John Dewey - Ultimate Collection: 40+ Works on Psychology, Education, Philosophy & Politics
by the college graduates. For the 166 working-girls, whose health deteriorated, four had quite good health at the time of the investigation, 128 were in fair health, and 34 in poor health. Of the 138 college graduates whose health deteriorated, however, 42 report a decline in health from excellent to good, or a slight change only. Making allowances for this, there is a greater loss of health of 2·47 per cent reported by the working-girls of Boston.
Of the 705 reporting, 417, or 59 per cent, mention some disorder, and the total number of disorders reported is 865. The returns regarding the causation of disease, while not technical nor detailed enough for scientific value, are suggestive.
Of the 417 reporting disorders, 276 give the cause or causes of disorders, and for 111 no cause is reported. One hundred and thirty-five consider constitutional weakness to have been the cause of disorder; 81, bad sanitary conditions; 81, intellectual overwork; 73, emotional strain; and 47, physical accidents.
The average amount of exercise reported, considering the aversion of American women, especially the educated, to bodily exertion, may be considered fairly encouraging. The average distance walked per day is given at 2·5 miles, and the time spent in other exercise as 1·2 hour. Returns regarding the amount of college-study done by college-women would gain in interest if they could be put side by side with corresponding returns from their male companions: 4, or 0·57 per cent, studied but little while at college; 438, or 62·13 per cent, studied moderately; 64, or 9·08 per cent, between moderately and severely, and 199, or 28·22 per cent, severely.
Either the lazy students failed to report, or college-women have much to learn from the average male undergraduate about the science of laziness. The lonely four, who have the courage of their disposition, all come from one college, which it would be ungallant to specify. Statistics concerning worry show that the art of taking things easy is not yet mastered by our ambitious young women: 172, or 24·40 per cent, worried over their studies; 89, or 12·62 per cent, over personal affairs; 131, or 18·58 per cent, worried over both studies and affairs; while 313, or 44·40 per cent, worried over neither studies nor affairs.
These returns for the most part tell their own tale and point their own moral. They certainly bear out the conclusion drawn regarding the uninjurious effect of collegiate study. Their great defect is in their failure to show more definitely the conditions and surroundings of college-life. The physical, social, and moral environment should be carefully studied. It has long been a commonplace of vital science that intellectual pursuits for men per se are healthy. The question which needs solution is. What conditions prevent their being equally healthy for women, the exact part played by each factor, and how far it is removable? What parents as well as professional educators and college administrators wish to know is, what colleges have gymnasiums, and whether the exercise is compulsory; how many institutions have matrons, and how far their influence extends; how many have resident physicians. Do the young women live herded in halls, sheltered in cottages, or at home and at boarding-houses as convenience dictates? The number of hours of sleep taken should be exactly stated. The number of hours of study should be given, instead of the vague terms "moderate," etc. Instead of indefinite inquiries as to whether the student went into society much or little, exact inquiries into the various modes of spending the hours of social recreation should be made. These and many similar points, which would suggest themselves at once, may be considered trivial; but, if we accept the general conclusion of the report that the pursuit of collegiate education is not in itself harmful, the importance of studying the entire environment, physical and social, of the young student at once appears. Here, in fact, the problem of her education centers.
Turning from the general conclusion to the consideration of certain specific problems, we educe the following data for discussion:
By all odds the most important fact regarding the higher education of woman is, that we are educating wives and mothers. Few probably will regret this, but those few must still admit the fact in a society constituted like ours. This, then, is the heart of the situation, and, in view of it, the following statistics are suggestive:
Omitting Oberlin College, for reasons already given, 26 per cent of the graduates who report are married, the other 74 per cent single. The average number of years since graduation is, however, over six, and average age over twenty-seven. Of the married, 37 per cent are without children, although the average number of years married is 6·2. The one hundred and nine having children report 205. Of these, 12 per cent have died, and, of these deaths, 25 per cent are due to causes connected with bearing. If we include all married couples, there is but 1·2 child to every five years of married life; and, even if we exclude those not having borne any, there are, among the remainder, two children to seven years of married life. We leave these figures, as the others, to speak for themselves.
That three hundred report their post-graduate occupations as teaching, and that one hundred and sixteen are following a professional life, shows a fact too easily lost sight of. Collegiate courses for woman have not solved the problem of her education, but, at most, of her technical training. It can hardly be thought desirable that 60 per cent of all the young women of our country, who ought to have collegiate training, should have it only as a preparation for one of the professions or for teaching. The question of women's education, in any worthy sense of the term education, has yet to be faced. The remarkable fact that the courses for female education, as well in purely female institutions as in co-educational, run parallel with and are modeled after the curriculum of male colleges, is to be accounted for only on the ground that upon the whole their training is designed for those who have to compete with men in the professional walks of life.
If we confine ourselves to the health of women, we shall find that the figures hardly justify us in assuming a purely optimistic attitude. The following figures speak for themselves: Of those who entered college one or two years after the commencement of the menstrual period, 20·5 per cent had poor health during college-life; of those who entered three to five years after, but 17·7 per cent; and more than five years, 15·4 per cent. If we compare the ages at entering college with the relative improvement or deterioration in health, we reach the same result. Of those who entered college at sixteen years or under, 28 per cent fell off in health, while 17 per cent gained. The figures for those of twenty and over show an almost exact reversal of these percentages, being 18 per cent loss and 28·5 per cent gain. The problem of age is thus seen to be an exceedingly important one.
The fact that, of the disorders reported, 7 per cent are brain troubles, 26 per cent of reproductive organs, and 33 per cent nervousness (also 15 per cent of neuralgia), shows that the problem of health has yet to find its adequate solution. The following percentages tell the same story: During the period of development, 53 per cent were troubled during the menstrual period (with simple irregularities, uterine or reflex pain, one or all). During college-life the per cent was 66; since graduation, 64. If we isolate simple irregularities, the result is more significant still; for these show a constant decrease, while the organic troubles show as marked an increase, the figures being, respectively, for irregularities, 16 per cent, 9 per cent, 7 per cent; for uterine and reflex pain, 24 per cent, 30 per cent, 36 per cent, for the three periods of development, college, and graduate life. Such percentages show along what line effort should be directed.
Leaving this question, we turn to the phenomena of college-life, so far as regards exercise, stud}^, and worry, in their effects upon health. The tables here cease to have reference, in their bearing, to women alone, and point a moral for all educators to heed. The importance of exercise is shown by the fact that those reporting over two hours per day return 84 per cent in good or fair health, while those below two hours can show but 75 per cent. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that, upon the whole, the tables show that worry is the most potent of all predisposing causes of disease. Those who had no worries of account report 92 per cent in fair or good health; those worrying over both personal affairs and studies state that but 68 per cent of their number were in the same condition. Worry over personal matters seems to be more harmful to health than overstudies, 75 and 80 per cent being the proportion of good health respectively. This showing goes far in substantiating the opinion of those who hold that study per se is never a cause of failure of health. However, of those who studied severely, 21 per cent report poor health, against 15 per cent of those studying moderately. Again, of the latter, 54 per cent report disorders as against 70 per cent of those who studied