National Republican., 1886-08-12
Higher Education and American
Women.

Women.
The president Of the British Medical AS
sociation startled his London audience on
Tuesday evening by an unqualified attack
upon the higher education OF women,
Speaking Of the disastrous physical effects |
upon American women, he quotes as fol- |
lows from an American authority: "lf |
these causes should continue for the next |
half century to increase in the same ratio as
they have for the last fifty years, 1t requires |
no prophet to foretelI that women who are |
to be mothers in our republic must be |
drawn from transatlantic homes"
For as long time as we can remember |
this cry has broken out periodically, like |
the cholera scare, the vegetarian and anti |
tobacco movements, or the great social up |
hcaval against the dyspeptic influence OF |
pie.
It would be interesting to know what |
educational tests the family physicians,
who are so bitterly opposed to the higher |
culture, have been accustomed to apply to |
female patients who have broken down |
under hard study. What do physicians
mean by higher education? Does their
curriculum include quaternion relations in
mathematics; Aristotle, Bacon, and kant's
Kritik OF the Pure Reason in philosophy,
and the power to translate at sight chorus
from the "Clouds," and the "Antigone," or
TO change passage from Milton into pure
alChacs2 This programme is an epitome
of higher education, but, except George
Eliot, Mary Somervllle, and Miss Ada
Swanwick, not one woman in million even
attempts to scale such heights. The words
''hgher education," as applied to the
course Of study pursued by the most intel
lectual women in America or England, are
totally misapplied.
What the medical pundits mean by
higher education is the pursuit Of knowledge
any further than reading, writing, and arith-
metic, and implies little bad French and
worse music, harmless smattering Of bot
any geology, and physiology, with we'll
developed inaptitude for freGhand drawing.
This Is about the average course at public
schools private seminaries, and academies,
and surely no sane person will venture to
assert that between the ages OF and Is,
girls, with all modern educational advan-
tages, are likely to iniure themselves seri-
ously by the thin veneer Of study which we
have iudioNtoh ..--.
But, without making any microscopic eX-
animation Of the exact amount Of knowledge
which the average young woman can carry
without breaking down, we would adopt q
very simple method of testing the influence
of education generally. We should like, for
example, to have had the British Medical
Association invited by their American col
leagues to attend the distribution OF prizes
which took place at Albaugh's Theater q
few weeks since, when President Cleveland
gave away the rewards and certificates
There were about a hundred young ladies
upon the platform, representing the picked
scholars Of all the public schools Of the Dis
trict of Columbia. We would challenge
the faculty lin any reasonable amount OF the
millions Of shekels TO be invariably found
knocking about newspaper office to pro.
duce an equal number Of young women
from any class in any country displaying
better or more healthful physique than the
prize-winners upon that occasion. The
came remarks apply to the private schools
though, upon the whole, we are inclined to
think that the public schools made a better
appearance physically, as we are certain
they are always prepared to do in mental
requirements.
Another crucial test to which fairly edu-
Gated young women might be submitted for
the benefit Of GROWERS would be found In
visit to large number OF the schools In
which lady teachers are engaged. We
think we may say, without fear of contra.
dictlon, that the lady teachers Of the United
States are, as a body, the healthiest, as they
are In most other respects the most admira
BILE body OF women in the country. Yet
these are the very women whose education
has been carried beyond the usual range
and as near the higher culture as any large
class OF women aspire to in America.
Let our medical friends compare the
prize winners at high schools, the graduates
of normal schools, and the entire army Of
lady teachers throughout the land with the
same number of society women, shop girls
farmers wives land daughters who don't
care to study overmuch), and the inevitable
verdict is that the teachers have the best ol
the comparison. Knowledge, like all thai
is good, has the defects Of its virtues. Girl
who persIstently spend much time owe
their studies are apt to violate hygienlt
rules and to acquire nervous, irritable
habits, but we doubt II remaining in igno
rance would not have produced far NOR
injurious results. Teaching, also, in
crowded school room, amid the buzz o
many voices, tends to nervous irritation
and certain dogmatism which teacher
possess In common with ministers who's
profession enables them TO tdlk DOZEN a
people without fear OF contradiction. Bu
such defects are trines light as air com
pared with the advantages derived b,
women who have ever seriously prepared
for any school or college examination whicl
demands concentrated attention, training
Of the will, the judgment, and all the pow
eIs o. apprehension and observation.
The human intellect, like the human
stomach, requires good, wholesome food
administered in just proportions and a
proper times, subject to indisputable law
which the world is now only beginning Il
understand. There is plenty OF intellec
and plenty of mental pabulum, but the dc
feet in all educational systems has hithert
been in the methods OF bringing the pabu
lum to the intellect.
No doubt many fine boys and girls an,
men and women have gone 10 their grave
under the terrible incubus Of knowledg
which was stuffed instead Of being intell
gently impaired, But we are changing al
that. The old Romans had maxim
"Q,ds custodcs c,gtodietp (who shall lool
after the policemen y, and the problem 0
education all over the world at present Is
"Who shall teach the teachersn Whel
knowledge comes TO be regarded as plea
ant, wholesome food, and not us medicine