"All those subjects that help to make a woman a better
citizen must be taken more seriously," she says. "It can no
longer be the proper aim of history teaching to foster and
strengthen in women a sentimental attachment to her country
and its national character: its aim must be to give her the
insight that will enable her to understand the forces at
work, and ultimately play an active part in them. Many
branches of our social life await the work of women, civic
philanthropy to begin with; and as our public life becomes
more and more constitutional, it demands from the individual
both a ripe insight into the good of the community and a
living sense of duty in regard to its destiny; and, on the
other hand, the foundations of this insight and sense of duty
must be in our times more and more laid by the mother, since
the father is often entirely prevented by his work from
sharing in the education of his children. Therefore, both on
her own account and in consideration of the task before her,
a woman just as much as a man should understand and take a
practical interest in public life, and it is the business of
the school to see that she does so. Over and over again those
who are trying to reform girls' schools insist that history
teaching should lead the student to understand the present
time; that it should recognise those economic conditions on
which the history of the world, especially in our day,
depends in so great a measure; that it should pay attention
not only to dates and events, but also to the living process
of civilisation, since it is only from the latter inquiry
that we can arrive at the principles of individual effort in
forwarding social life."
Nowadays in Germany Helene Lange is considered one of the
"Moderates," but it will be seen from the above quotation that she has
travelled far from the old ideals which invested women with many
beautiful qualities, but not with the sense and knowledge required of
useful public citizens. She proceeds in the same article to say that
scientific and mathematical teaching should reach a higher standard in
girls' schools; and thirdly, that certain branches of psychology,
physiology, and hygiene should receive greater attention, because a
woman is a better wife and mother when she fulfils her duties with
understanding instead of by mere instinct. Nor will education on this
higher plane deprive women of any valuable feminine virtues if it is
carried out in the right way. But to this end women must direct it,
and in great measure take it into their own hands. She would not shut
men out of girls' schools, but she would place women in supreme
authority there, and give them the lion's share of the work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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