【英文原著类】Why Go To College(为什么上大学).pdf

WHY GO TO COLLEGE?
WHY GO TO
COLLEGE?
ALICE FREEMAN PALMER
Formerly President of Wellesley College
1
WHY GO TO COLLEGE?
To a largely increasing number of young girls college doors are
opening every year. Every year adds to the number of men who feel as a
friend of mine, a essful lawyer in a great city, felt when in talking of
the future of his four little children he said, "For the two boys it is not so
serious, but I lie down at night afraid to die and leave my daughters only a
bank account." Year by year, too, the experiences of life are teaching
mothers that happiness does not e to their daughters when
accounts are large and banks are sound, but that on the contrary they take
grave risks when they trust everything to accumulated wealth and the
chance of a happy marriage. Our American girls themselves are ing
aware that they need the stimulus, the discipline, the knowledge, the
interests of the college in addition to the school, if they are to prepare
themselves for the most serviceable lives.
But there are still parents who say, "There is no need that my daughter
should teach; then why should she go to college?" I will not reply that
college training is a life insurance for a girl, a pledge that she possesses
the disciplined ability to earn a living for herself and others in case of need,
for I prefer to insist on the importance of giving every girl, no matter what
her present circumstances, a special training in some one thing by which
she can render society service, not amateur but of an expert sort, and
service too for which it will be willing to pay a price. The number of
families will surely increase who will follow the example of an eminent
banker whose daughters have been given each her specialty. One has
chosen music, and has gone far with the best masters in this country and in
Europe, so far that she now holds a high rank among musicians at home
and abroad. Another has taken art, and has not been content to paint pr