Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-08-25

Female Education.


EDITOR FREEMAN In a recent article
noticed the importance, practicability, and
beneficial results of female education, clos
ing with suggestion to the ladies to petition
the Legislature, for the passage of law to
aid this important enterprise. now come
to inquire whether the Legislature have the
right to do so, and if 50, why. and how should
that right be exercised?
Now as to the right Of the Legislature so
to do, have only to quote the 4lst Section,
part I'd, of the Constitution of Vermont, and
refer the reader to the unquestioned exercise
of that right by previous Legislatures, from
the organization of the State. The Section
reads as follows
Laws Tor the encouragement of virtue,
and prevention Of vice, and immortality, ought
to be constantly kept in force, and duly exc
cuted; and competent number OF schools
ought to be maintained in each town, for the
convenient instruction of youth and one or
more Grammar Schools be incorporated, aud
properly supported in each County in the
State"
This clause of the Section has ever been
deemed sufficient guarantee of right to au-
thorlze the lawmakers to raise funds for the
support of common schools, to charter Coun-
ty Grammar Schools, and Colleges, and make
provision, in part, at least, for the support Of
each, by law; but while the common school
is supported entirely by public lands, pub
lie funds, and direct taxation, thus making
it common cause, shared equally by male
and female, the County Schools and Colleges
are left, in the main, to be supported by the
individual wealth or labor of the student.
Now | ask if it is not time to take an ad-
vance step in carrying the support principle
of the common schools to all the high schools
of the State? think it is, and will as
sign few reasons why think 50; and in
the first place, experience has shown that the
education of the masses tends to the strength,
virtue, and happiness of the nation; conse-
quently, where education is the most COM
plete and general, there society is the most
refined, virtucus aud happy. Again, expert
ence has also shown that under the operation Of
the common school system, where all have an
equal chance, that the female population are
at least, equal with the male in all the scien.
ces taught; and from this we conclude, thai
if the same principle of support was carried
out in the high schools, the same results
would follow; but as it now is, the moment
the high school is entered, the male has the
advantage of the female, unless the latter is
fortunate enough to have able and willing
friends to make up the defciency-which il
not often realized This will appear, wher
we consider that the actual expense of OBJ
tanning an education is nearly the same tc
both sexes while the male has the advan.
tage in compensation over the female, for la.
Dor Or teaching, of, at least, three to one; anc
with all this advantage, there are compare
lively few who fully obtain the object O
their highest ambition. If this be so, how
can we expect that the female, unaided, al
though she may possess superior intellectual
powers, can ever overcome this fatal hin
drance-tho want of support-that meets he
at the very outset, and denies her a passport
And she is doomed often to see one of the othe
lex-far inferior in point of intellectual ca
pacity for the voyage-obtain through tick
ct, and go off in the train, while she, unabl
to purchase a ticket returns, or takes tn
foot path, and seldom, if ever, reaches tn
high destination God has designed for her.
But, as to the provisions Of the law requi
red, We ask for nothing more than such sup
port as will in connection with individual eff
fort, enable the industrious scholar to test he
ability to climb the hill of science. We hav
no petition TO present for aid, for the indolea
and un,vorthy; let them stag at the botto'
of the hill and wait for the construction of a
air balloon, to carry them up without efor
Stowe, 1858. NF.