The Education of American GirlsBrackett, Anna C. (Anna Callender)
General
The Education of American Girls
Brackett, Anna C. (Anna Callender)
Women -- Education -- United States
There has recently appeared a collection of essays on the subject of
girls' education, which, for the reason that it has excited so much
attention, cannot here be passed by without special notice. It is seldom
that any book arouses so much criticism, and, withal, so much earnest
opposition as this has provoked, and seldom do the newspapers so
generously open their columns to discussions so extended on the merits
and demerits of any publication. The author is a physician of high
repute in the city of Boston, Dr. E. H. Clarke. With regard to the
criticisms on it, the general observation may be made, that where the
writer is a man, praise is more generally bestowed than in those cases
where a woman is the author, though there are very marked exceptions,
the bitterest criticism of a large number in my possession being written
by a man. Women, from their stand-point of women, very generally unite
in disagreeing with its premises, and from their stand-point as
reasoning beings, they are unable to accept its conclusions, the
premises being granted. And these adverse criticisms, these indignant
protests, are not solely from teachers, but also from mothers, from
those who have never taught, and the most candid and dispassionate one
of all, from a woman in no wise connected with schools, either public or
private.
But even supposing that they were all from teachers, does that fact,
except under a very narrow view of human nature, render them any the
less valuable? Does one profession blind the eyes more than the other?
Even in the narrowest view possible to the teacher, is it not for her
interest that her pupils should be healthy? How can mental work be
satisfactorily done without physical vigor? If it be objected here that
some teachers are interested only in present results, unmindful of
future consequences, I enter a counter statement that the same is true
of some physicians, and bar the line of argument which would compare the
poorest teachers with the best physicians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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