Relation of Dress to Education
189
Even the day and the services of worship are not exempt from
fashion’s domination. Rather they afford opportunity for the greater
display of her power. The church is made a parade ground, and the
fashions are studied more than the sermon. The poor, unable to meet
the demands of custom, stay away from church altogether. The day of
rest is spent in idleness, and by the youth often in associations that are
demoralizing.
At school, the girls are by unsuitable and uncomfortable clothing
unfitted either for study or for recreation. Their minds are preoccupied,
and the teacher has a difficult task to awaken their interest.
For breaking the spell of fashion, the teacher can often find no
means more effective than contact with nature. Let pupils taste the
delights to be found by river or lake or sea; let them climb the hills, gaze
on the sunset glory, explore the treasures of wood and field; let them
learn the pleasure of cultivating plants and flowers; and the importance
[248]
of an additional ribbon or ruffle will sink into insignificance.
Lead the youth to see that in dress, as in diet, plain living is in-
dispensable to high thinking. Lead them to see how much there is to
learn and to do; how precious are the days of youth as a preparation
for the lifework. Help them to see what treasures there are in the word
of God, in the book of nature, and in the records of noble lives.
Let their minds be directed to the suffering which they might
relieve. Help them to see that by every dollar squandered in display,
the spender is deprived of means for feeding the hungry, clothing the
naked, and comforting the sorrowful.
They cannot afford to miss life’s glorious opportunities, to dwarf
their minds, to ruin their health, and to wreck their happiness, for the
sake of obedience to mandates that have no foundation in reason, in
comfort, or in comeliness.
At the same time the young should be taught to recognize the
lesson of nature, “He hath made everything beautiful in its time.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11
, R.V. In dress, as in all things else, it is our privilege
to honor our Creator. He desires our clothing to be not only neat and
healthful, but appropriate and becoming.
A person’s character is judged by his style of dress. A refined taste,
a cultivated mind, will be revealed in the choice of simple and appro-
priate attire. Chaste simplicity in dress, when united with modesty
of demeanor, will go far toward surrounding a young woman with