The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-06-15
The Education Of Women.

lGeo c. Egglesion in Harper'S Magazine for July.
Before we can decide what education our
daughters need we must know what their
Ives are likely be, ,nA 8 hat demands life
is likely 0 make upon them. luckily, we
know in the main, and the contingencies are
such that we may provide against them. So
large proportion of our girls become wives
and mothers that our only safety lies in Civ
ing all of them proper preparation for the
life of wives and mothers.
For such life they will need, first of all,
good physical healtn. So certain and so i'm
perative is this need, and so surely must
neglect Of 1t result in wretchedness, that in
attention to this matter may fairly be called
criminal. Yet in ho other particular, per-
haps, is the education of girls more gener-
ally neglected or more frequently misdirect-
ed. There is not only too little systematic
effort made TO educate girls bodies into sup
pie robustness, and TO give stamina and
buoyancy TO their constitutions but there H.
too commonly, positive education in i'll
health given TO them. Very much that Is
most carefully done for girls is directly pro-
ductive of III health, weakness, and want of
stamina. The care given to the complexion,
for example, by which too many mothers
mean only the wilderness of the skin, COM
monty consists of restraints which break
down the nervous system, impair vitality
and invite invalidism. This is not a lecture
on hygiene, and it is no part of our purpose
to suggest the proper hygienic governance of
girls lives. We seek only to emphasize the
Importance of proper physical training as a
necessary part of the education of girls.
As wives and mothers our girls are to be,
in Addison's phrase, ''the cement of soci
ety." Without their purity and grace, and
intelligence and good temper, society would
keep the world sweet and wholesome; to
create, regulate. and maintain social inter-
course of a graceful, profitable kind to
make life worth living. It will be theirs to
make homes with the material means which
men furnish; to turn mere dwelling houses
| into centres of attractive domestic life.
| Upon them chiefly will fall the duty of or
namenting life, cultivating the worlds taste,
keeping its moral nature alive, and inspir-
ing the men of their generation with high
aud worthy conceptions of purity aud duty.
1t viii be theirs to entertain the world, too,
and to amuse it in profitable ways; to minis
ter in al womanliness to its moral, physical.
aud intellectual health and comfort. Wom-
en- only can create that sweet and whole
some atmosphere in which domestic life
springs into existence and grows. Above
all and beyond all in Importance, these girls
whom we are educating must bear and rear
the next generation of men aud women, and
upon their fitness to discharge this task we'll
| the character of the future men and women
| of America depends.
l. Iol ahs =,
wholly upon the family, and the wife and
mother determines the character and life of
the family. Is it not worth our while, there
fore-nay, is 1t not our highest aud most
Imperative duty-to take care that our girls,
upon whose shoulders such tasks as these
are presently to fall, shall be fitted by every
means in our power for the due and happr
| discharge of functions so important? Is it
not criminal folly for us to treat their edu-
| cation as nothing more than a preparation
| for the frivolous life of the ballroom? And
| is 1t any whit wiser for us to push them into
| wearing competition with men ia univer-
| sity work, to the neglect of aught that be-
| LONGS by right of life's need to their own
| proper education?
| As preparation for such duties as we
| have outlined above, girls need both moral
| and intellectual culture of kind which
neither any fashionable girls school nor any
university in the land provides or can pro-
| vide. They need, above all, the training of
home life and home influences far
more than scholastic discipline, far more
than what we call accomplishments.
We do not complain that either the fash
| ionable schools or the universities teach girls
| mole than is good for them in either of these
directions, but that they neglect to teach
| much that is of greater necessity as prepa-
ration for life than anything that they do
| teach.
The woman who is to be happy and useful
| as the maker and mistress of home must
know the ART of home making and home rul-
ing. Yet how very small place is given to
| the teaching of these arts in our schemes OF
education for girlsl We should call that
man fool who hoped to see his son success
| full as merchant or banker but neglected to
| have him instructed in the principles OF
| arithmetic and bookkeeping. But thousands
| of girls are married every year who do not
| know how to make loaf of bread, or to set
a table, or to iron a napkin, or to make a
bed becomingly? Is it expected that ser.
wants shall do these things? So the young
| man who is TO be made into a merchant OF
banker will have his book-keepers to write
| out his accounts and make his arithmetcal
| calculations for him, but he must under
| stand these processes for himself, or he will
1 be at the mercy of his servants. Moreover,
in the woman's case, there may not always
| be servants or the means with which to COM
mand their services, and their incompetence
at best needs the supervision of mistress
| skilled in all their arts. This seems home
| ly matter, no doubt, TO those persons who
see the complete salvation of women in uni.
| Versity education, but it is a matter which
| touches the happiness of women themselves
| and closely concerns the well-being Of q
| world whose whole life centres in and is
founded upon the ZONE. 1t is not too mrch
to say that no girl ought ever to come to ma
turity without having acquired both skill
and tas-e in every art of the household, OF
\ that no woman deficient in this particular
can marry without serious risk to her own
happiness and to that of the persons about
her. 1t does nobody any harm for the mis-
tress of household to know how to calcu-
late an eclipse, but 1t is disastrous for her to
be herself eclipsed by her Bridget.