St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-06-17
VALUE OF EDUCATION.
DIR. Christie,s Address Mt the Female
College at Albert Lea.

DIR. Christie,s Address ut the Female
College at Albert Lea.
Special to the Globe.
ALBERT LEA, June 16.-Rev. Robert Christie
of the House of Hope church, st. Paul, de-
hvered an address on ''The Responsibilities of
Education,'' before the Literary society of the
female college here to-day, a synopsis OF
which appears below:
You may not be aware of it, but doubt has
arisen in many thoughtful minds respecting the
practical value OF the accomplishments you are
striving to acquire in such institutions this.
Strange as it may seem, it has become with not
few. an open question whether these higher forms
OF education are an aid in the performance of the
duties inseparable from the lot of most of the
young ladies of our land. Let me try to put in
language the reasons they give in support of their
doubt. They see many parents, they say. anxious
to give their children advantages which they
themselves did not possess. These fathers and
mothers toll late and early and deny them
selves many comforts that their children
may enjoy the luxury Of a higher education. But
1t too often happens when these daughters return
with their honors and diplomas. the parents feel
that somehow they are changed, they have lost
their old simple nature and ways. And their
knowledge of science, literature, music and paint
ing is poor equivalent for such loss.
Instead of bringing to the household
sweet and helpful activity the whole family
life, its language, manners and tastes is
subjected to irritating criticism. The result is
chilling constraint interrupts the flow Of family
discord is even greater in the sphere of domestic
duties. In their years of absence, many of them
have come under the influence of those who look
down upon such of their help TO do the
work of the household. These ideas are adopted
and the duties their mothers are attending to are
called by the name of domestic drudgery.''
Many seem to have the same conception OF educa-
ton that the
LATELY LIBERATED SLAVES
had of freedom, which was not to work and wear
fine clothes. The result is continual fretting at
the limitations of their sphere. pass iudg-
ment upon the correctness of this Indictment I
only testify to the existence of these objections
to the higher grade of female education. Then
primary responsibility resting upon you is to vim
conduct of some of your sex may have brought
upon it. Happily the system adopted in this
school, modelled as it is on that of the sainted
Mary Lyon, tends to correct the evil complained
of. Here discipline of mind and activity of hand
are not divorced If you visit the clouds in the
class room you are brought back to solid ground
in the kitchen; if you lifted out of yourselves
while sweeping the keys of your piano you are re-
minded of your mundane relations while sweeping
the halls. The results of the Mount Holyoke
system supply ample evidence that it Injuries no
intellect TO know how to scrub floors, bake bread
wash dishes. And what is compatible here can
not oe antagonistic elsewhere. What you receive
here is preparatory and not ultimate; it is the
foundation, not the superstructure. When you
leave here take up some branch of study that will
tax your energies, sustain your enthusiasm, refine
your tastes and enlarge your mental horizon. We
meet a great many people who dip into SUBJ
jects. They dip into" books, dip into''
dip in their vocabulary has not the meaning
given to it by our Baptist friends. Avoid dip
ping and "sipping,' and become immersed in
some one great subject.