Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-03-19
GIRL .SCHURz'S LECTURE


Hdll OH lnuTSuhy evening lhbt uToW III III
telligent and apprecativo audience ofabout
six hundred people. His subject, "Educa-
tional Problems" gave him an opportunity
to present something altogether different
from the ordinary lyceum lecture. What
he said was interesting for everybody to
know, especially every parent. He spoke
for an hour and three quarteas, and he was
listened to with the closest attention
throughout. lie began by referring to the
general idea that people had, that a reme-
dy for many existing evils in society lay
in higher education. On this abstract
question all agreed, but when IL was asked
to what particular point education should
be directed, and by what particular meth
cd carried out, then 1t turned out that most
people had no opinion at all. That rea-
soning by which men concluded that, be-
cause their fathers had no education be-
yond the elementary branches and sue
ceeded, they too could with the same edu-
cation succeed as well, was false. 1t was
unquestionably necessary for men now-a-
days to know more than those OF former
generations, and vet the school days were
no longer. THIS being so, it was, there
fore, question OF great Importance how
best to employ these school days. 1t was II
great mistake in our educational system
that teachers endeavOred to cram the put
pills brains with vast amount of specific
knowledge, for, on the contrary, the main
purpose should he to kindle an anxiety
and desire to learn and to train the young
minds in those methods that would assert
themselves in future elf-education. The
little that they learned in schoOl-time
should he so learned as to make tho learn
ing of much in aiter-life easy. The first
objective point in real intellectual educa-
ton should be to teach children, beginning
in their infancy, how to see correctly, how
to understand and how TO reproduce their
thoughts in language. a child's attention
should be directed to a certain object, and
questions asked concerning 1t. When the
answers were inaccurate, corrections should
be made, and the questions repeated till ac-
curate answers were given in regard to the
objects dimensions, or situation, or quail
ty, or composition. 1t was impossible TO
lay too much stress on the Importance Of
teaching the child to express its thoughts
accurately in language, and he here spoke
in praise of the kindergarten system of in
struction, laying as il did the foundation
of all subsequent education. Following
the child into the schools he condo mned
the method of mere textbook teaching,
saying that not only should pupils not be
required to commit to memory certain an
swers 10 certain questions, but he should
be regarded as the best scholar who could
give the correctest, clearest and most orig
language. The object of all early intellect
ual education should be to make the mind
active and receptive; to fit men and wo-
men for self-education, which was most
important for the practical duties of life.
1t might be asked If it would not require
teachers of uncommon intelligence to In
struct according TO the principles he had
laid down. lie answered, No! II was on
ly necessary that educators should be in
terested. The real difficulty now was that
so many parents deemed their duty to their
children fulfilled when they clothed them,
kept them well fed and tolerably well be-
haved, leaving the rest with school teach
ers; while in great many cases the teach
er regarded teaching only as SHIFT till
something better or more profitable could
be secured. There was also, 1t was true,
class OF conscientious teachers, who fully
realized tho responsibilities OF their posi-
tons. The first class should he gotten rid
of and the latter encouraged. lie found
the only means for this in making the pro-
fession of the teacher more remunerative,
for it was shameful truth that although
the labor of teaching was the hardest, II
was the poorest paid.
He next considered the subject OF female
education. There were two extremes in
public opinion on this matter, he said: one
that girls should be so edut ated as to be
able TO 90 through life Independently, and
earn livelihood in any of the professions
which man had heretofore monopoliZed !;
the other that a woman, to remain good
woman, must not know too much. With
the latter he wholly disagreed, and with
the former so far as it would stimulate the
desire to be Independent or alone. lie dld
not hesitate to declare that in. his opinion
| it was not well for woman to remain alone.
| Woman was destined 10 be wife and moth
| err as man was to be husband and father,
| and education should be directed 10 max o
| men good husbands and fathers, and wo-
| men good wives and mothers; and this
| end was vastly more important in the case
| of women than of men, because they were
| to exercise such a range of influence upon
| society. lie would therefore condemn any
| system of education and any social order
| that was calculated to induce young wo-
| men to remain single. Girls should be
| taught to desire home aud then how to or
| ganize one. In this connection he spoke
strongly against the practice, so common
among young married people, of living in
| hotels aud boarding houses, cOndemniug 1t
chiefly because of its effect in robbing the
| family circle of its privacy and sanctlty.
| Ho did not think ii was an eIaggeration TO
say that very large proportion OF all fam
| lily troubles was u be traced 10 boarding
| house and hotel life. Why then was this
resorted TO so frequently, he asked, and an
| swered that too often 1t was because the
| wife did not know how to manage home,
and therefore avoided it. To make home
required no large income, but 1t did re.
| quire that economy and knowledge which
| turned small things to advantage and all
| things to their proper uses that taste for
| the absence of which wealth could not COM
| pensate; and that temper and toning OF
| mind and heart which impaired an air of
| cheeriulness and elevated the moral tone
| of everything around them, and did more
| to make children good and keep men good,
| and to hu'd society together and to mako a
| manila Z natriDiip and nFOsnnFOuS-
| than any other human agency. Education
| should therefore be directed to inculea'e
| sound opinions of practical economy and
usefulness. He nextspoke of the extrava-
| giant habits of living, and especially OF
| dress into which young ladies had fallen,
| and which prevented young men from
marrying, saying that when in nation the
number of marriages grew less and the
| number of children declined in proportion
| to the marriages, the nation showed signs
| of impending decay and he again pressed
| the importance of educating the girls to a
| knowledge of their duties 10 society as
| wives and mothers.
| In closing, he said that the education
| should teach some light form Of enjoyment.
| There was in the soul an ineXhaustible
longing for relief from its severe occupA-
| tions, and in this he found a great cause OF
intemperance. People drank as a means
| of relaxation, which they could find in
nothing else. lie spoke of the attempt to
enforce prohibitory law, aud of the efforts
of the crusaders in the West, and said that
they would have been more successful II
some form of popular amusement had
been introduced TO supply the loss of that
relaxation which was taken away. In such
ways as come within the reach of people
generally he recommended the study OF
art, of music, of horticulture, or expert
mental chemistry, and he spoke especially
of the benefit to BIO derived from the col
lection and classification of birds, or in
sects, or shells. He held that no city
should be without public parks in which