Frances Mary Buss and her work for educationRidley, Annie E.
History
Frances Mary Buss and her work for education
Ridley, Annie E.
Buss, Frances Mary, 1827-1894
Mrs. Grey took up the question of higher education for women in all its
bearings, and, recognizing the needs which had to be met, proposed the
formation of “an Educational League,” to embrace all who were actively
interested in the question, and having for its object—
“to carry what might be characterized as the Educational Charter
of Women—first, the equal right of women to the education
considered best for human beings; second, the equal right of
women to a share in the existing educational endowments of the
country, and to be considered, not less than boys, in the
creation of any new endowments; third, the registration of
teachers, with such other measures as may raise teaching as a
profession no less honourable and honoured for women than it is
for men.”
The discussion following this paper will always retain historic value,
because, as both sides had free scope, it represents the exact estimate
of women which prevailed at that period. For the women of the twentieth
century—in the serene enjoyment of the results of the work of the
nineteenth century—it will have an interest of which wonder will form no
small part. The women of 1871, as they listened, had long since ceased
to wonder, but they had other feelings which, happily for the readers of
1971, will also have acquired the historic value which attaches to all
relics of a far-away past.
It was when presiding at this meeting that Mr. Rogers made the speech,
of which every one heard so much during the next two years, a speech
that showed how he also had yet to learn from experience the difference
between efforts for boys’ and efforts for girls’ schools.
In proposing the vote of thanks for Mrs. Grey’s paper, Mr. Rogers
remarked that he could not agree with one statement—that there was no
demand on the part of parents for a higher education; on the contrary,
there was a widespread dissatisfaction with the present state of things.
Being anxious to establish a girls’ school in connection with the Boys’
Middle-class School in London, he sent round a paper to the parents of
the boys—numbering about eleven hundred—asking their opinion, and he
received answers, and promises that the girls should be sent, from about
five hundred. He also disputed the statement that “where pounds were
subscribed for the boys there was difficulty in getting shillings for
the girls,” as he believed that funds would be forthcoming so soon as
the real difficulty—of suitable sites and good teachers—had been met.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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