The Duty of American Women to Their CountryBeecher, Catharine Esther
History
The Duty of American Women to Their Country
Beecher, Catharine Esther
Education; Education -- United States; Women teachers -- United States
dollars_ to any one individual, and this loan was to be returned
whenever it was practicable. The society remitted the debt in cases where
it was not. Means were also provided for the appropriate protection and
location of these teachers. The number who in three years received aid
was _forty-three_, and the sum of $4340,00 was loaned for this purpose.
_Twenty-four_ of these, in the space of eight years from the first loans,
refunded from their own earnings all that was loaned. Eight refunded in
part. The remainder did not refund within the eight years, but all who
were not sick or dead were expecting and aiming so to do.
A clergyman, who for a number of years was a travelling agent for one
of our benevolent institutions, and who felt an interest in discovering
the results of the above effort, stated it as his conviction, that no
college in our country had, in the same period, done more for the cause
of education and religion in our land than this institution had done by
sending forth its female teachers. Many other similar facts could be
stated, showing that there is even a greater chance of permanent results
in employing _a given sum_ for the education of female teachers, than for
the education of young men for the ministry.
The lady who conducted this institution, and furnished these facts, also
stated, that at all times the number of those desirous of qualifying
themselves for teachers, and who would gladly have obtained loans for
this end, was far beyond the means the society could command, while
the demands sent on to this institution for teachers, from the South
and West, was altogether more than could be supplied; thus showing
that there were places demanding teachers, and teachers seeking for
places, and no adequate instrumentality in existence for meeting these
reciprocal demands. In the Eastern States, it is the testimony of school
committees, and others employed in selecting teachers, that _crowds_ of
female applicants are constantly turned aside, not because they are not
qualified, but because the number of applicants greatly exceeds that of
the vacancies.
Another lady, who had conducted a large female institution in
New-England, made an attempt to aid women of education and benevolence,
who were anxious to act as teachers, and wished for aid in finding a
proper location. The failure of health interrupted her efforts, yet, with
a very limited inquiry, _more than a hundred_ women of appropriate spirit
and qualifications were _immediately_ found, anxious to avail themselves
of such aid; while the rumour of such an effort, for two or three years,
brought letters to her from all parts of the country, asking assistance,
some of them in the most moving terms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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