The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-06-14
FEMALE EDUCATION.



Among the many reforms that are de.
manded throughout the country, there arr
none that require immediate attention Sc
imperately as that Of female education.
The entire system upon which our schools
both public and private, is founded, is false
The first and most important feature to be
taken under consideration is the physical
training Of those subjected to mental ap-
plication in school routine for, unless the
body be allowed to develop and expand in
the same ratio as the mind and receive the
same degree Of cultivation, the latter must
be necessarily dwarfed or limited in its ca
pacities.
We must, in order to have some founda-
ton for our argument, admit the proposition
that the mind is the subject of the body
hence, unless certain physiological laws are
observed, the mental attributes must dete-
riorate or languish.
Moreover what avails it that the mind
thrives while the temple wherein it is en-
shrined falls to ruin! Mind and body are
united by an indissoluble tie that nothing
can sunder without creating a wreck of one
or the other and in order to preserve per-
expanding mind, their cultivation should
be cO-equal in time and means.
Thus, ir order to begin this reform, abolish
the eight hour system for mental culture,
and devote at least four hours to physical
exercise, such as singing to expand the
chest, dancing, Jumping, calesthenics and
such gymnastic evOlutions as are suitable
for female indulgence. and then observe the
capacity of, and the impetus given
to the minds of the most unprOmising
children.
Parents as well as teachers are mistaken
in the requirements of education. When
child is placed at school she is expected to
learn from given number of books and to
apply herself a certain number of hours, or
there is a feeling of dissatisfaction that the
purpose for which money is dis
bursed has not been observed, since it is
sidered in this matter of instruction,
The physical and mental education of girls
should assimulate more closely to that of
boys during their childhood. as there is at
that period no difference in the ply steal ma
ture OF the two sexes, or in the quality of
their minds it is only as they appr ach the
age of puberty that radical changes take
place in both, and thus necessitates, or
should do SO, a modification in the system
Of education as regards the female simply,
10 it understood, upon the plea of difference
IN organization; for we will venture upon
he assertion that the female mind is equal
% the masculine.
The great mistake lies in the fact that
lmOng girls SO little time or attention is de-
7Oted to outdoor exercise. It is not con-
idered proper or ladylike to give them I'M
restrained liberty of action in the exercise
If their limbs. We contend that there is no
in the female indulgence of
,oyish sports from earliest childhood to the
lge OF fourteen, wheC wealth Of muscle
md physical development can be founded
IS basis for future health and beauty.
The reason, after this period, the regime
hould be changed, hinges upon physioiogi-
al facts that we deem it unnecessary to
discuss here. Let it suffice that the differ
mt sphere allotted to woman does not
Justify the attempt to cope in intellectual
with the opposite sex. A. her
phere is different, SO should be her am BIZ
ion, and it is only when the two sexes
ave returned to a second childhood that |
heir constitutions assimilate 80 as TO rem
Ter them beings of the same organizations |
Sat, during the interval between these two |
'eriods, the field of action is so entirely diff
erent that competition with the stronger
ex must result inevitably in defeat for the
weaker.
The intellect may be able to cope with the
tronger, but the physical functions of the
roman are unable to bear the drain that ex-
essive mental labor entails upon the sys.
en-. Her sphere is maternity, and the pro-
or exercise of her duties preclude the burn
lg Of the midnight oil for any other pur-
ose save that Of lighting her through the
ltricate m! steries Of babylon. When she
iolates the law of nature, her retributisn il
10 wreck we find among the would-be liter
~ mothers, or the spectacle of an unsexed
oman not that we deny her the right to
Q literary and highly cultivated, but we
Dject to ner aspiring to the erudition and
,ientifc attachments that lie wholly within
le prOvine of man, in order to fit him to be
le ruler of the universe. That is exclusive
the province of the lords of creation.
oman should possess sufficient attachments
Id accomplishments to render her a fitting
and helpmate, and to enable her
rear intelligently the offspring Whose well {
re it is her peculiar province Q overlook.
This subject is inexhaustible, we find, and
was our intention in the outset to ami
advert upon the system Of our city schools, {
ID not the Garrulous tendency Of the sex
mptsd us to stray from the main object
view, while want of time and space pre-
,nts our celebrating any farther on this
casion. At future day we will make
q suggestion relative to the proper distri-
,tiOn of study, recreation, and exercise in
e schools, both public and private.