The system - the American one, at least - is a vast and noble experiment. It has been polestar and exemplar for other nations. But from kindergarten until she graduates from college the girl is treated in it exactly like her brothers. She studies the same subjects, becomes proficient at the same sports. Oh, it is a magnificent lore she learns, education for the mind beyond anything Jane Austen or Saint Theresa or even Mrs. Pankhurst ever dreamed. It is truly Utopian. But Utopia was never meant to exist on this disheveled planet.

These are my daughters, I suppose. But where in the world did the children vanish?

O, merry is the Optimist, With the troops of courage leaguing. But a dour trend In any friend Is somehow less fatiguing.

Wherever conversation's flowing, / Why must I feel it falls on me / To keep things going?

The ability to forget a sorrow is childhood's most enchanting feature.

Meek-eyed parents hasten down the ramps To greet their offspring, terrible from camps.

It is the leisured, I have noticed, who rebel the most at an interruption of routine.