GIR'rON COLLEGE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In a recent article on Colleges for Women you gave a clear and forcible statement of the claims of Girton College, for which
those who are anxious to make it better known and procure funds for its extension thank you sincerely. As some of your readers, however, seem to have drawn from your words the impression that Girton was intended for and is chiefly used by ladies who are preparing themselves to become teachers, will you allow me to state that such is not the case? Although several students have gone from the College to fill important educational posts, those who intend to follow education as a profession have always been a minority. This can hardly be otherwise, considering that the expense of the course is £100 a year, and that there are as yet very few scholarships or exhibitions connected with the College by which aid can be given to students of limited means. More- over, to rest the claims of Girton to public support mainly upon the services it renders to girls' schools in providing them with competent mistresses (great as those services are), would be to take lower ground than is right or necessary. For the sake of women themselves, and in the case of mothers, for the sake of their children also, institutions ought to exist where, as at Girton and at Newnham Hall, the highest and completest education is provided for those who have the will and the abilities to profit by it. It is not to be expected that the number of women resorting thither will be as large as that of students at the Uni- versities ; nor is it to be desired, seeing that many of those students would be as well away. What is claimed is that women with a real taste for study should not be refused the opportunity of obtaining a training as high in point of quality as that which the Universities give to men.
Those who have established Girton College on its present wide basis venture to believe that it is all the better fitted to prepare women to be teachers because it is more than a mere training college. To give thorough and extensive knowledge, to form habits of accurate thought, to let the future instructress learn
how to teach by observing the methods which distinguished teachers employ in the classes she herself attends, to stimulate the whole mind, to elevate her aims and sentiments by implanting a sense of the amplitude and dignity of learning and science,— this is surely a far greater benefit to those who are making edu- cation their profession, than any amount of merely special or pro- fessional training could be. It is hoped that some day Girton may be able to provide the superstructure of special training also, but in the meantime, it is doing enough in laying a broad and firm foundation.—I am, Sir, &c., Lincoln's Inn, London, December 23. JAMES BRYCE.
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