A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at SchoolBeecher, Catharine Esther
General
A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School
Beecher, Catharine Esther
Home economics
Another lady could be pointed out, who, possessing some property, went
into a new western village, built and furnished her schoolhouse, and
established herself there, to aid in raising a community from ignorance
and gross worldliness, to intelligence and virtue. And in repeated
instances, among the friends and pupils of the writer, young ladies have
left wealthy homes, and affectionate friends, to find nobler enjoyments,
in benevolent and active exertions to extend intelligence and virtue,
where such disinterested laborers were needed. In other cases, where it
was not practicable to leave home, well-educated young ladies have
interested themselves in common schools in the vicinity, aiding the
teachers, by their sympathy, counsel, and personal assistance.
Other ladies, of property and standing, having families to educate, and
being well qualified for such duties, have relinquished a large portion
of domestic labor and superintendence, which humbler minds could be
hired to perform, devoted themselves to the education of their children,
and received others, less fortunate, to share with their own these
superior advantages. But, so long as the feeling widely exists, that the
increase of God's bounties diminishes the obligations of self-denying
service for the good of mankind, so long will well-educated women, in
easy circumstances, shrink from such confinement and exertion.
It is believed, however, that there are many benevolent and intelligent
women, in this Country, who would gladly engage in such enterprises,
were there any appropriate way within their reach. And it is a question,
well deserving consideration, among those who guide the public mind in
benevolent enterprises, whether some organization is not demanded, which
shall bring the whole community to act systematically, in voluntary
associations, to extend a proper education to every child in this
Nation, and to bring into activity all the female enterprise and
benevolence now lying dormant, for want of proper facilities to exercise
them. There are hundreds of villages, which need teachers, and that
would support them, if they were on the spot, but which never will send
for them. And there are hundreds of females, now unemployed, who would
teach, if a proper place, and home, and support, and escort, were
provided for them. And there needs to be some enlarged and systematic
plan, conducted by wise and efficient men, to secure these objects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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