New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-06-06
VOMEN and SCHOOLS.

WOMEN And SCHOOLS.
The correspondence between President Ma
gill of SwarthmOre College, and President
Fairchild of Oberln, touches upon subject
which attracts every year n larger and larger
share of public attention. Whether the sexes
shall be taught together is only an incidental
inquiry. However it may be settled, the
problem Of the training OF women re-
mains one of the most pressing of the time.
The question of higher education for women
is fast growing from the stage of discussion
into that of demand. But it is rather the
natural order of things, than any loud cry OF
special pleaders that is bringing what we so
sincerely desire. The spirit of the new scien-
tifc dispcnsation kindlier regard for apt
and practical work of women, moro and
more impatient discomfort with the fin
"ishedr results Of feminine education, are all
aiding the change. There will be no more
peace until that which is as much reform as
progress is accomplished. We say reform be-
cause it seems to us that the work to be done
first is mainly corrective. We think little of
arguments for or against the admission of
women to colleges like Harvard. That is
matter which society, fate in itself, will settle
soon or late. No handful of public speakers
can bring it about directly, nor can any num-
Der Of stout conservative shoulders serve to
keep the door shut when Public Opinion
chooses to shout "0pen." The good people
who talk in Boston judge too much by the
standard of local sontlment-scOi11rs might
go further and say the sentiment of a
clique. They do not apparently consider
the possibility that majority of fathers and
for Uat
prefer to have their young daughters taught
in schools exclusively feminine. Perhaps
such schools are to be utterly abolished some
time il is certain that with colleges either
open or closed to women, that time will be
long Meanwhile there is no good reason why
the present method of instruction should not
be made letter. Can any honest person, jilS-
ing by its results, deny that it Is inefficient.
that 1t lacks continuity and thorOughness
The downright ignorance, the half-baked
knowledge, the cvanescent accomplishments"
with which young women leave the average
female seminary" are simply pitiful. We
were about TO repeat the old complaint that
girls are educated merely to be married it is
truer to say that they are uneducated to
be marred-since marriage popularity means
settlement and support much more than it
does any faithful development of tho high
moral and intellectual opportunities which
family life presents. Most young women
leave school with no sort of wish to continue
culture after marriage, with little care for
what they have already learned, and little
taste for any literature save of the lightest.
Here and there, Of course, are girls with
a rare intellectual hunger, who gather honey
from the. dryest husks of education. But
taken as q whole the results of feminine
study, both in preparatory and the higher
schools, are eminently unsatisfactory. We
suggest that those who ask that masculine
colleges be opened to women shall give some
attention to the improvement Of the means
of education they already possess. To conquer
Harvard will not solve the vcxatious problem
at once.
There are many changes to be made, many
new lights to be considered. There is q ten
dency now to offer to women more and varied
scientific studies, and this tendency if it does
not need restraint needs q more judicious
guidance than it always gets Where is the
wisdom of giving q young girl, who has no
manner of taste and no ultenor use for it, q
long and severe course of-astronomy, for in
stancef Ii il the most stupid OF antiquarian
arguments that these things are for "dis-
"cipline.n 1t is folly to strain and weary
young mind with distasteful study
which will be of no direct practical
value in after life, while there are others
equally good as "c!sciplines," and of every
day advantage TO the end of the students ex-
istence. As for the plea that they ought to be
able to teach these things if necessary, that ia
nonsense. The world is beginning to under
stand that teachers are born and not made,
and that they need @ special and peculiar edu-
cation for their task. Teaching Is not a "gen-
"teeT profession for the relief of impoverished
women with not particle of the faculty of
instruction. We wish that there might be an
exbilarating application of common sense
to tho question of education. There
ID constant expression of dissatisfaction