The Education of American GirlsBrackett, Anna C. (Anna Callender)
General
The Education of American Girls
Brackett, Anna C. (Anna Callender)
Women -- Education -- United States
Thus far the women-graduates from this department have generally taken
positions in their profession which they are filling with usefulness, if
not with honor; and in which, as far as powers of endurance are
concerned, they are showing themselves able to compete with male
physicians. There seems to be an impression prevalent among them--and
perhaps it is not peculiar to their sex alone--that the physician should
be the physiological educator as well as the healer of the race, that
his or her duty is to teach people how to use the "ounce of prevention"
as well as the "pound of cure," and that, through the mutual labors of
the two sexes, more than in any other way, is to be brought about the
long-desired, and much-needed, health reform.
Although it may yet be too early to form an estimate of the effect of
this system of "identical co-education" upon the health of the women who
have graduated from this University, we believe that there has been only
one case of protracted illness, and there is no reason for asserting
that this was caused by intellectual labor--at least, in this
institution, since the lady was here only six months--having taken her
previous course elsewhere--and is a graduate from the Law Department.
Of those who have graduated from the Literary Department, we have
positive information that as yet they have suffered no "penalties" from
their "severe and long-continued mental labor," and they were, on
graduating, as well as on entering. One woman who matriculated with the
present senior class, took the whole course in three years, went forth
in better health than when she entered, and is at present the principal
of the High School at Mankato, Minn., while another is still prosecuting
her studies, and contemplates taking a course of law.
In regard to those at present in the Literary Department, it is
impossible to get at any statistics as to excused absences, which will
show the average attendance of one sex as compared with that of the
other, and from which inferences can be deduced in regard to the health
of the women-students; for the university authorities--not having
dreamed that there was a "new natural law" to be revealed, which should
assert that the course of "identical co-education" is conducive to
health and usefulness for the one sex, and to premature decay and the
hospital or cemetery for the other--have not preserved the records of
excused absences. The professors assert that non-attendance upon
recitations, on account of ill-health, has been no greater on the part
of the young women than of the young men, and that in many cases, the
attendance of the former has been better than that of the latter; yet
there is nothing, perhaps, except personal acquaintance and observation,
which can reveal the true condition of the present health of the women
of the Literary Department of Michigan University, and the manner in
which it has been affected by the intellectual labors they have
undergone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account