Motherhood and the Relationships of the SexesHartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
Philosophy
Motherhood and the Relationships of the Sexes
Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
Mothers; Sex; Women -- Social and moral questions
It was at this time of my life, now long years ago, when these
considerations were forced upon my attention by my failures with my
elder pupils, that I was first led to desire special classes for girls
to enter at the age of puberty, where the life, the work, and the aims
were separate and quite different from the ordinary school. It is so much
easier to do the wise thing, if what you are doing is a matter of course,
and not something you start for yourself.
I am convinced of the value that would be gained for life from the plan
I am advocating. I would begin with these special classes, but I want
more than that to be done. A much better course would be that separate
adolescent schools should be provided, preferably in the country, where
all work as well as play could be done out of doors. All girls would
enter before the commencement of puberty, and would stay in one of these
special adolescent schools for two or three years or longer. The work
would be organised entirely to meet the needs of the individual girl;
there must be no set courses of study, no hide-bound rules, and above
all no examinations to be crammed for. In my opinion, which was formed
from my own experience in my school, girls should do hardly any steady
work for one year before and two years after puberty; they cannot, I am
certain, work continuously without peril. Mental overwork or any kind
of strain destroys the nervous resistance and tends to that irritable
weakness which makes the rankest ground for all sexual ill health, and
may work to establish evil habits in ways not yet openly recognised. The
kind of work done should be chosen by the girl herself; there should be
far more opportunity for rest and for play, and, while guarding against
opportunities for harmful idleness, any kind of mental or bodily strain
must be avoided. Hard study, if this is necessary, will come later at the
close of this special school period. But I plead for all girls during the
difficult time of their metamorphosis from the girl to the woman to leave
them much more largely than we do at present to nature and to themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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