“This is the subject matter under discussion at the present time. One hears people say, “in my time girls would never have done this or that.”  No, of course they wouldn’t. That is just the point – the girl of today is very far removed from the girl of our grandmothers time.

No doubt it is the vast changes which have taken place in the schools themselves which have helped to alter the girls. The up to date school tried to allow each girl as much responsibility in school matters as possible so that she may learn to be self-reliant and also to take an interest in her school. The school spirit is very highly developed now – each girl wants her school to be foremost in sports and in lessons, she forgets all about herself and only strives for ‘the school’. Then, again, lessons are made much more attractive nowadays, and there is much more inducement for a girl to work hard.

Fifty years ago it was thought unladylike and tomboyish to play any strenuous games such as hockey or basketball, and people would have been simply horrified at the very thought of girls playing football. The present-day girl plays all these games, and is none the worse for it – indeed in most modern girls’ schools games are as much a part of the curriculum as lessons, for the principals know that by playing games the girls learn to be sportsmanlike and to play fair, so that, later on, they may be able to take part in the great game of life.

When our grandparents went off to school they wore white pinafores and skirts to their ankles, with their hair brushed primly back from their faces. How very different is the modern flapper, with her American crop, low neck and skirt to her knees. Yet on the whole, if not exaggerated, the dress of the schoolgirl of today is very sensible and becoming, and far more suitable than the heavy, cumbersome dresses that girls used to wear. It is true that the present-day flapper is but a younger edition of her mother, both in dress and manner. And perhaps she is much too old for her age and too sophisticated. Notwithstanding all these things, she is a great improvement on her namesake of 50 years ago – for then girls were inclined to be silly and sentimental, a state of things to which games and a healthy outdoor life has happily put an end.”

Cynthia Taylor (’22)