Letter from Mary Elizabeth Garrett to M. Carey Thomas, July 12, 1890

My dear Girls, Having given up in despair hearing anything from you I will begin by a business communication. I enclose the results of the college entrance examinations which seem to me rather an improvement. Miss MetcalfGÇÖs work you see has told and I hope with Miss Colvin that next year we shall have a still better showing. It is very nice about Mary Carroll. Era Gleem as you see is admitted unconditionally. She has High Credit this year for her Latin Gram. and Comp. in which she was conditioned last year. Eliz. Williams has two conditions but has Merit for her Algebra in which she was conditioned last year, but she has not succeeded in working off her condition in Lat. Gram. and Comp. She has merit in her Lat. Prose. Mary CarrollGÇÖs record last year was conditioned in Algebra, Lat. Gram. and Comp.; Lat. Prose and Phys. Geog.; passed in Arith. Passed with merit in English and Credit in Chemistry. I am very much afraid that if Mary Carroll enters next year taking the two examinations, that she will be in a very bad condition for the yearGÇÖs work. How do you girls feel about it? She was so wretched last year. It seems to me that it would be much better for her to work quietly on at school next year, and then enter a little ahead of her class, and be enabled to really enjoy her college work, instead of beginning anxious, overworked and tired. Mamie, I should think, had better write her a sage letter of advice, after you have made up your minds about it. I enclose one or two other notes from Mrs. Colvin, also her draft of the circular to send to parents. The circular does not seem to me good, but I have simply written to her that I have forwarded it to you for your criticisms and suggestions. She said she would be quite satisfied to have one prepared for her, so that I think it would be a good plan for you to enclose a draft. It is something that certainly ought to be done, but it should be done in just the right way. I enclose also a letter from Miss Bickford with Mrs. ColvinGÇÖs comment on it, another little job for Mamie. Miss BGÇÖs hand grow more shocking, doesnGÇÖt it? I enclose a letter from Miss Metcalf with her suggestions for a modification of her course. Her letter seems to me very sensible and I see no objection to the plan proposed. Will you also write her directly? Of course I cannot answer any schedule questions and I simply write her that I have passed her letter on and that she will hear directly from you. I enclose a rather amusing note from Julian White. I saw GÇ£my motherGÇ¥ the day I left home and what she wanted was my advice as to what to do with the two little girls whom she is now educating. You know she always has two, and from her talk it was difficult to tell what the principle of selection is. The present ones are English not Southern, aged nine and ten. From all she had heard, she thought the Bryn Mawr School must be the best here, and she wanted one to advise her as to whether it would be worthwhile to bring these two little things over here next year, when she expects to come back to live and either keep them at home with her, sending them in to school every day or make arrangements for them to board in town. This of course would be giving them a very expensive education and the point was whether I thought it would be a sufficiently good one to justify all the trouble and expense, or whether it would be better to enter them in some of the church schools in England there they would of course be boarders and where the rates are very moderate. If she brings them over here, it would be difficult to send them there later as they do not receive them after twelve years of age, and this would hardly give time enough to judge of their capacity to absorb such an education as the B.M.S. offers. I was very much amused and very much interested too by her evident desire to do her very best for them, but I told her it was quite impossible for me to give her any advice, that if they were to be teachers, as they are, that it certainly would increase their chances of success to go to a good school, and that so far as I knew ours was better than the ordinary English church schools, but that although we tried to make it good, we realized that it fell very far short of its aims. She went off after a very long talk, saying that the thought our views on education coincided in a remarkable way and that she thought it very likely that she would decide to bring them over and see at least what the teachers thought of them by the end of the year. She is glad that we do not teach them Bible history, thinking that it is better that that should be learned at the motherGÇÖs knee, rather than either in school on Sunday-school. She wanted to know whether it was necessary to reserve places for them now, and I could not conscientiously tell her that I thought it was. Do you think I was wrong and do you want those two little girls? Mamie knows Mrs. Butler, so that she will appreciate what it would be. I enclose also a letter from Miss Oldham. I am sorry to bother you with so many school details but it does not seem possible to avoid it. I have a few more items which will follow by another mail. Hoping that you are having a lovely time and not anywhere near the cholera district. Affectionately yours, Mary E. Garrett July 12, 1890 P.S. you will of course advise Julia about anything she needs to know that you decide. I send her a copy of the college entrance report and Mrs. ColvinGÇÖs letter about it.