Girls should be taken out shopping that they may learn the names and
qualities of things, the quantities of material required for different
purposes, and the value of money. The knowledge of how much it costs to
clothe a child will teach them more practical arithmetic than any
amount of extraction of the square root, and give an interest to their
tables of weights and measures besides. Let Euclid be learnt by all
means, if desired; but if it is only done for the sake of training, and
not to aid some particular purpose, as good, if not as exact, training
may be found in some study leading to a pleasing result, such as music,
drawing, or knowledge of architecture, as from the pure mathematics.
Let the girls learn to fit their clothes exactly, estimate the needful
quantity of material, and calculate the cost of the quality. When the
mother is considering the size and price of a new carpet, if she
consult with her daughters about it, it will help their judgment at the
same time that it improves their arithmetic. Let girls learn to write
notes of invitation and letters of business, and write orders to
tradespeople; let them accompany their parents on house-hunting
expeditions--it is a school in itself--or when furniture is bought.
Elder girls may go with their mothers when they are treating for
schools for little brothers, and when servants are hired, or evening
parties catered for; when lodgings are taken for friends, and a
thousand and one other circumstances.
It is all experience, and of the kind those girls never gain who are
always at school-work; so that those who have not this knowledge begin
life many years behind the home-trained girls, and commit many follies
owing to their want of it. It need not be feared that this experience
will destroy a girl's charm of manner. Ignorance is not simplicity, nor
silliness a grace, neither are awkwardness and affectation as dignified
as self-possession.
I would on no account depreciate the efforts made for the higher
education of women. No one rejoices more than I do at seeing things
more thoroughly taught. Still, we cannot rest content with crumbs of
science; female education must be filled with the milk of human
kindness. It is not the nature of woman to stand Alp-like alone, with
one peak seeming to pierce the heavens; she should be like the
spreading tree which gives shelter and enjoyment to all within its
influence, its roots being firmly fixed in the good ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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