New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-03-01

walton of The country: we have not a word to
say against their system or th0roughncss OF
instruction, but we do strongly question the
quality of tho moral atmosphere produced by
the herding together Of crowds of children OF
either sex or both sexes. The teachers in
these schools, usually underpaid and over
worked, fulfill large duty when they urge the
brains of their pupils to their best develop
ment; their oversight Of morals or manners Is
necessarily of tho slightest Year AFTER year,
for example, tho graduating class IN the liish
School in this and other cities (glrls whose
very position there shows their want OF
afiluent means, and the hard drudgery they
have gone through to fit themselves to earn
their own living appear dressed as brides, In
robes whose cost would exceed their hrst year
salary as teacher trivial matter but as an
established custom, it proves how utterly un-
taught these children have been in the rules
of good taste and good sense; which, after
all, serve woman more than any
axiom of Legendre or Locke. Large private
schools adopt generally one of two methods:
the teaching is purely surface work, fitting the
young lady with accomplishments, hints of
knOwledgcs, and graceful manners wherewith
III
Roman converts stand foremost; or she IS
treated precisely "a though she were boy, as
in Vassar and the best of Female Colleges.
Not only is tho curriculum thorough and ex-
tensive but her ambition is perpetualy goaded
and chafed into feverish exertion. we were
present at q commencement Of one OF these
colleges lately, where the graduating class
spoke of women as having the eyes of the
world upon them "Ther education was armOr
"to fit them for battles in defense of humanity"
etc. They were in fact so many Donnas
Quixotc, armed and mounted, longing for
foe on whom to SILVER lance: the only one
fortunate enough to have found it was a girl
of seventeen going out as missionary to Zanzl-
bar. Now in all probability not one of the others
would lead public life; their education would
fit them only for the society of a country
town the foes they must fight would be In
competent biddies, an irritable husband, or
their own original sins reproduced In their
children. To fight these battles and win them,
requires no ambition but the patience, the
tenderness, the modesty, tho delicacy of touch
in soul and body which make woman, woman
little of which is given to her in school
In short, We believe that the more cultured
our women become, the more they will perceive
the propriety of giving to their daughters
pure home training; the more they will APP
preciate the weight and value of that old-fash-
toned bound of reserve and isolation set about
young girl, which it is the rule now to laugh
at. The French girl, says recent writer, Is
reared in the very innocence of childhood; I'M
til she is married. she is rarely out of the
sight of her mother; the influence OF the
mother over her thus becomes incalculable, it
is almost magnetic. Would girl THUS reared
by an educated American mother, be fitted
for as high work in life as if she had been
taught to look upon herself as an inevitable
heroine, or grown brazen through the ordeal
of public commandments and staring, applaud
ing crOwdsi