The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-06-09

required to take their infants to some
central house on the plantation to be left
during tho day in the care of chosen
old mamma, whose duty it was to feed,
amuse and protect the urchins until their
/ mothers returned from the field.
Voluntarily to submit to such system
is unnatural. But where poverty de-
mands it, maternal affection must yield.
Such system can never prevail in agri-
| cultural sections or in sparsely settled
communities, but doubtless is admirably
adapted to manufacturing centres. The
Graded Schools, so far as I have been
| able to investigate them, are no improve
nent upon that school where you and I,
Mr.. President, received our academic ed
ucation. And a majority of the Agricul-
the students everything but agriculture.
Hence, I repeat, the present systems OF
education have changed but little from
what they were years ago. Atthe tender
age of six, or perhaps seven, (three years
| too soon in my .opinion) the child has
been taught the alphabet at home, and is
then sent to school first, perhaps, to learn
to spell monosyllables, then to connect
two or more Of these together and spell
| words, then to read, aud on to memo
| rizing and repeating the multiplication
table, to making fine and coarse strokes
with pen, and ultimately to acquiring
smattering Of history, to writing fair
hand, to understanding vulgar fractions,
or perhaps to calculating the interest on
note, and showing that the book says,
what he does not comprehend, that verbs
are of three kinds, active, passive and
neuter.
And with these requirements ends the
They are then said to have received an
elementary education, or that education
which SO many men, who by close appli-
cation to study, by indomitable energy
and perseverance, have attained to- dis
tinction in after life, ara fond OF boasting
is the only education they received in
youth. Then again other children are
more fortunate, and have q longer lease
of scholastic life. They are advanced to
higher course of study, and acquire
knowledge Of the ancient languages by
compulsory rendering of Virgil and
Horace, of Homer and Xenophon. And
as they progress they delve into philoso-
ply, absorb tones Of history, master the
science of trigonometry, and anon be-
come polished in the art of rhetoric and
belles-lettres. This accomplished they
receive diploma of graduation from a
have eceived q liberal education. Step
ping then upon tho threshold of man
hood, one of the so-called leapned pro-
fessions is perhaps selected as their voca-
ton in after life, and, if 30, still further
course Of study is necessary to equip
them with q professional education.
Thus from twelve to fifteen years of life
are consumed in preparing youths to
grapple with the uncertainties of the
world, which Vast proportion of them
fail to do successfully, often times because
their energies have been bent upon the
full development of single phase Of ed
ucation. But, Mr.. President, what class
of our youth is it that has had bestowed
upon them this long and tedious course
tof scholastic mentaLtrainfng3 Is 1t tho
Boys or the girls ? = Theyoung men or
the maidens ? Let me answer this ques-
ton by asking another. Who in all this
Southland ever heard of woman grad
uating at one of our older and higher in
stitutions Of learning? What woman In
the South to-day holds diploma of grad
uation, having received what I have de-
scribed above as liberal education, and
still less professional education? Are
any of them ever advanced beyond the
purview of an elementary education?
Possibly we are the happier people for
thus limiting female education, for it
may prevent tho cropping out of TINT
class of strong-rninded women who, by
practically unsexing themselves become
bane to any society. In the land OF
morality and isms DR.. Mary Walker,
who wears breaches and standing col
lar, has graduated as physician, and to
DR.. Susan Edson's skill is attributed the
recovery Of the Presidents wife from her
recent severe attack of malarial fever.
Mrs. Belva Lockwood, who walks and
talks like man, is regularly licensed
lawyer, who practices before all the
courts Of Washington City. Miss Susan
B. Anthony can make stump speech
two hours long on wuman's rights. And
hosts of other masculine women
throughout the North are daily speaking
and praying for the universally of wo-
man suffrage, that they might become by
election ruling statesmen or stateswo-
men in our National Congress.
Are such anomalies the result of au
advanced "Female Education? Hea-
cation of women circumscribed within
it's narrowest limits, than see her, as
result of her more liberal education,
usurping the province of man. It by no
means follows, that because woman by
education becomes self-reliant, that there
fore she must become masculine. Wo-
man has her peculiar sphere, and for her
to venture to transcend it, is for her to
renounce her loveliness. The point de-
sirs to make, however, is that through
out the South the standard of female ed
ucation is not sufficiently high. Let US
review for q moment the scholastic
course of the two sexes. Boys and girls
usually commence school together They
read and write and recite grammar les
sons frequently in the same classes and
school rooms, and are advanced together
until they have acquired that elementary
there separation is made. The boys,
as we have seen, are frequently carried
on to and through a liberal and some
times professional education. The girls
are sent home, or probably to boarding
schools to prs pare themselves for the re-
quirements OF society.
Why should not females be taught
Latin and Greek in all Of our institu-
tons? One or the other of these Ian
guages is the root of more than half the
words of our vernacular tongue, and the
study of them is an exercise of every
faculty of the mind The memory is i'm
proved through the process of associating
different words with the same thought.
Taste is refined in constituting transla-
ton, and nicer judgment is required in
selecting English words 10 convey Latin
or Greek ideas, while no profound
thought is necessary to attain to the ac-
complishment of being linguist.
Nor can any reason be assigned why
the curriculum of our female seminaries
should not include the study of the
higher mathematics, geom etry, survey
ing, plane and spherical trigonometry,
and particularly political economy, that
great science of production, consumption
and exchange, which thrusts its teach
ings SO minutely into all the affairs Of
life
No man would be so rash as to say that
these studies are beyond the capacity of
women. True, woman was created
help-mect for man, and ST. Peter advises
husbands to treat their wives as ''the
weaker yessel.n But does this argue that