These vary from mere working parties for philanthropic
purposes to large organisations which embrace a number
of activities.... Of something the same kind are the
archaeological and scientific, the literary and debating
societies.... These societies are among the most interesting
and important parts of the work of a teacher, as they are
also among the most exacting. Games and societies together
tend to lengthen the hours of a school day, but even on
leaving school, her work is not finished. There are always
corrections to be done.... Still this is not all if lessons
are to be kept as alive and stimulating as they should be.
First and foremost, it is absolutely essential that the
teacher should not be jaded. She must get relaxation,
she must mix with other people and exchange ideas, she
must go about and keep in touch with all kinds of
activities. But at the same time she has to read in her
own subject, she has to keep up with modern methods of
teaching, she has to think out her various lessons."[3]

Just as the headmaster of a public school often seeks for a cricketer
rather than a classical scholar for his staff, so the headmistress
thinks not only of academic attainments but seeks for an assistant who
can keep going a school society or a magazine (while leaving it in the
hands of the girls), who enjoys acting and stage management, who can
take responsibility for a dozen girls on a week's school journey (the
nearest approach to camping out--and experience of this would perhaps
be a recommendation!). She wants some one not merely to teach or
manage or discipline girls, but a woman who can share the life of the
girls, or at least understand it well enough to let them live it.