Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1882-01-19
Aunt Hannah on the Education of Girls

Aunt Hannah on the Education of Girls
Come girls, sit down here and Let me tell
yos what / think about it, You are annoyed
almost to death with lectures on this. on that
and on the other, J. know, and I'm not going
to lecture you at all. You are just as good,
Just as intelligent, just as industrious as you
can he; that yOn are not more so, is the fault
of the system under which you are educated,
and the men who are responsible for the sys-
tenn should be the last to complain If we are
dolts and dollies, and nothing more. rou
are sensible girls; you do not expect to spend
your life in crocheting, in thummng piano,
in dressing and gadding about; nor do you
exnect TO spcnd it in the midst of kettles,
pots and pans scrubbing and drudging.
You have completed your high-school
course. and hold diplomas. You have wor-
ricd through grammar, and analyze and parse
we'll you have Travelled the world over III
geography and can locate the principal noun
tainS, rivers, lakes, cities, etc: you are quite
proficient in algebra and geometry you
know >omeihng OF matter and force, and are
not entirely ignorant of chemistry, geology
and botany; You have a general notion OF
able to read Il little French, and SO on, and SO
on. | grant You have been faithful and at
tentive students your reports put that be-
yond question.
You have been encouraged, from time to
time. by glimpses of valuable practical truth,
and have been melted to diligence by the
reflection, when you were unable to discern
the utility OF them, that your studies were
discplinary--that your mental faculties were
being developed and that skill in their ex-
ercise was being acquired that would tit you
to grapple great thoughts by -and-by
You have all the while been looking ahead
for the field or your activity, and educating
yourselves, as you supposed, for place to be
occupied in the future. To that future you
are now come-upon that field you are now
about to enter Have you confidence in your
ability? Do You recognize this as the place
to which YOU looked forward? No. How
different is the reality. The people among
whom You find yourselves do not speak
French; they are not disputing about the
heights of the mountains nor the lengths OF
rivers: they are not exercised much about
the affairs of Greece and Rome 1000 years
ago. No, no; these things enter into their
/ thoughts only incidentally by way OF men,
orv. for most of them came here by the same
route YOU have. You find them all absorbed
! in the present time What shall we eat, and
what shall we drink, and where withal shall
we be clothed, are the leading questions
and You can take no part in their discussion
YOU have been educated to something
else!
! Now, girls, don't say I'm an ultra utilitar-
ian I've had some experience you know !;
I'VE been { !. and down in the world, and I
TEL, YOU there's something wreeng-our school
life and our after-life do not dovetail together
as they should. 1t isn't our fault, though.
! There are grace defects in our system Of educd-
ton If there were not, these frequent lee
lures, in which the folly of fashion, and the
duty of doing something useful, are pointed
! out. would be unnecessary. The fact is, girls,
we are educated right away from everything
useful and practical Our entire youth Is
spent in acquiring habits that unfit us for
the lives we are expected to live, and storing
ND knowledge that can never be made avail
able. Isn'tit true? admit that the studies
we pursue are good for mental dlsclpilhe'
So is exercise in the gymnasium good Tor the
physical discipline. But what would wethink
Of The mechanic who would set his appren-
tices to tumbling in a gymnasium and ex-
meet them to come out skiltul wotkn,en! Is
not the exercise they get at the bench OF
ut the anvil Just as good fer physical dlsclp-
line. and at the sante time OF value besides
in that it adds to'the profits OF the shop
Nav not a system of education be dlVlset
which shall afford the exercise essential u
the healthful development of the brain
:. which is the thought-organ, and at the same
time accumulate fund of facts which shal
be of some account afterwards? Is it neces
sary that our early years be devoted to th'
accumulation of lumber which shall eve
after be not only useless, but burden to us
better forgotten but impossible to forget: