Education: Secret Ceremony

The lady had come from Europe, and was glad to be in the U.S. She had never seen a sorority initiation, and persuaded a teen-age friend to let her watch the secret ceremony of her high school sorority. What she saw horrified her; she could only hope it was not a fair sample of U.S. initiations. U.S. friends assured her that it was not typical of college sororities, but could not assure her that it was unique among younger girls. This was what she saw:

"The high-school girls — there were about 15 of them—were dressed for a tea party, but...