Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-09-09
The Education Of Women.

Among the sch OILS which will
presently begin their autumn work
there are many whose exclusive bus.
mess 1t is to educate the girls and
young women who are to be the
wives of our SONS ond the mothers oil
our grandchildren. The task Sc,
these special schools is in many re.
spects peculiar, and therefore, while
all that We have recently had TO say
concerning the objects and the meth
DDS OF education applies generally to
these as to other educational institu.
tons, there are some matters touch.
ing girls schools only which need to
be considered separately.
The most frequent complaints, and
the bitterest, made of modern educa.
tional methods and results are criti.
clsms of the prevailing system Of ed.
ucating women. Girls schools are
criticised upon the one hand for
teaching too little, and on the other
for teaching too much. One critic
would have them give to young
women an education identical with
that which the colleges give to young
men; another would have them con.
line their work within even narrower
limits than they do. Both classes of
critics are agreed in the conviction
that the work now done in these
schools is less thoroughly doue than
it should be, but beyond this there is
no agreement between them.
Ii seems to us to be clear that the
education OF girls should be planned
and conducted with references to the
life which girls are destined to lead,
precisely az the education of bows is
| Intended TO fit them for their proba.
bile situation in life; and Just so far
as the life Of woman differs from
the life of . man her educational
preparation tor life should differ from
bis. Our girls have need of some
kinds OF training and instruction
which would be supsrfuous in the
education of boys, while there are
some things indispensable to boys of
which girls have little If any need. -
The worst blunder can be made in
the education OF girls is a failure to
recognize this fact practically.
Let us see what it Is that the girls
in these schools will be called upon
to do in life and what training they
should receive as preparation for
doing it we'll. As rule they will
marry and become the mistresses of
households, the mothers of children.
They are to be what Addison called
"the cement of society,"" without
whose grace and good-nature and
purity society would crumble to
pieces. 1t is their business to make
life attractive and sweet; to create
homes, to maintain social relations to
refine and elevate life, to divert the
world from its drudgery and to teach
it the worth of other things than
business. 1t ia their task to orna-
ment the world, to cultivate it's taste
and to preserve its moral nature
alive by inspiring it with high and
worthy conceptions Of duty and pu
rity. Upon them chiefly will fall the
duty of entertaining the world, also,
and creating a wholesome atmosphere
OF social and domestic life in which
existence shall be at once agreeable
and profitable to mind and heart
Above all. upon them will fall the
duty of nurturing a new generation
of children and bringing them to a
healthful and vigorous maturity OF
mind and body and soul.
These are the tasks for which the
pupils of girls schools are to be edu.
Gated. and there are no more impor.
tant duties laid upon human shout.
ders. Upon their fit performance
depends at once the sweetness of life
and the future improvement or dete-
rioration of the human race in body,
mind and spirit. Is it not worth our
while to bestow the utmost care up
on the training of girls whose func.
tons OF life have this high character
Do not we owe it to the world to do
all that may be done to fit these girls
for the life they are to lead?
In one of his Spectator papers
Steele says that there are two dan
gers in the education of girl; there
is danger on the one hand that her
mind may be cultivated while the
education of her body, in grace Of
movement, beauty, healthful activity
and dexterity in what We call &C.
complishments is neglected; there il
danger on the other hand that alton.
ton shall be too exclusively given Ia
the education of the body in wom-
anly accomplishments, and that the
mind shall be left undisciplined and
ill furnished. These two errors, which
the keen-sighted essayer discovered
in the education OF women in Queen
Anne's time, are precisely those that
we need to guard against now. Those
persons who insist upon giving idsn-
teal training to boys and girls fall
into one of the mistakes pointed out
while those schools which oonfne
their teaching to the process some,
times called veneering are guilty o.
the other. But surely, says Steele
there is middle way, and 1t is tina
middle way which should be sough
now as then.
| Between the conflicting opinionl
ard wants of the two classes of pa
rents the position of the teachers O
girls schools must be sorely embar
RAISING, and even when it is neces
sary to censurs their methods or thei
schemes of education we must bea
this fact in mind. Yet an education
of girls who will keep always il
mind the nature of a woman's if
and functions, and who will sinoerel,
endeavor to 6t girls therefor, cal
scarcely go very far wrong. Educa
ton IS a preparation for life, and th,
scope and nature of education cal
be safely determined only by the ma
ture of the life that the pupil is t,
load. There Is so much less OF di
. versity IN the general character o
woman's lives than in those of men
so much less is needed Of specia
, preparation for q special order of du
ties, that the scheme of education il
girls schools must be determined