s and there are mothers who look upon every phase of
school life as contributing to the educative process, and these find
in the social affairs of the school their opportunities to teach some
vital lessons. Some schools are lengthening the free time between
periods, merely for the purpose of adding to the informal social
intercourse between pupils.

Wise teachers as well as wise mothers will see that the social phase
of school life, especially in the evening, is not overdone. Not only
health but future usefulness and happiness suffer if the girl "goes
out" so much that going out becomes the rule and staying at home the
exception. It is not usually, however, the social affairs of the
school alone which cause the girl to develop the habit of too many
evenings away from home. It is the school party plus the church
social, plus the moving pictures, plus the girls' club, plus the
theater, plus choir practice, plus the informal evening at her chum's,
plus a dozen other dissipations, that in the course of a few years
change a quiet, home-loving little schoolgirl into a gadding,
overwrought, uneasy woman.

Unless one has tried it, it is perhaps hard to realize how difficult
it is for an individual mother to regulate social custom in her
community even for her own daughter without causing the girl
unhappiness and possibly destroying her delight in her home. No girl
enjoys leaving the party at ten when "the other girls" stay until
twelve. Nor does she enjoy declining invitations when the other girls
all go. But what the individual mother finds difficult, community
sentiment can easily accomplish. The woman's club or the mothers' club
or the parent-teacher association, or better yet all three, may
profitably discuss the question, and may set about the creation of the
sentiment required.

Quite as important as "How often shall she go?" is the question "With
whom is she going?" There are two ways of approaching the problem here
involved. One requires more knowledge for the girl herself, that she
may better judge what constitutes a worthy companion. The other is
reached by the better training of boys, that more of them may develop
into the sort of young men with whom we may trust our daughters.

Parents who take the time and trouble to acquaint themselves with the
boys in their daughter's social circle will find themselves better
able to aid the girl in her choice of friends. The very best place for
this getting acquainted is th