Social problems; United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918
If such a method were adopted, the women of our country would soon
become practically fitted to compete with the men in many, if not all,
the channels of a business life. If it be true that the women have been
deprived of their rights, it is certainly not the fault of the men, but
a fault of education,--a radical error which should be remedied. If
parents will not apply the remedy in the early education of their
daughters, then there is no relief. Let a course of education make it as
fashionable for a woman to pursue some industrial art or trade as it is
to be a lily that neither "toils nor spins," and you would soon see
American women not only capable of taking care of themselves, but more
generally solicited than they now are to assume the endearing cares of
their appropriate sphere.
The true mission of woman is divine. To her belongs the post of
honor,--that of a wife and mother,--a position which she prefers to
occupy when yielding to the impulses of her nature. In educating her,
therefore, this great fact should be kept in view. There is no knowledge
she needs more than a correct knowledge of human character. This she can
only acquire by coming in contact with the world as it is, in childhood
as well as in womanhood; in the public school as well as in the social
circle. The old puritanic idea that the sexes must be schooled
separately in order to secure them from exposure to moral dangers, seems
to me not only erroneous, but absurd. The public school, when made up of
both sexes, is in fact an epitome of the world, where its good and its
evil are seen, and where the child should be taught to accept the good
and reject the evil under the guidance of correct moral principles. It
is in a pure home influence, however, that a primary education should
begin. Indeed, mothers must take the initiatory step in giving to
youthful impulse the right direction.
"Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined."
But in order to appreciate the full import of their duties and
responsibilities, mothers themselves must first be properly educated.
Where, then, is this all-important work to be commenced? Where can it
be commenced, except in our common schools? It is in the common schools
only that the masses can be educated. It is to the common schools only
that we can look for the proper education of the future fathers and
mothers of the land, and for the correction of popular errors. It is to
this class of schools, more than to any other, that we must look for our
future patriots and scholars, statesmen and philosophers, and last, not
least, for our future school-teachers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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