Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-08-07
The Education Of Women.
Extracts from an Address by Prof. Tyler, at
Mount Hoyoke (Mass.) Seminary.l

Extracts from an Address by Prof. Tyler, at
Mount Holyoke Mass Seminary
The founder of Williston Seminary,
who is at the same time one of the found
ers of Mt. Holyoke Seminary and the
second founder of Amherst College, pro.
vided with no little care and expense for
the education of young women in the
same classes and studies, by the same
teachers and in just the same way
with young men, in that richly en-
dowed and well appointed institution; but
the experiment failed and the woman's
department was relinquished, simply be-
cause young women preferred to go to
Mount Holyoke and other Summaries
where the training was expressly intended
for them, adapted to their nature and
suited to meet their wants. In Oberlin,
where the experiment has been tried under
the most favorable circumstances, it has
proved failure SO far as the regular col
lege course is concerned. The number of
young women in that course, instead of
increasing with the prosperity OF the ill.,
stitution, has diminished, SO that it now
averages at most only two or three. The
rest pursue different curriculum, live in
separate dormitory and study by them
selves in course of their own, reciting
way of reciprocity and in true womanly
compassion allowing some of them to sit
at their table in the dining hall, but yet
constituting substantially female semi
nary, or, if you please, a woman's college
in the university So that if Oberlin had
been only college with its four collegiate
classes, without any preparatory depart
ment, female seminary or professional
schools, the experiment would have turned
out just as it did at Williston Seminary
and would have been a failure even there
1t could have been made successful at
Amherst, o. any other Nep England
college only by turning it into univer-
sity-in other words, only by enlarging
the accommodations, changing the entire
system, and thus nearly doubling the ex-
pense, and then it would not have been
the ideal woman's college. There would
have been no economy-which is the
great American argument for coeduca-
tion-therc would have been little or no
advantage for young women in such an
institution-the course established for
young men would have been complicated,
revolutionized, and exposed TO new
hazards, and after all there would still
have been more excellent way.
to deserve the name, must develop the
powers and faculties of women, especially
her higher faculties and those in which
she excels; if it is to answer the ends of
education, it must qualify her for the
sphere in which she is fitted to move. Let
US, then, take rapid survey, first, of the
peculiar nature of woman, and, secondly,
of her proper sphere, that we may thus in.
fer what should be the characteristic fca
lures of her education. The most obvious
peculiarly Of her nature, which none
will question, because it is patent to the
senses, is her comparatively Slender, deli
cate and feeble bodily constitution. There
are individual exceptions. But as gen.
eral rule, which is only proved and made
palpable by these exceptions, woman is no
more capable Of enduring the same severe
and protracted study with the other sex,
by day and by night through all the
months and years Of her early life, than
she is able to perform the same labors on
the farm or in the shop, in the mine or at
the anvil, or to brave the same dangers,
and bear the same hardships and expos.
ures on the tented field. This fact alone
goes far to settle the question of co-educa-
ton. Sooner or later, in the long run, CO.
education will, for this reason alone incv-
itably either break down the health and
constitution OF woman, or change the cur
rculum, and lower the standard Of college
education. a system ofhigher education for
young women should, first Of all, and
had almost said above all, guard her
health, invigorate her constitution, develop
her form, animate and irradiate her fea-
lures, give color TO her cheek. light to her
eye, music to her voice, elasticity to her
step, grace to her motions, the native hue
OF health, life and JOY TO her whole person.
To this end her education should be, not
exactly gymnastic, although a well-ap-
piled and wisely conducted gymnasium is
quite essential, but it should be largely
calisthenic in the widest and best sense Of
that expressive word, so that the result
shall be strength clothed with beauty, and
beauty informed and enforced by
strength. We cannot but add i'm this
connection that woman's person must
be protected, her character guard
ed, her virgin purity preserved, and her
womanly delicacy cultivated and cher
ished with the most sedulous care. Hence
there should be less of publicity, more Of
retirement and scclusion in her education
than in that of the other sex. She must
be educated largely at home. Her school
education should be as much as possible
under the immediate watch and care Of
her parents. And when she goes away TO
the seminary or the college, she should
find there the nearest possible approach
to the arrangements Of home and the
family circle.
Turning now from the physical to the
mental constitution, none will deny that
woman is more observing and less refec-
tive than man. She sees by intuition
what he proves by argument or estab-
fishes by demonstration. She has more
taste, more feeling, more fancy, perhaps
more Imagination, but less reason and
judgment. Hence she requires system
of education which will develop the
powers in which her superiority lies, and
at the same time supply marked ceficien-
cies, strengthen points of positive weak
ness, and, 50 far as there is manifest
want of balance, restore the true equi-
poise. For the latter purpose, perhaps,
there are no better studies than mathe-
matics, logic and philosophy-in word,
the sciences both Of matter and OF mind;
since it is the Office Of science to weigh
and measure, to prove and demonstrate,
to find and fix the equilibrium, whether