The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-08-17
9th Number of
the Ten School
Sections of 1913
BY DIR. DOUGLAS FREEMAN.

The mes-Dispatch will be found a
large number OF announcements from
the leading girls schools and colleges
OF the State. Some are the announce
ments OF the kindergartens, some Of the
finishing" schools, some Of the colleges,
and the whole constitute a splendid
array of institutions for the mental
training and equipment Of girls.
These announcements would seem
convincing proof that Virginia has
asked and answered in the affirmative
the question Of the girls right to know.
They would seem to indicate the settled
judgment Of the Old Dominion that her
daughters are entitled to the best that
can be given them in education. Yet
there are those among our readers who
will remember the day when the girls
right to know was vigorously disputed.
There may even be some who will read
in the conviction that the girl needs but
little education, and that we of Virginia
are but making trouble for ourselves
when we open colleges and technical
schools for our young women. 1t is
well enough for girls to know, argue
these readers, provided they do not
know too much
To understand what these great
schools and colleges mean in the life of
the South one must do more than trace
the historical development of the
modern movement for the education of
women. One must go deeper and find
in the changed attitude of the world
toward womanhoOd the fundamental
reason why, in recent years, so much
devoted to the education of girls.
Why Should the Girl Know?
Let us, then, fancy, if we may, the
state of the public mind toward the
mental training of girls century ago.
Let us put upon the stand Virginian
Of the eighteenth century and ask him
why it is that the girl should not be
given the advantages of knowledge
At the very outset our witness will
probably demand that the question be
reversed, and that we ask him why the
girl should know, rather than why
should she not know? A hundred
years of progress lies between the
simple statement of the question in its
two forms.
The Witness Examined.
Why should the girl know? One
fancies the eighteenth-centu1y witness
tuning at the suggestion. What good
did learning do girl and what place
had it in her career? Her duty was
that of a housewife and her whole
mission in life was to rear children, to
cook and to serve. Would learning
make her better mother better
cook, better seamstress?
Why should the girl know? The
eighteenth-century critic would grow
sarcastic: Give a girl knowledge?
Why, it would mean that she would
assume the prerogatives of the male
sex. knowledge was for men; they
were ordained to write books and to
think deep thoughts. What right had
an intruder in their preserves?
Why should the girl know? Our
old-time adviser would wax pathetic.
The girls ignorance was her charm,
and once she was deprived of that, she
would lose her chief title to the regard
of men. Fill her head with facts about
the thousand ugly things Of life-it was
preposterous! Destroy her ignorance
: and you destroy her innocence.
Why should the girl know? The
gentleman in the perriWig would doubt
less quote scripture after his wont in
: controversy Ignorance was imposed
on women by the law Divine, for did
not the Apostle admonish the woman,
if she wished to know anything, to ask
4 her husband? Could she dare disobey
s this mandate and ask the pedagog?
Why should the girl know? The
witness would be indignant: What use
had girl for knowledge when she was
cared for by her parents and by her
husband? Why give her that which