The Overachieving Schoolgirl of 1888
A reporter interviews a fourteen-year-old girl struggling under the crushing weight of an hyper-academic curriculum.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
She ran up against an iron railing and looked scared. 'I'll call a policeman,' she said, pantingly, 'if you insult me.' She was only fourteen, and her pretty, thin face, with a spot of carnation on each cheek, and her little flaxen curls hanging over her pale forehead, gave her the adolescent aspect of a French doll. She had a bundle of books that might have weighed thirty pounds. 'But I don't want to insult you, my dear,' said the reporter; 'I only want to interview you.' 'Interview me!' she exclaimed. 'Oh, don't, please; I haven't done anything. Go and see pa.' The reporter pressed her, discovering she was studying trigonometry, surveying, navigation, French, German, physiology, biology, applied mechanics, telegraphy, and organic chemistry. 'Don't you ever sleep or play?' the reporter asked. 'Oh, yes. I play the whole of Czerny's exercises for the piano every morning. Miss M., our principal, says that if we knew what the mission of women is in the nineteenth century, we will not be caught napping.' When asked if she ever felt tired, she replied, 'Oh, what's the use of feeling tired? I haven't got time. If a girl got tired she wouldn't pass, would she?'
“Oh, what's the use of feeling tired? I haven't got time. If a girl got tired she wouldn't pass, would she?”
This 1888 profile captures the familiar pressure-cooker environment of modern competitive schooling. While the subjects have shifted from 'fluxions' to STEM, the girl's burnout and the reporter's realization that she is being pushed toward 'nervous exhaustion' resonate strongly with current conversations about youth mental health.
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