The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1876-08-03
Communicated
IuNICdltu.I
Modern Boarding Schools.


The Female mind has hitherto been con-
sidered as sort of fancy bazaar, in which all
kinds of light articles are to be slowed away
without regard to order or utility. 1t we
could unlock the stores of female knowledge,
such, at least, as the modern boarding school
supplies-we should find an extraordinary
conglomeration of miscellaneous goods, bads,
and indifferents, which though somehow or
other reduced under one head, and that not
always a strong one, are brought into state
of disorder" which is, by US, at least, any
thing but admired" If we might be per-
mtted the privilege ofexamining phrenologi
cally the interior of young lady's head, we
should find not only what-but how COM
pletely-modern education has done for it.
We will take any average boarding school
Miss, and instead Of turning her organs into
finger organs, by merely passing our hands
over the exterior bumps, we will take the
liberty of breaking her head at once, and look
ing directly into it.
We find cOnStructtrenesS In state of en-
tanglement with the quantity of crotchet and
other fancy work in which it is completely
bound up for want of some more useful mat
ter for the employment of this valuable quail
ity; and on looking to the organ of Imitation,
we see it exercised on a parcel of the most
ridiculous airs and affectations, to say moth
ing of more dangerous qualities, set before it
for the purpose of calling into practice its
powers of copying. AS to number, its whole
capacity seems to be concentrated on number
one; and comparison is clogged up with en-
tire wardrobes, as if the only use of compari-
son to the female mind was to be its apprecia-
ton to the respective hats, dresses, and
articles of millinery worn by friends, enemies,
or acquaintance. CdusdIiy shows us an
instance of something like an appropriate ap-
plication of the organ; for it is intended to
be one of inquiry, and it is exercised certainly
in questionable manner, for it is constantly
directed by the modern system Of female
education, to the asking, how it is an ''estab-
lishment' is to be gained? or, why it is that
one person has succeeded in getting hus-
band before another? EUentudlity is devoted
4 to the cognizance of no more important
events than Births deaths, and marriages
while form, size, and color are exercised re-
spectively on the nOses muStaches, and eyes
of the other sex, the organ Of weight being
brought to bear on the estimating of bank
er's balances. Order, goes wholesale TO the
dress makers; Ideality knows nothing of any
ideal but beau; and time and tune are
cogged with all sorts of airs, calling into op-
peration deStructiceHesS, as far as the keys OF
an instrument are concerned, and Secretire-
ness as far as any meaning is conveyed by
the means of so much labor. Having brought
ourselves to the sad conclusion that the
examination ola fashonably- y-educated female
head reveales nothing but faculties mis-em-
I ployed, and valuable material wasted on what
is not material at all, we cannot but express
a wish that ladies preparatory school could
be established, in which the pupils might be
fitted for the useful, as well rs the ornamental
parts Of life, and where the fact of there
being kitchen as we'll as parlor to every
house would not be altogether lost sight Of
If the world could be got through in a
polka, TO the accompaniment of an COrnet-G
piston, the boarding schools of the present
day would be we'll enough but as there is a
sort of ry-day walk to be gone through,
we should greatly appreciate any system OF
] female education that should fit women to get
through the world with US, instead Of merely
getting through our money.
SUEw-FLY.