1 the call of the great demanding whirl of amusements from ,sunday to ,sunday1 presses upon her soul4 ,she learns how her girls spend the week end and the evenings and then she throws herself1 her knowledge1 her skill1 her time1 into the scales1 hoping where she finds girls in the danger zone to turn the balance in favor of clean1 safe1 sane pleasure4 ,any teacher willing to make a little investigation will be surprised to learn how many of the girls enjoying the kind of amusements which do not make for sound moral health1 were at ten or twelve regular members of the ,sunday-school1 and how many still come occasionally4 ,my observation the past few years of the social side of the girl in her teens1 and especially the girl who has left school1 has made me feel that if the opportunity to choose came to me as to ,solomon1 ,i would rather have the knowledge and power to give the young people of to-day sane1 safe amusement than anything else ,i know4 ,the social side of the girl reveals itself not only in the desire to have a good time1 but in the deep and ardent friendships formed during the teen period4 ,while she enjoys to the full the society of the group1 the girl in her teens invariably has a dearest friend1 who shares her joys1 sorrows and confidences4 ,this tendency becomes especially evident at sixteen and becomes more marked at the latter part of the period4 ,these friendships may be the source of greatest blessings or may mean the lowering of the whole tone of moral life4 ,both mother and teacher need to observe carefully the formation of friendships and be sure to encourage only the helpful ones4 ,public school teachers of experience can all testify to the rapid changes in girls which so often follow the development of a deep friendship4 ,i remember a girl of sixteen1 dreamy1 imaginative1 and so much interested in her boy companions that lessons1 home interests1 and everything else were sacrificed4 ,what to do with her1 and what interests to substitute1 were questions that both mother and teacher failed to solve4 ,at a most opportune time a new girl moved into the neighborhood and entered school4 ,she was practical1 attractive1 a good scholar1 greatly interested in outdoor athletics4 ,because they were neighbors1 the two girls were thrown much together4 ,the companionship deepened into friendship4 ,soon the dreamy sixteen-year-old was playing tennis on summer afternoons1 and reading aloud in the hammock afterward to rest4 ,when winter came she suddenly decided that school and study were worth while1 brought up all her averages1 and made up her mind to try for college4 ,skating and the gymnasium made her a new girl4 ,and all this transformation1 fortunately for her good1 came naturally and very rapidly through the influence of her companion4 ,it comes almost as quickly in the other direction4 ,nothing can be more helpful to the shy1 timid1 self-conscious girl than the companionship of one who will encourage her and help her take her place with others in the social life of which she is a part4 ,some of the bitterest suffering known to girls in their teens comes because they are left out and must go alone4 ,the misery of being left to oneself is registered in that familiar sentence1 ,oh1 ,i don't want to go alone6 ,the girl in her teens needs a chum1 a best friend1 a companion1 and anything that the teacher can do to aid in the formation of helpful friendships is worth while1 for the friends loyal and true through the teen age are the ones who in later years1 when the need is deeper and friendships are tested1 stand by4 ,that there should be some way and place in which1 surrounded by a ,christian environment that makes for righteousness1 girls in their late teens and just outside1 who have no homes1 or homes only in name1 can meet and learn to know young men of the right sort is evident to all who have even considered the matter4 ,when the ,great ,teacher was here no need escaped his notice4 ,all that he taught and did was in response to need4 ,many of the teachers of to-day are earnestly asking how far they can follow him in this great principle of his life4 ,when as teachers1 interested in what we call the deepest things in the girl's life1 we are sometimes impatient with her light-heartedness1 with the giggles and boisterous fun and silliness of the early teens1 and the social tactics and sophistries of the later period1 let us remember that the natural1 healthy girl is whole4 ,she is body1 mind and spirit1 and all three together make her a social being4 ,all three speak in the passion to enjoy1--to seek pleasure4 ,and the teacher of girls in their teens is as truly in the service of the living ,god when she boards the trolley car and accompanies her girls to the lake for a picnic supper after a day of hard work or study as when teaching them on ,sunday the splendid principles that governed ,paul's life4 ,she just as truly serves1 some cold1 rainy1 ,february afternoon as1 with two of the girls she wants to know better1 she cuts out red hearts to decorate the room for the valentine social to which the members of her class have each invited a girl not specially interested in the ,sunday-school as when she talks over on ,sunday1 ,serve the ,lord with gladness1 for on ,sunday she is telling them how to serve and on ,tuesday she is showing them how through her own action4 ,and they understand and are more willing to listen as she strives to impress upon mind and heart the facts and ideals that shall keep them steady1 pure and true amidst all the distractions and temptations of the world's good time4 ,if the teacher once catches a glimpse of the significant fact that a girl can not play wrong and pray right1 a new realization of the importance of the social side will stir her to action and send her out to seek help from all who are willing to aid in the solution of the world problem1 of how to satisfy the social nature in ways that make for character4 ,,chapter ,,vi--,,her ,,relation ,,to ,,the ,,sunday-,,school ,that the ,sunday-school has no relation whatever to vast numbers of girls in their teens is a fact apparent to any one interested in the girlhood of that period4 ,and it is a fact of tremendous significance4 ,it means that at the time when the religious sense is keenly responsive1 when the mental faculties are alert1 when the physical is asserting itself with all its power for good or evil1 the girl in large numbers is not getting definite1 systematic instruction from the best book of ethics1 morals and religion that the world has known4 ,she is not being brought face to face each week with questions that have to do with her own welfare1 and that of the world1 nor is she being led to think definitely of her personal relation to the church and its work for mankind4 ,unless she is in some way led to think along these lines all the myriad little interests that call to her from the outside world slowly crowd out the more real and uplifting thoughts and influences4 ,every one1 even in mature life1 needs to come regularly into contact with influences that tend to lift him up and woo him away from the domination of the petty and material1 and even more is it needed during the years when character is taking definite form4 ,no girl can afford to lower her ideals or even to allow them to become tarnished4 ,life apart from contact with religion in some form seems to do that4 ,men in later years seem often to recover the ideals lost during their teens2 women seldom do4 ,so even a glance at the problem shows one that the first thing for the ,sunday-school to do is to establish a relationship between itself and the multitudes of girls in their teens4 ,the best way to do this1 as any teacher knows1 is to keep a strong hold on the girls who have been regular in attendance up to twelve years of age4 ,with these girls as a nucleus1 it is easier to make definite effort to gain new members and to make the class so attractive that they will stay4 ,when the teacher has resolved to make the effort to reach out for the girl who is leaving the ,sunday-school in large numbers1 the clear and challenging question1 ,what makes a class attractive to the girl in her teens8 immediately presents itself4 ,in the first place1 the ,sunday-school as a whole makes a great difference to the girl in her teens4 ,she likes enthusiasm1 the impression that the school is popular with its students1 that indefinite atmosphere which makes her know that pupils and teachers alike enjoy the hour and come because they want to4 ,a superintendent who is popular with young people1 who is thoroughly likable1 is almost indispensable in the teen age4 ,the ,sunday-school choir with fortnightly rehearsals1 if impossible to meet oftener1 is a great help1 and after a year or two of training will do splendid work4 ,i have in mind a school where the organized choir meets only once a month4 ,the music for the next few ,sundays is practised2 those who are to be soloists or those to sing the duets are chosen2 light refreshments are served by the committee from the choir1 and a most enjoyable evening spent4 ,the regular attendance of the choir at ,sunday-school has been remarkable1 and a number of new members gained4 ,the same methods can be used with a ,sunday-school orchestra when there are enough members who play the various instruments4 ,the girl in her teens enjoys and responds to the well-arranged program when the prayers1 the responses and the whole order of service are dignified and impressive4 ,just watch the college girl and her younger sister in the preparatory school at chapel and you can read her response in her face4 ,she enjoys variety1 too1 and the program which remains in use so long that after three years' absence she can come back and go through it exactly as it was when she left1 is not the kind likely to appeal to her4 ,we have seen in our previous studies that the girl in her teens is in love with real life4 ,she likes people1 and the ,sunday-school lesson must discuss real people and present problems if it is to deeply interest her4 ,i was present recently in a class of twelve girls about sixteen years old4 ,nine members of the class were supposed to be heathen and three girls were to tell any one of the parables as if for the first time to these people1 anxious and curious to learn of the ,christian faith4 ,the interest was very real4 ,after the telling of each parable the class discussed it and what it would mean to a people hearing it for the first time4 ,the ,sowing of the ,seed1 ,the ,good ,samaritan1 and ,the ,ten ,talents were told4 ,at the close the teacher told very vividly of an experience of a dear friend of hers who sat one day in the great plaza of a ,mexican city1 and told the story of the lost coin to a ,mexican woman who wore a bracelet of old and curious coins4 ,the account of the response of this ,mexican who heard the story for the first time made a great impression upon me1 as upon every member of the class4 ,the teacher then appointed three girls for the next week to tell any one of the experiences of ,jesus on his preaching tours as they would tell it to a group of factory girls who had neglected church for years and almost forgotten how to pray4 ,several protested that such girls would not listen1 and the discussion as to their needs1 what they had to help them live pure1 true lives1 what had made them careless and indifferent1 was brought to a close by the quiet question of the teacher1 ,do these girls need ,christ or his teaching8 ,they said1 yes1 with conviction1 and in answer she said1 ,then there must be a way to tell what he said and thought so that they will listen2 perhaps next ,sunday one of our girls will find the way1 and ,i have a most interesting story to tell of a splendid factory girl who herself found a way4 ,that lesson did so many things for that class of girls4 ,it made them think4 ,first they had to be able to tell the stories ,christ told4 ,the class in discussion had to think of the adaptability of the story to the people who needed to hear it1 and of all it could mean to them4 ,they felt the joy of the one who had the privilege of telling it to the ,mexican for the first time4 ,they said themselves that the great army of girls in our factories need ,christ4 ,they were to think for a week on how his words might be brought to them4 ,the lesson was left with anticipation for next week's story4 ,it was a type of what every lesson should be4 ,it connected the past and present2 it touched life in their immediate surroundings and in the uttermost parts of the world2 it gave opportunity for original expression and it led to discussion4 ,it reached some conclusions4 ,it appealed to the imagination and emotions and closed with a desire on the part of the pupils to talk more1 and know more1 and think more4 ,perhaps in years to come we shall have good courses of lessons1 six or eight weeks in length1 which will help the teacher to do just these things4 ,courses which shall deal with church history for six or eight weeks1 then with missions1 with charities1 with the history of the ,bible1 with the definite teachings of the ,new ,testament and their relation to society to-day1 dealing always with life and always with ,christ as the great helper and redeemer of man in his struggles to live aright4 ,while we wait for such courses the individual teacher must attempt1 with the material she has1 to make real and vital connections with life1 broaden the pupil's horizon and increase her desire for knowledge4 ,new courses and better lesson material1 either in public school or ,sunday-school1 never come through folding one's arms and spending one's time criticizing the material at hand1 but by using it1 changing it1 adapting and experimenting with it until something is found which more nearly meets the need4 ,any teacher now reading this chapter may be the one to discover through her own experience just the material for which teachers of the girl in her teens are waiting4 ,that is the reason every one may teach with courage and joy4 ,it makes little difference where one starts in the discussion of public-school or ,sunday-school problems1 he always comes back to the teacher4 ,after all has been said1 the teacher is the greatest force in establishing and maintaining a close relationship between the girl in her teens and the ,sunday-school4 ,ways and means are necessary and to critics of the so-called machinery of the ,sunday-school1 ,i have only one answer--unless ,i can get a pupil to come1 ,i can't teach him4 ,absent and irregular pupils receive no benefit even from the finest of teachers1 and any legitimate means by which a pupil may be induced to come1 and a regularity of attendance be established1 we have a right to welcome and use4 ,but after the pupil has entered and become regularly enrolled it is the teacher who is the stimulating1 guiding and holding power4 ,to analyze the charm of personality which attracts and holds the girl in her teens is impossible1 but there are certain things which the teacher must do that we may discuss4 ,she must remember that the girl in her teens has grown up1 and that she is very conscious of it4 ,one must be more her friend than teacher4 ,in the earlier years every ,sunday-school teacher really interested in her pupils calls freely in the home4 ,when the girl reaches the teen age1 the teacher must ask permission to call4 ,may ,i call on your mother8 often opens the way for a special invitation1 or at least gives the girl an opportunity to make the invitation cordial or to let it be known that for some reason she prefers not to have her teacher call4 ,i remember one girl of seventeen who never gave me any encouragement when ,i suggested calling1 and ,i respected her wishes4 ,one day when she was very ill1 the mother asked me to come4 ,the girl had always dressed well1 was intelligent and refined1 and would have been supposed to come from a family of comfortable means4 ,i found it to be a home of real poverty1 where the father1 a nervous wreck struggling with diabetes1 was unable to work regularly1 and the mother was obliged to assist4 ,even with the seventeen-year-old girl giving every cent she could spare1 it was a hard struggle4 ,the girl was proud and reticent2 she had not wanted me to know1 and ,i was glad ,i had not come until she was willing4 ,that day when she was ill and discouraged she was willing--she really needed me4 ,there are many times when for reasons akin to this or others entirely different but equally good1 a girl prefers to have her teacher see and know her apart from her home4 ,every woman who understands girlhood in the later teens respects such a wish4 ,the teacher's home should1 if possible1 be always open to the girls and they should feel free to come4 ,sometimes it is not possible and then the cosiest corner in the smallest church parlor should be available4 ,as the girl approaches the later teens the ,sunday-school class should become more and more a place of training for service4 ,it has been my experience that after seventeen many girls prefer to work in ,sunday-school rather than to remain as pupils4 ,if the girls express such a desire1 or show particular willingness to act as substitutes1 to help in the music of the elementary departments1 or to tell stories to the beginners1 such a desire should be recognized and an opportunity given a girl to test herself under supervision4 ,the ,sunday-school should be constantly preparing assistant superintendents1 directors of music1 secretaries and teachers4 ,material for the teachers' training-class is found in classes in the later teens4 ,some of the most loyal1 responsive and successful teachers of pupils from nine to twelve1 ,i have found in the boys and girls of the later teens4 ,while they lack mature judgment and discretion1 they have enthusiasm and desire to succeed in any undertaking4 ,if the ,sunday-school is constantly training such helpers as assistants1 and testing them as substitutes1 then the changes that are bound to come in the teaching force of any ,sunday-school are not so disastrous1 for some one will be ready to supply the need4 ,as has been hinted in previous studies1 the ,sunday-school should lend valuable assistance in making the church a social center for the young people who need it4 ,to be of real vital interest to the girl1 the ,sunday-school must touch her everyday life4 ,it does that through the social side of its work4 ,the organized class giving socials1 entertainments1 enjoying lectures and music1 picnics1 trolley parties1 skating or camping has a decided influence for good on all the members4 ,i know of one such organized class of girls eighteen and nineteen years old which met three times a month for an entire year4 ,they met one week for fun1 the next to go somewhere1 or to hear a talk1 or to sew and read1 and talk if we want to1 and the third for a sing to which they invited members of the boys' classes4 ,all these meetings were popular1 well attended1 and have meant a strong united class with a splendid spirit4 ,the girl in her teens needs the ,sunday-school because of the help and uplift which its teachings are bound to bring to her4 ,even if she belongs to a class in its early teens which is given over to the giggles1 to wandering thoughts1 to all sorts of asides in more or less noticeable whispers1 to the continual admixtures of the ,bible lessons and the events of the week just passed or to come1--even though as is often the case with the ,american girl1 she is thoughtless enough to forget to be either reverent or courteous1 still it pays for her to come4 ,she gets something1--often more than we think4 ,and the ,sunday-school needs the girl in her teens4 ,it needs her devotion1 her enthusiasm and eagerness1 her close touch with both the real and ideal in life1 that it may keep its balance1 stay in the real world of need1 and not walk far afield by paths of theory4 ,the ,sunday-school has awakened to its need of the girl1 and now at its door lies the task of making her feel more and more her need of it4 ,,chapter ,,vii--,,her ,,relation ,,to ,,the ,,church ,the girl in her teens1 in common with all humanity1 needs the upward pull4 ,fresh air1 suitable clothing1 nourishing food1 so desirable in all stages of her development1 become1 we have seen1 an absolute necessity during her teens4 ,if not supplied1 her whole future is doomed to pay the penalty2 and unless during the period of the awakening and strengthening of ideals1 a steady1 uplifting1 spiritualizing force has a definite influence upon the rapidly changing and developing forces of her nature1 the chances are that her whole future will pay the price neglect always demands4 ,the steady1 upward pull is a necessity4 ,there are so many things in life that furnish the downward pull4 ,even the more fortunate girl1 who lives in her own home and spends the greater part of each day in the enlarging atmosphere of a good public school1 feels the downward pull4 ,in the most carefully selected of select schools1 the girl1 though guarded every moment1 feels the downward pull of the petty1 selfish and mean4 ,the girl in her teens hard at work among the world's toilers is painfully conscious of it in one or more of its many forms4 ,in the struggle between the higher and the lower--the upward and the downward pull--humanity finds its growth and development4 ,if there is no struggle there is no strength4 ,the girl in her teens does not know all this--her teacher does1 and puts forth all her effort to strengthen the upward pull4 ,as we study and observe the girl in her development one question persistently follows us4 ,to what shall we look for this upward pull8 ,there are many answers3 the home1 the school1 friends1 good environment1 the church4 ,with the last we are especially concerned4 ,even the most open and avowed enemy of the church of to-day would not hesitate to place it definitely on the side of the upward pull4 ,its history1 teachings and ideals1 like its spires1 point upward4 ,it says reverently and steadily to a world of busy men so much engaged in the rush for mere things that they find it easy to forget all else1 two simple1 tremendously significant words--,,god ,,is4 ,it says persistently1 above the struggle for power through possessions1--,truth1 ,righteousness1 ,justice1 ,love1 these alone mean happiness1 and at some time during his progress from childhood to old age man stops to listen4 ,the most natural and effective time to stop is during the early teens4 ,of course the church1 being made up of humanity1 has its weaknesses4 ,as an upward pulling force it is not perfect4 ,nothing is4 ,its most loyal friends are the ones most conscious of its faults and failures4 ,its members feel its weakness more keenly than the outside world possibly can1 just as the members of a family feel more deeply than the outside world the weakness and failures of its members in any particular4 ,but in spite of its errors of creed1 its lack1 in many cases1 of authority and initiative1 and its temptation to shun real problems1 yet the members do feel the power of its upward pull1 and the community in general is conscious of it4 ,to place the girl in her teens where she will feel most strongly the lifting power of the church is the business of her parents and teachers4 ,in the average community the girl has been more or less in contact with the church from her earliest years4 ,her estimation of its value1 its purpose and power1 has been built up through the years by what she has heard parents1 companions and teachers say of it4 ,it is a refuge for the weak1 a company of people who think themselves better than others1 a respectable moral organization through which men climb to higher social planes1 a necessary guardian of good in the community2 or1 the visible expression of the religion of ,jesus ,christ1 the highest and most potent force in the world to-day for the conversion and uplifting of mankind4 ,her opinion is in accordance with the general opinion of those in her immediate environment4 ,as she approaches her teens1 if her parents are not church people1 through the influence of the ,sunday-school of which she is a member she usually becomes a more or less regular attendant upon the services of the church4 ,if her teacher is wise she does all in her power to establish the habit of church attendance4 ,if the pastor has a thought and a word for the younger members of his congregation the girl1 interested and helped1 responds according to her temperament4 ,about the time she enters her teens1 if she is a ,sunday-school girl1 she has had1 through ,decision ,day or in answer to the direct question of her pastor or teacher1 the opportunity of saying1 ,i choose to be a ,christian4 ,if her teaching has been careful and wise she will know what being a ,christian should mean to a girl of thirteen1 and she will make the choice gladly and of her own free will4 ,before she is sixteen she will have met the question of her direct relation to the church4 ,shall she join it in its work in the world8 ,if joining the church is made the simple1 sincere matter that it really is1 the average girl responds easily and earnestly4 ,only those who year after year have helped girls from fourteen to sixteen decide to take the step can know the genuine1 loving1 devoted spirit in which they come to their decisions4 ,through the weeks of instruction that follow the decision1 when the girl learns1 under her pastor's or teacher's direction1 the history of the church1 the development of her own denomination1 and the statements of its creed1 the work the church has done1 and is actually doing for the poor and outcast1 the rich and careless1 her admiration for it deepens1 and all the love and devotion of her girl heart goes out to ,him whose wonderful life and sacrifice have inspired ordinary men and women to live in the world as real ,christians4 ,after such instruction1 when the ,sunday comes on which she is to publicly unite with the church she knows what she is doing and why4 ,she knows as fully as any one can what she believes1 for belief is a growth1 and life and experience always modify it4 ,the mystery of the communion service is to her as clear as it is to any of us1 and she prays as truly and sincerely as the oldest and wisest4 ,how much of uplift to her whole life her act has been can be known only to those who year after year have walked home with her after the service1 received her notes so full of joy1 and watched her effort to live aright in the weeks that follow4 ,so far in the relation of the church to the religious and spiritual development of the girl the steps have been successive1 natural1 and easy1 but now the hard part comes4 ,she is on ,monday1 after uniting with the church1 the same girl that she was on ,saturday before doing so4 ,if she had a bad temper1 she has it still2 if she was easily tempted to be insincere1 selfish1 sarcastic1 careless1 unkind1 the characteristics are with her still4 ,she has simply placed herself on the side of the upward pull1 and every one of us who comes in contact with her should watch the struggle against the downward pull never with condemnation and criticism1 but always with sympathy and assistance4 ,here is where the church so often fails4 ,having joined the church she is ever after expected to be good4 ,the girl has joined the church1 all is done1 is a false and fatal conclusion4 ,i have been watching with real interest a young girl who1 after a most happy engagement1 a beautiful wedding1 a delightful continental trip1 is learning to live in the prosaic every day4 ,she had forgotten that it is always there waiting for us4 ,in her great uplift and happiness little things had not made her as angry as before4 ,but she found out what could happen when ,harry forgot to order the cream for the dinner party at which all her friends were present for the first time in her new home4 ,after her outburst of anger she was so discouraged that she was tempted to think the whole thing was a mistake1 that she could not have loved him1 and she could never be happy again4 ,she had not reckoned with herself4 ,the plain details of everyday living reveal one to himself4 ,he finds he cannot live in the clouds1 and that the art of living harmoniously and finely in the valley must be learned1 and it takes time4 ,the girl in her teens after uniting with the church and experiencing the uplift and stimulus must come back to the every day4 ,like my young friend1 she so often thinks that she will never feel angry again4 ,she does1 and with the failure to control herself or the quick yielding to her special temptation comes the feeling of utter discouragement4 ,she is not good enough to be a member of the church1 and it was a mistake4 ,she needs help--her mother or teacher--to make her see that even a deep love can not in a moment overcome a quick temper1 nor uniting with the church overcome the habit of the unkind word and selfish act4 ,it will give her comfort and courage to know that one becomes a real ,christian by successive steps1 and it will take all her life to accomplish the task4 ,the first thing a young member of the church needs to help her become what we want her to be1 a sane1 natural1 happy girl1 interested in1 enjoying and loving all the things that belong to the normal girl in her teens1 is work4 ,she must have something to do1 for unless the emotions are given a sane1 legitimate outlet1 she may come to the fatal conclusion that religion is a thing apart from life1 or there may follow a lowering of ideals1 or the morbid introspection common to girls in their teens1 but which the ,christian should escape4 ,so we must direct her thoughts from herself to her companions4 ,it is she who can establish a bond of interest between the other girl and the church4 ,she can bring the other girl under its influence1 and help her see what it stands for in the world4 ,no1 said a girl to me at a conference1 it isn't any of the speakers1 or the books1 or sermons that have interested me2 it is just ,edith and ,alice4 ,they are such splendid girls and they just love the church and all the work they are doing4 ,they are having such good times and are truly happy4 ,i want to understand it4 ,whatever it is ,i want it4 ,i have heard scores of girls say it in varying phraseology4 ,one girl influences another more than we can1 so we may set her at work with her companions4 ,but that is not work enough--and it is too indefinite4 ,she must have a part in the mission work1 the social work1 be interested in the sick and unfortunate1 and learn now that the business of the church is to care about the lonely women1 the toiling women and their children1 the little1 narrow1 self-centered women1 and those who find it hard to be good1 just as its ,lord and ,master cared4 ,nothing is more encouraging to those who love the church than a large number of bright1 attractive1 natural girls1 on whose hearts and lives this great truth is beginning to make an impression which must find expression4 ,the second thing necessary to the right development of the girl in her teens is ideal ,christian women in the church of which she is a member4 ,the women of the church1 from those a little older than herself up to those who for many years have been its support1 must show to her what it means to be a ,christian woman in the church1 community and home4 ,alas for those girls who see that it means only attendance upon the services of the church when perfectly convenient1 and when minister and choir are entirely satisfactory6 ,alas for those girls who see that it means little more than a comfortable sense of respectability and social opportunity6 ,fortunate are those girls who in their early teens see among the church members scores of sane1 true1 large-hearted women interested in every need1 anxious to help1 and willing to serve in every way that time and means will permit4 ,the church of whose women the girl in her teens1 watching with her keen eye1 can say1 in her ardent way1 ,i'd rather be like ,mrs4 ----1 than any one ,i know--she is perfectly lovely1 is of real value as an uplifting1 vitalizing force in the world4 ,the girl in her teens needs the church to furnish the upward pull and there is need of greater effort in every line and by every member to bring her into contact with it4 ,the church needs the girl in her teens with all the intensity of her power of devotion and genuineness of her love2 with all the strength of her emotions so easily turned under right conditions toward the best things in life4 ,,chapter ,,viii--,,her ,,relation ,,to ,,the ,,bible ,one beautiful ,june ,sunday ,i stood waiting for my car at the transfer corner1 thinking about the ,sunday problem and watching the crowd hurrying away to the parks and the lakes1 when a most interesting group of girls passed4 ,there were six or eight of them about sixteen years old1 and in their light dresses1 their fresh1 sweet faces half hidden by hats that were too dear for anything1 they made a picture good to see4 ,they were evidently returning from ,sunday-school1 for most of them carried ,bibles1 and1 as ,i watched them out of sight1 ,i was plunged into a wilderness of questions as to what that wonderful old ,book1 written in the dim1 hazy past under foreign skies1 in languages almost forgotten1 could possibly have to do with gay1 happy1 laughing girlhood--in the midst of the things of to-day4 ,and ,i knew that to the majority of girls in their teens it means little4 ,most of them own it1 respect it1 and feel a certain reverence for what it says1 but it plays little part in their everyday lives4 ,the average girl in her teens uses it more or less in the preparation of her ,sunday-school lesson4 ,she hears certain portions of it read without comment in opening exercises in school2 in a comparatively few instances it is read in the morning or evening at home4 ,that is practically all that most girls have to do with the ,book whose teachings have so largely made possible the wealth of happiness of the girlhood of to-day4 ,how to bring the girl in her teens into touch with this ,book of books so that it shall exert upon her individual life its wonderful power of transforming1 purifying1 and strengthening character is a problem4 ,but those who have been trying hard to meet it have learned some things4 ,they have found out that the girl in her teens knows little of the history of the ,book1 and that when she is told the story of how we got our ,bible she is intensely interested4 ,its wonderful history1 from the time before it lay in parchment rolls on monastery shelves and on through the centuries until it reached the hands of ordinary men and women1 and the period of their struggle to learn to read that they might know what it said1 stirs the imagination and awakens a host of questions that lead to knowledge4 ,when she begins to understand what it has cost to preserve the book1 how not only men and women1 but boys and girls1 have loved it and died rather than betray it or disobey its commands1 it becomes to her a new book1 worthy of her study4 ,but the history of the ,book1 although it is necessary and does deeply interest the girl and increase her respect for it1 is by no means all we want her to have4 ,the fragmentary knowledge of ,abraham and ,david1 ,esther1 ,ruth and ,paul which she has gained in her childhood must be supplemented now by the knowledge of great periods and what the world learned through them4 ,she needs to be shown what the ,psalms and some of the chapters of ,isaiah and the other prophets have meant to the literature1 music and art of the world4 ,i remember with pleasure the class of girls sixteen and seventeen years old who studied the books of ,job and ,jonah with me one year4 ,the dramatic element held us1 and ,job and his friends1 ,jonah and his struggle1 became very real to us4 ,two years afterward one of the girls1 in talking about references to the ,bible in literature1 said to me1 ,well1 when they refer to ,jonah or ,job ,i'm safe1 for those two books ,i shall never forget4 ,she can grasp a book as a whole1 remember it and enjoy it4 ,but the study of the ,bible under guidance and with every means used to make it interesting and helpful is not all that we want for our girl4 ,she must be led to find in the ,bible personal inspiration and help4 ,experience so far has taught me that unless the girl in her teens is a member of a ,christian ,endeavor ,society or kindred organization1 or a member of the church1 she is not likely to read the ,bible for herself1 nor is it easy to interest her to do so4 ,she may enjoy poetry and really good literature1 and be an omnivorous reader1 yet never read the ,bible4 ,she has often told me frankly that she really does not like to read it because it is not interesting and she does not understand it4 ,we understand her feeling perfectly4 ,the phraseology is unfamiliar1 and her knowledge is not broad enough to help her with the context2 and to do anything voluntarily with regularity1 unless it is absolutely necessary1 is not easy for the average girl in her teens4 ,but every one interested in the future development of the girl's personal religious life is anxious to establish now1 in her early teens1 the habit of reading every day the words that have brought new life and salvation to the world4 ,it needs no argument to show that any girl is safer1 finer1 and less easily led into dangerous byways of thought and action if in beginning the day1 or when it closes1 she takes time to read ,blessed are the pure in heart3 for they shall see ,god1 ,do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you1 or the story of the ,good ,samaritan1 the healing of the blind1 the parables1 the thirteenth of ,first ,corinthians1 or1 ,if any man thinketh himself to be religious1 while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart1 this man's religion is vain1 or the next verse1 with its clear-cut definition so plain that any girl can understand4 ,through these and the other words of the ,new ,testament she is coming daily into touch with the deepest1 most fundamental truths to which men have ever listened4 ,more than that1 she is coming through these words into touch with ,christ4 ,no girl can read day after day the words he spoke or the record of his works of compassion and love1 the story of his patient1 brave endurance of the cross1 his faith that the disciples he loved would carry on his mission1 without becoming a finer type of girl4 ,and if after reading she bows her head for a moment only1 and sincerely prays for strength to do right all through the day1 or when the day is over1 asks for pardon for what she has done amiss1 then we need not fear that she will go far wrong on her way through life4 ,one may be insincere under many circumstances1 but one is rarely insincere when1 alone1 at the beginning or close of the day he reads the words of that ,book1 and prays4 ,so we1 who long for the best for our girl in her teens1 are willing to do anything in our power to help her establish the habit of sincere reading of the teachings of ,christ1 and of genuine prayer for strength to live them out every day of her life4 ,oftentimes such little things help in forming the habit4 ,i know of one teacher successful in reaching the secret recesses of girls' hearts1 who1 with three of her fourteen-year-old girls1 read every night for a year the same ,bible chapters1 she assigning them one week in advance4 ,after they read the short selections they prayed for one another and the members of the class not ,christians4 ,just how the prayers of those girls for their friends could or did affect their lives none of us can understand1 but that they did have a definite moulding influence on the lives of the girls themselves and their relation to other girls was plainly evident4 ,i know of one impulsive1 imaginative1 sixteen-year-old girl who formed the habit of reading1 while retiring1 a chapter or more from the weak1 sentimental1 but nevertheless fascinating1 love stories which just then were her delight4 ,she found it hard to go to sleep1 and often lay for hours in a highly excited emotional state1 going over and over the words of the hero and heroine4 ,at ,christmas1 an older girl whom she greatly admired gave her a ,year ,book having a ,bible verse at the top of each page1 followed by quotations or forceful words of explanation4 ,she asked her young friend to read it the very last thing every night1 and underline with pencil anything she thought especially fine or true1 and put a question mark beside anything she did not understand1 and every few weeks they would look it over together4 ,the sixteen-year-old decided to learn the ,bible verses4 ,often she looked up the reference in the ,bible4 ,she faithfully underlined1 questioned1 and went to bed with some of the finest thoughts in literature filling her mind4 ,any one who heard her testimony1 while in college1 as to what that year's reading meant to her might be almost tempted to present year books to all girls in their teens4 ,another very earnest young teacher1 in love with girls1 purchased for her class cheap ,new ,testaments and small unruled blank books4 ,she assigned a topic for a month's reading1 such as faith1 love1 courage1 justice1 and asked the girls to cut from the ,testament all verses on that subject1 and paste them under the proper headings4 ,the result was a group of girls reading every night on the assigned topic1 and at the end of the month able to read from their blank books all that ,christ and the apostles had to say on that subject4 ,many of the girls added quotations and poems referring to the special subject1 thus enlarging their own conception of it4 ,the girls valued their blank books highly1 and exhibited them with satisfaction4 ,the teacher did not seem especially proud of the books1 but exceedingly pleased that the class had grown familiar with so many of the verses4 ,she had a right to feel gratified with her work1 for she was helping them to become acquainted with the ,book1 just as ,i help my girls in their teens in school to become familiar with the encyclopdia--by sending them to it repeatedly1 until they form the habit of consulting it4 ,that many girls in their teens are steadied and helped through hard experiences by the words of comfort and encouragement which they find in the ,bible any teacher of experience in ,sunday-school work knows4 ,i am looking now at the picture of the sweet1 strong face of a girl of seventeen4 ,she is hard at work helping support the family4 ,the father has tried many times to reform and let drink alone1 and as many times failed4 ,the girl can hardly endure the life at home1 yet for the sake of the younger children she must stay4 ,recently1 when ,i told her how much ,i admired her1 she said1 ,it has seemed this year as if ,i couldn't keep on4 ,i can't tell you how much two verses on my calendar have helped me4 ,i keep saying them over and over1 ',i will never leave thee1 nor forsake thee1' and ',fear not1 ,i will help thee4' ,another girl1 struggling to overcome the habit of exaggeration which has been a characteristic of her family for generations1 said to me one day1 ,i think so often of that verse1 ',with ,god all things are possible4' ,if it weren't for that ,i would give up1 for just as ,i think ,i am improving ,i fail again1 and it seems as if ,i never could tell things as they are4 ,i have found many girls in their teens lonely1 discouraged1 misunderstood1 or in the presence of great sorrow1 turning to the words of the ,book1 and really finding help and comfort4 ,if1 then1 the girl in her teens can be taught something of the history of the ,bible1--the languages in which it has been written1 the methods by which it was compiled and translated1 and finally printed1--so that she will not half believe that in some mysterious way it dropped down from heaven1 or else never even ask where it came from2 if she can be taught that its men and women were real and lived under real conditions in a real world2 if she can know something of their struggles1 defeats and victories1 and learn to love their psalms and poems2 if she can be led to see something of their growth and development as they waited for the ,christ to come1 then the ,bible will be to her a real book1 not a fetish to be worshiped afar off4 ,and if she can be led to seek in the ,gospels and letters of the ,new ,testament help and inspiration to live honestly and sincerely1 then the ,bible will become a tremendous force for righteousness in her daily life4 ,when she meets the hard things of life or the temptations of leisure a girl so taught and trained will have something to help her2 and such a girl1 as she enters college and takes up critical study of the ,book1 will have nothing to fear4 ,the secret of the marvelous influence of the ,old ,testament on human life lies in three short words1--,and ,god said1 and the secret of the marvelous transforming power of the ,new ,testament lies in one word1 ,christ--,christ--,christ4 ,when the girl in her teens opens daily to read for herself what that ,book has to say of the leadings of ,jehovah and the teachings of ,christ1 she is on the road to safety1--therefore the work of every teacher is to help her to open it4 ,,chapter ,,ix--,,her ,,relation ,,to ,,the ,,everyday ,the girl in her teens1 although she is able now and then through her imagination to transfer herself to a land of day-dreams1 where all she desires is hers1 for the most part is obliged to live in the everyday1 and often she finds it hard4 ,but she is young--and one may always hope when in her teens4 ,if she is ill1 health may come in a few weeks1 a month1 a year at most4 ,if she works hard1 she may always hope for a better place with more money1 or by and by1 just in the future a little way1 a happy home of her own where she will have everything she wants4 ,if she is struggling for an education1 the joy of what she will be able to do some day sustains her4 ,if she is a care-free girl with no burdens1 one whose parents give her every advantage and strive to make her girlhood happy1 life is one great joy and the future an even more wonderful dream4 ,but these girls1 every one of them is obliged to live in the ordinary world1 and we who realize it must so train them that when they meet it in reality they will be able to live happily4 ,one reason why there is so much misery and unhappiness in home life to-day is because the girl in her teens is not trained to live4 ,even those who love her most say1 ,oh1 she's young yet1 there's time enough4 ,meantime habits are formed and when the time comes effective training is not possible4 ,in spite of hopes1 castles1 day-dreams1 most girls are destined to live amid the commonplaces of life1 and unless we prepare them1 many will fail to learn that ,the trivial round1 the common task ,will furnish all we ought to ask2 ,room to deny ourselves1 a road ,to bring us daily nearer ,god1 and so insure our happiness4 ,the ,sunday-school is limited of course in what it can do to guide the girl in the everyday1 so many other agencies enter into her training1 and yet we have seen that what we teach on ,sunday must influence her on ,wednesday as she settles some question1 or we have not really helped her4 ,as we try to plan how we may best help her to live1 we ourselves meet the question1 ,what1 after all1 do we want her to be in this world of the everyday8 ,it is a little hard to answer1 we want so much for her1 and yet it can all be summed up in one sentence1 ,we want her to be comfortable to live with4 ,when we stop to think of what a flood of blessing would come to this old world if all the girls now in their teens were comfortable to live with1 and will be as they develop into full womanhood1 we know no effort should be spared to make them so4 ,if the girl in her teens is comfortable to live with she will be content in the place where she is4 ,she will have that sane satisfaction which is not apathy but which makes the best of what it has till something better can be found4 ,very early in her teens the girl begins to pencil upon her face the first tiny lines which in later years1 grown deep and heavy1 will mark her discontent4 ,there are so few faces that show their owners have learned to be content4 ,a sixteen-year-old girl friend of mine the other day said in a discouraged way1 ,well1 ,i wish ,frances' mother felt differently about their home4 ,her mother is such a lovely cook1 and their house is neat and pretty1 too1 but she will never let ,frances have any of the girls to dinner because they haven't a maid4 ,she wouldn't let even me go upstairs to ,frances' room1 and ,i know it must be so pretty by the way she describes it4 ,it is too bad2 we just love her1 and we could have such good times4 ,she can't accept our invitations very often because her mother won't let her entertain us4 ,it is just too bad4 ,the girl was right4 ,it was too bad to deprive ,frances of the society of these girls1 who1 though they came from homes where more money was expended1 would have so enjoyed her simple hospitality4 ,although not meaning to do it1 her mother is teaching ,frances to place wrong values upon things1 and her life will be narrowed and made more and more unhappy because the living-room is small1 and the floor not of hard wood1 but painted around the outside of the rug1 and she will come to believe that happiness consists of possessions4 ,when she marries1 like thousands of other girls she will be unhappy unless her own new home is perfect in equipment from the start1 she will want the new1 up-to-date things faster than her husband's salary can supply them1 and the long line of misery that follows may easily be hers4 ,if1 instead1 her mother could demonstrate that a neat1 clean1 and therefore attractive home is a fit place in which to entertain any friend by welcoming her daughter's friends for a good time1 how quickly for that girl things would assume their right places in the scale of importance4 ,we can help her to be happy and content by showing her in what very simple ways good times may be had4 ,if the girl in her teens grown to womanhood is to be comfortable to live with she must be trained to be kind4 ,kindness is born in unselfishness1 and if we expect her to be unselfish1 the days of her teens must be her training days4 ,she must be carefully guarded from daily association with women who speak cynically of life1 and shielded from close contact with those whose conversation is invariably the criticism of their neighbors4 ,she must be led to let her heart speak--the heart is rarely unjust and seldom unkind4 ,her thoughts must be continually turned1 as were those of ,frances ,willard and ,alice ,freeman ,palmer1 toward her neighbors in need1 until a world-sympathy is born in her1 and the joy of helping makes her keen to help4 ,the girl to whose lips almost involuntarily spring the words ,let me help you will not find it so easy to utter the cutting word or the phrase that leaves a sting4 ,a real interest in the other girl will tend to make her unselfish4 ,if she is comfortable to live with she must be thoughtful4 ,thoughtfulness also has its birth in unselfishness4 ,the girl wrapped up in thoughts of herself has little time to be concerned with others1 and demands invariably that she be the center of the circle4 ,she does not make others comfortable and is not good to live with4 ,the girl who is good to live with in the world of the everyday1 shares her joys and pleasures with the family4 ,how many times ,i have seen a tired mother forget her cares listening to the recital of her daughter's good times6 ,her petty little annoyances1 her disappointments1 she keeps to herself4 ,after all1 when we sum up the qualities of the girl in her teens which endear her to every one1 and make her good to live with1 we can put them under the one word unselfish4 ,if she is this1 then she will apply herself to her studies2 she will remember her mother's burdens and not add to them2 she will think of all she owes to her father and show her gratitude to him2 she will be a helpful friend to the boys and girls with whom she associates1 and she will have a good time1 as the unselfish girl invariably does4 ,by frequent illustrations taken from life1 the ,sunday-school teacher may hope to make her see how true these things are4 ,an absolutely unselfish girl may be1 as those in their teens say she is1 impossible1 but the impossible can be made wonderfully attractive by the teacher who can picture the girl in her teens at her best4 ,in her life in the everyday1 no matter what her circumstances may be1 the girl is constantly tempted to live below her best4 ,the temptation to be disagreeable about the household tasks that fall to her1 to forget the errand she is asked to do1 to be careless about her room1 to leave things for her mother to look after and put away1 to be impatient with younger brothers and sisters--all these things are so easy4 ,not to yield to them requires constant watchfulness and struggle1 and the word of warning on the part of the teacher1 through story and illustration each ,sunday1 helps the girl see these faults in all their miserable littleness4 ,in her school life she meets the temptation to neglect her studies1 and to spend too much time on the social side4 ,many girls are tempted to yield to petty deceptions2 some are tempted to copy or exchange work2 many are discourteous1 and many more do nothing to make school life happy for any except those in their own set4 ,some whose parents are so unwise as to leave them without knowledge or protection fall into temptations from which they never escape4 ,the high-school girl needs from the earnest lips of a woman she admires the weekly word of warning1 and the oft-repeated plea to keep herself pure and fine4 ,if the girl in her teens is in business she meets daily the temptation to let her own interests interfere with her employer's1 to waste time1 to give excuses1 to indulge in pleasures that do not uplift1 but mean late hours1 little sleep1 and physical unfitness for work4 ,she needs every ,sunday the practical words of warning and inspiration straight from the heart of a woman who understands her temptations and can help her to overcome them4 ,wherever the girl in her teens finds herself she needs some one to make her want to be her best amidst all the things which tend to pull her down4 ,she needs strong words that will show her to herself in all her weakness making her ashamed if she has yielded1 and at the same time arousing in her the determination not to yield again4 ,when the teacher understands the girl in her teens and lives close enough to her to become her confidante1 she knows how hard the fight to be good and fine and strong in the everyday is1 and she realizes more and more as her experience broadens that while the girl's love for her parents is a great incentive toward right living1 and desire to please those whom she greatly admires is a help1 and while unhappiness and other consequences of evil-doing act as deterring agents1 yet no one of these things1 nor all of them together1 will prove strong enough to keep her pure and honest and make her unselfish4 ,what will8 ,nothing will make her absolutely perfect4 ,only one thing1 so far as ,i know1 will keep her safe and strong in the life of the everyday4 ,that thing is the consciousness that she lives in the presence of ,god1 accepting ,jesus ,christ as her example and her ,helper in her effort to live aright4 ,a girl conscious that she lives out each day under the pure1 kind eye of an infinite personality1 interested in her efforts toward righteousness1 and that she need not be afraid to ask for strength or for pardon1 finds it easier to do right and harder to do wrong than the other girl who leaves him out of the struggle4 ,in all the hundreds of girls and women ,i have met1 the most thoughtful1 generous and unselfish1 the purest in heart and mind1 those richest in the finer traits of humanity1 have been conscious of the presence of ,god in the world of the everyday4 ,they live as in the presence of a perfect father1 and live aright1 not because men see1 but because he sees1 and they are able to live as they do because they ask for help and receive it4 ,if we are to be of real help to the girl in her teens1 this consciousness of the reality of ,god we must give to her4 ,i have so often seen it help in the lives of individual girls4 ,i am thinking now of ,vivian1 whose parents had given her up in despair4 ,she was careless1 rude1 and untruthful4 ,in school her teachers considered her a bad girl4 ,the ,sunday-school teacher who took her class when she was fifteen was one to whom the ,christ was very real4 ,she talked about him reverently1 as if he were a real friend and a great help in everyday life4 ,she interested ,vivian4 ,at ,christmas she gave her ,hoffman's ,christ4 ,vivian put it on her bureau1 dusted the picture every day1 and thought about it often4 ,the teacher loaned her books of the sort which made ,christ seem a real friend4 ,she began to think of him as such and to pray that he would help her overcome the things that everybody despised4 ,she read ,what would ,jesus do8 several times4 ,she began to feel that ,god saw and cared1 and as she worded it1 ,i felt that in all these hard things ,christ would help me1 and ,i asked him many times every day to make me do as he would4 ,her room showed that something had come to ,vivian4 ,a quietness came into her conversation4 ,she treated her mother with a gentleness that was so different that her mother cried when she told the teacher about it4 ,the girls saw the difference4 ,twice when she had been untruthful she went to her teachers and confessed it4 ,she made a desperate struggle to speak accurately4 ,her father called her a changed girl1 and his face showed his joy over the change4 ,she is to-day one of the sweetest1 strongest young women ,i know1 prominent in her college and trusted and loved by scores of girls4 ,she is one of many whose lives ,i have seen changed1 and as the years pass1 and ,i see the power of the ,christ still working miracles in girls' lives1 ,i long for more teachers like that one who opened ,vivian's eyes4 ,the greatest thing which the teacher can do for the girl in her teens is to open her eyes to a real ,christ1 for then all the incentives for pure1 unselfish living in the commonplaces of life's everyday will be hers4 ,,chapter ,x--,,her ,,teacher ,when for a moment one remembers the girl in her teens1 the long line that lives in the memory from those just thirteen up through the sweetest and prettiest at sixteen1 to the beautiful1 graceful1 and dignified ones just twenty1 it makes a picture hard to equal4 ,there is such evident joy in just living6 ,when one catches a glimpse of the groups in their light dresses1 with hair ribbons of every size and color according to the wearer's interpretation of the latest fashion1 wending their way to the high school1 he feels that life is indeed a glorious summer morning4 ,though sighs and complaints may be heard over lessons too long and too difficult1 they are not very deep1 and are soon forgotten2 though low marks do make very serious students with minds concentrated on work for a few days after report cards are out1 yet with the majority the depression is short-lived1 and life is sunshine once more4 ,when as whistles blow and factory gates swing wide1 one catches a glimpse in the early morning of the girl in her teens going to work1 he hears snatches of happy laughter and jesting4 ,no matter how hard the work1 it cannot crush out the laughter in the heart of the girl in her teens2 the good times after work is over or at the week end when she puts on her ribbons and gay attire make easier the crash of machinery and less painful the aching muscles4 ,the girl in her teens is glad she is alive1 and her evident and keen enjoyment of a world which some of her elders have found hard and a little disappointing does more to cheer and brighten the dull gray of the commonplace than she knows1 or than we stop to remember4 ,as we think of this long procession of the girl in her teens which memory can so easily recall1 and then see in imagination the host of those who call themselves her teachers1 we are tempted to cry1 ,her teachers6 ,what manner of beings are they who pretend to instruct1 enlighten and guide all this energy1 this fascinating line of possibility and promise6 ,it is easy to write or speak of the ideal teacher for all this fresh young life1 filled with inexpressible longings for success and happiness4 ,but the study of the very human and very real teacher1 ideal only in the highest sense1 in that she is struggling after perfection1 will be much more practical and helpful to us4 ,should the teacher of girlhood in the years of the teens ever be a man8 ,yes1 there have been many fine1 successful teachers whose strength and manly qualities1 whose sincere devotion to ,christ and his teachings1 have had a lasting influence for good upon the girl in her teens4 ,it is a good thing for the girl to see the world and its relation to moral and religious life through the eyes of a far-seeing man4 ,it is a help to her to get his mental grasp of situations as from week to week they follow together the life of ,christ and his teachings or seek to understand the characters of ,old ,testament days4 ,a fine man's frankness1 sincerity1 and general freedom from the annoyance of little things prove a stimulus and a help to the girl4 ,it is almost unnecessary to say that he must be the right sort of man1 large-hearted1 strong1 and free from all suggestion of the goody-goody4 ,however1 it has been my experience that while a man makes a most efficient teacher for the class during the hour of the ,sunday-school session1 he cannot guide and influence a girl's life in the everyday as can the right sort of woman4 ,unless he has a home and a wife thoroughly interested in his work1 or herself active in the work of the ,church1 he can do little in a social way during the week4 ,if he is a successful1 hard-working man he has little time to think of the girls or their needs except on ,sunday1 and unless he is a man of wide experience or has daughters of his own he does not understand girls1 and must perforce deal in generalities4 ,in this matter1 as everywhere in life1 there are exceptions and no hard and fast law can be laid down1 but my experience thus far has been that1 all things considered1 a womanly woman is best fitted to meet the many needs of the girl in her teens4 ,she must be a womanly woman1 else she will have forgotten her own girlhood days and cannot come near enough to the girl in her teens to appreciate her need1 nor will she have the personality that wins her confidence and love4 ,the cold1 hard1 mechanical sort of woman one occasionally finds in charge of a class of girls is not the one whose influence will be felt in the years to come4 ,we have seen again and again in previous chapters that the teacher of the girl in her teens must be in love with life4 ,if she has found it hard1 she must not let that embitter her4 ,the fact that she has met hardships and conquered them1 has met sorrow and it has only deepened her sympathy and broadened her outlook on life1 makes her a real inspiration to the girls who meet her each week4 ,i am thinking now of such a woman1 into whose life one heavy sorrow after another has come4 ,at thirty she is alone in the world1 having lost in ten years parents1 husband and two children4 ,yet there is no bitterness in her life4 ,she is not in any sense a cynic4 ,more than twenty girls1 from sixteen to nineteen years of age1 who make up her class1 leave the presence of that sweet1 strong woman with her tender1 sympathetic spirit1 and her calm1 steady faith1 able all the week to live better1 more wholesome lives because they have been with her for one hour4 ,she never speaks of herself1 but often of courage1 of hope1 of making the best of things1 of giving all one can in service to the world1 of unselfish1 cheerful living1 and the girls listen and believe that all she says is true and possible4 ,the teacher must be an optimist4 ,she is not self-deceived1 she sees the faults of the girl in her teens4 ,she is conscious of the thoughtlessness1 the utter lack of courtesy1 the love of the extreme in everything1 and the greater faults of insincerity and pretense that characterize to so great an extent the girlhood of to-day4 ,but while she is pained she is not dismayed4 ,she is a good diagnostician4 ,she examines her individual patients1 finds the weak places1 discovers the cause of the disease1 and then goes to work systematically to eradicate it1 trusting to the normal1 unaffected organs and tissues to aid in restoring perfect health4 ,she believes in and uses preventive measures and they pay4 ,the teacher must herself be an example in thoughtfulness and courtesy1 respectful to those higher in office1 and willing to co-operate with1 instead of criticizing1 those who have plans by which they hope to add to the efficiency of the school as a whole4 ,none of these things are lost upon the keen-eyed girl in her teens2 indeed1 the teacher's dress1 even the condition of her gloves1 makes an impression and has an influence4 ,it has become a truism that to be successful in teaching one must know the pupil2 yet only last week ,i met a teacher anxious for a new course of study which would interest her class of girls sixteen and seventeen years of age1 who revealed in conversation the fact that she knew practically nothing of the girl's homes4 ,she did not even know the section of the city in which many of them lived1 had made no calls and could tell the occupation of only two of the fathers4 ,she did not know for what the girls were preparing themselves1 nor any of their hopes or desires1 and she had taught the class for two years4 ,she said the girls were not interested1 and did not prepare assigned work4 ,this type of teacher is fast disappearing1 but wherever she exists the fact that the class seems to be not interested indicates very clearly that those who insist that the teacher must know the girl are right4 ,in the series of studies of the girl in her teens an article appeared in ,the ,sunday ,school ,times#a giving the opinions of several hundred girls as to what constitutes a lovely teacher1 and according to the statements of these girls1 a lovely teacher is1 pleasant1 fair to everybody1 treats every one alike1 and is interested in what you are doing4 ,she writes notes to you when you are ill1 calls on you1 is kind and patient1 makes the lesson interesting1 explains what you don't understand1 and knows a great deal4 ,upon these as necessary qualifications of a lovely teacher1 the girl in her teens from all sorts of homes and from various parts of our country is agreed1 and as we think about it we feel inclined to trust her analysis4 ,when the average teacher tests herself by these standards1 she finds deficiencies1 but they are not discouraging ones1 because every characteristic named by the girls is possible to every teacher4 ,she can make things interesting if she is interested and takes time to prepare her lesson material4 ,it is a never-failing source of surprise to discover what interesting material1--anecdotes1 illustrations1 pictures and information1--can be found upon every subject when one is looking for it4 ,it is perfectly possible for the average teacher to be pleasant--to carry about with her the atmosphere in which work becomes a pleasure and difficult problems are just things to be conquered4 ,this atmosphere of cheerful hopefulness makes everything easy4 ,for many teachers it is the natural attitude toward life and work1 which comes from constant association with eager1 buoyant youth4 ,if it is not natural it may be cultivated4 ,notes and calls--acts of thoughtful kindness on the part of the teacher when illness or trouble enters a home1 may be small things in themselves1 but they mean much to the adolescent girl1 and they bring their own reward4 ,they also are possible to every teacher4 ,the confidence of a girl is more easily gained if one1 to use her own phrase1 really likes her4 ,if a teacher knows her pupil1 that is1 sees her as an individual1 learns her ambitions1 longings1 hopes and fears1 she does like her4 ,it is almost impossible not to like the average girl when one knows her4 ,every teacher can learn to teach individuals1 not classes1 and girls1 not subjects alone4 ,the wise men of the past have told us1 and experience and observation have proved1 that we grow to resemble that which we admire4 ,admiration means imitation1 therefore the necessity that those who are striving to awaken the best in the girl in her teens be those she can and does admire1 and have traits of character she ought to imitate4 ,there never was a time in the history of religion when so many tools and such fine equipment for service were ready for those who want to be skilled workmen1 and the teachers who desire the skill to make their work on ,sunday really count in life every day in the week1 have but to begin just where they are and progress as fast as possible4 ,bible classes for those who want and need to know more of the ,book they teach are easy of access to many1 and courses of study are open to all4 ,the training class1 where the characteristics of the various ages1 and the needs of pupils1 and how to meet them1 may be intelligently considered1 is possible in any community1 and good correspondence courses are now available4 ,if one desires to do so it is perfectly possible for him to become a better teacher for the sake of those whom he instructs4 ,for it is in desire1 after all1 that action is born1 and that which one greatly desires he will seek after4 ,to help the girl in her teens see the best in life and desire it1 we have said1 is the business of her teacher4 ,through the physical1 mental1 and spiritual sides of her nature1 the teacher is to lift the girl to the place where she can see for herself4 ,there are so many girls all over our country1 and in the farthest corners of the earth1 to-day rendering splendid service to the world1 sometimes in the shelter of their own homes caring for their children1 sometimes in great hospitals1 or lonely outposts as nurses1 sometimes as teachers or missionaries1 often as servants of every sort1 who are living with a broad outlook and deep1 sympathetic insight1 because somewhere1 back in the teens1 by the patient effort of teachers they were lifted out of their narrow selves to the place where they were able to catch a glimpse of the real meaning of life4 ,finding it impossible one day to make my way through the crowds on the street waiting for a procession to pass1 ,i stopped1 and standing back a little from the curb watched the eager faces gazing up the street4 ,right in front of me stood a group of men in their working clothes1 and in their midst a tall1 broad-shouldered expressman1 explaining the reason for the parade4 ,in a moment the sound of brass instruments burst upon us1 a line of policemen swung into sight1 the crowd of small boys following close beside the uniformed men1 their eyes on the flying banners1 and keeping step as only boys can4 ,suddenly above the noises of the street1 above the commands of the officers and the music of the band1 ,i heard a little1 thin1 shrill voice from the crowded corner where the men stood1 cry out1 ,lift me up so ,i can see6 ,it was a street child1 a little girl1 whose dress and face showed that neither money1 time1 nor thought had been expended upon her4 ,she looked so tiny as she stood there trying to peer through the crowd at the procession in the street4 ,but she was not afraid4 ,again it came1 ,lift me up1 ,i say1 so ,i can see6 ,eager1 insistent1 filled with desire1 the voice attracted the attention of the men4 ,there was a moment's hesitation1 and then with that look one loves to see upon the face of a strong man1 the expressman stooped and picked her up4 ,as he held her there1 high above the heads of the others1 one little arm went round his neck1 and she held on tight while the other hand pointed at horses1 banners and men1 and she called out again and again in her joy and delight1 ,now ,i can see1 ,i can see everything6 ,the procession passed4 ,he placed her on the sidewalk1 and as the crowd scattered she hurried away1 satisfaction written upon her small face4 ,but as ,i walked slowly back toward the great school buildings on the hill1 her voice rang in my ears1 ,lift me up so ,i can see6 ,and ,i knew that that is the unconscious cry of the childhood of the world to the teachers of the world2 that those words are the plea1 often unexpressed1 of the girlhood of to-day--,lift me up--so ,i can see6 ,and ,i know that those who answer must themselves have eyes opened by the ,christ1 to see1 and hearts quickened by his power1 to lift4 ----- #a ,a ,lovely ,teacher1 ,march #e1 #aiaj4