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
It may be urged, that the plan suggested by the writer, in the previous
pages, would make such a book as this needless; for young ladies would
learn all these things at home, before they go to school. But it must be
remembered, that the plan suggested cannot fully be carried into effect,
till such endowed institutions, as the one described, are universally
furnished. This probably will not be done, till at least one generation
of young women are educated. It is only on the supposition that a young
lady can, at fourteen or fifteen years of age, enter such an
institution, and continue there three years, that it would be easy to
induce her to remain, during all the previous period, at home, in the
practice of Domestic Economy, and the limited course of study pointed
out. In the present imperfect, desultory, varying, mode of female
education, where studies are begun, changed, partially learned, and
forgotten, it requires nearly all the years of a woman's youth, to
acquire the intellectual education now demanded. While this state of
things continues, the only remedy is, to introduce Domestic Economy as a
study at school.
It is hoped that these considerations will have weight, not only with
parents and teachers, but with young ladies themselves, and that all
will unite their influence to introduce this, as a popular and universal
branch of education, into every female school.
CHAPTER V.
ON THE CARE OF HEALTH.
There is no point, where a woman is more liable to suffer from a want of
knowledge and experience, than in reference to the health of a family
committed to her care. Many a young lady, who never had any charge of
the sick; who never took any care of an infant; who never obtained
information on these subjects from books, or from the experience of
others; in short, with little or no preparation; has found herself the
principal attendant in dangerous sickness, the chief nurse of a feeble
infant, and the responsible guardian of the health of a whole family.
The care, the fear, the perplexity, of a woman, suddenly called to
these unwonted duties, none can realize, till they themselves feel it,
or till they see some young and anxious novice first attempting to meet
such responsibilities. To a woman of age and experience, these duties
often involve a measure of trial and difficulty, at times deemed almost
insupportable; how hard, then, must they press on the heart of the young
and inexperienced!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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