“Of course, there is the first cost to consider.  The price of three or four pairs of silk stockings would give you a dozen pairs of fine cotton.  Yes, I know there are cheaper silk ones to be had, but their quality is poor.  We should scarcely want you to wear coarse, poorly made ones.  And of course you know silk ones do not last so long.  They are pretty, and pleasant to wear, and cool, I know.  How would it do to have silk ones to wear with your new party dress, and keep on with the cotton ones for school?  We don’t want to be overdressed in business hours, you know.  Then, it seems to me, it is a little hard on the really poor girls at school if the rest of you are inclined to overdress.  They are so likely to get into the habit of spending their money for cheap imitations of what you other girls wear—­or if they are too sensible for that they are probably unhappy because they have to look different.  Wouldn’t it be kinder not to wear expensive things to school at all?”

The object is not so much to keep the girl from having unsuitable garments as to teach her to see all sides of the clothes question, to realize her responsibilities, and to learn to choose wisely for herself.

It is highly desirable that mothers keep up their own standards of dress as they approach middle life and their daughters enter the adolescent period.  Some women even make the mistake of dressing shabbily that they may gown their daughters resplendently.  They are educating their daughters to a false standard and to a selfish life.

Teachers also probably seldom realize how wide an influence they may exercise upon their adolescent girl pupils in the matter of dress.  Many a girl forms her standard and her ideal from what her teacher wears.  Teachers must accept their responsibility and make good use of the opportunities it gives them.

It is approximately at the time of her awakening to the beautifying instinct that the girl begins to take a special interest in social matters.  Here again she needs wise guidance, and usually more guidance and less direction than most girls get.  The American mother is prone in social questions to trust her daughter too much, or not enough, and to train her very little.

[Illustration:  Copyright by Underwood & Underwood Skating offers fine opportunity for healthful social intercourse]

In many cases adolescent society centers about the school.  There are the everyday walks and talks of the boys and girls, the games and meets and contests, with their attendant social features, the literary societies and debating clubs, the school parties and dances.  The school thus comes to assume a considerable part in the boy’s and girl’s social training, much more than was the case twenty or even ten years ago; and the whole trend of educational movement in this matter is toward doing more even than it now does.

In some cases schools have merely drifted into this social work, without definite aims and without conspicuously good results, just as some parents have drifted into acceptance of the situation, with little oversight and a comfortable shifting of responsibility.