Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-12-02
Amateur

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III is no exaggeration to assert hat
there are at present thousands OF women
EfoIding the situations of goVernesses who
Etave hld no proper education, no neces-
.sayy training, and who are entirely desti-
.eIte of the moral force Indispensable to
success in their employment. 1t would
be strange if it were otherwise. Many
girEs know that on the death of their
parents they viii be obliged to do some
thing whereby they may eat a morsel of
2read, but theytry to forget the unwel-
come fact and trust to marriage or the
chapter Of accidents to relieve them from
sheir dreaded fate. At last, however, the
sad necessity comes when perhaps least
expected. Forced to decide at once, they
determine to become go%vernesses. Not
even the preliminary examination in read
ing, writing and arithmetic which they
would have to pass in order to become
haIi-p0rtcr at one of the Government of
ices is required. The ordinary amateur
g0vernc8s, who is driven by necessity to
teaching as a means whereby to provide
herself with board and lodging, enters her
situation as q convict Under sentence en-
agers his prison. She is obliged to spend
a certain number of hours daily in what
she is pleased to call the education Of her
pupils. 1t is with a sigh of relief that
she sees the lesson books put back in
their c~upboards and can take up her lace
work. She halls with scarcely-concealed
delight an unexpected holiday, a picnic,
1ven an attack of illness or a death in the
Aouse-anything which will relieve her
Tor even a little while from the monotony
Of the task, which becomes increasingly
arksome. She does not think highly Of
her office, so she cannot prevent her
pupils from despising it. At n time
she dOmineers unnecessarily to show her
power. At another she overlooks disObe-
dieuce to the laws she has made,s and
which, having been made, ought to be en-
forced. She is ignorant, therefore she
naturally resents questions being asked
which she fancies are intended to test her
requirements. She deals with her small
quantity of information as a treasure to be
GEtt}dIUCd LII SCdlIJ, uSbdCDCu pOIGlOIIS DIT
rare times, but too precious to be given in
barge doses. She has no store Of ~illustra-
dons or details to make history d living
study to her pupils, nOrany "reminiscences
of places, or recoIlections of travels she
has read, to render d lesson in geography
Interesting. When in a good humor she
ccnfides to her pupils the details of her
domestic troubles and the small trivialities
Of her early life, and reads them her love
letters, if she is so fortunate as to nave re-
ceived any. She is familiar with them in
a wrong way, and weakens her authority
and lowers herself in their eyes in order to
gain their friendship, forgetting that chill
dren are very sharp and keenly alive to
discover little flaws in them in return for
tle rebukes they receive for their own i'm
~perfeCtions. We want a new system OF
training for g~overnesses which shall in
sist on some knowledge of physiology.
Few are now properly instructed in the
laws of health, 50 that they are not pre-
pared to perceive quickly and make al
iowances for the temporary arrangements
70 which all children are subject. They
will call a pupil naughty who is only
nervous and another idle who has SIMPLY
got a fit of indigestion and is unable to
use her faculties properly.-SdturdGy Re
EGea0.