The Education of American GirlsBrackett, Anna C. (Anna Callender)
General
The Education of American Girls
Brackett, Anna C. (Anna Callender)
Women -- Education -- United States
When the third and last especial and exceptional work takes place, we
may expect the same results, and we find them. Up to seven years of age,
however, the little girl's life has been comparatively a healthful one,
at least as far as sleep is concerned. As far as clothing affects
freedom of motion, she has also, probably, not suffered, though when she
has walked in our chilly winter and damp spring air, she has had
interposed between her body and the climatic influences only a defence
of one thickness of cotton, while her brother has been carefully guarded
by thickly woven woolen garments. But from seven to fourteen, the
deteriorating causes in the average American family increase rapidly in
intensity, in fact, much faster than the increase of the growing
strength. The food remains nearly the same, though even this is not
always the case, for the times at which it is taken often become
somewhat more irregular, and its material more varied and innutritious;
her hours of sleep are considerably curtailed, from different causes;
her clothing, while not increasing in warmth and thickness, is drawn
closer, and, in addition to this, the brain is set definitely to work in
actual study. Is it not manifest, that while the demands upon the vital
force have been increased, the supply of material has been decreased? If
this have been the case, she arrives at the period when the third and
last demand is to be made on her growing power, with not force enough to
assume the additional work, and in consequence she shows signs of
disease. And then, forgetting all the previous want of education, we
either tacitly assume that God treats his children as Pharaoh treated
the Israelites in his unreasonable demands, or, holding to our faith in
him, we seize upon the first cause that presents itself to our startled
vision. Because the education of the body has had for a long time, in
our thought, an importance secondary to the education of the mind, we
very naturally seize upon the latter as the cause of the evil, and
remove the girl from school. One is here almost tempted to wish that the
mind might be proved only a "mode of matter," if, by that means, the
body might be raised up to the level of our mental horizon, and within
the circle of our rational sympathy, for if we knew that matter and mind
were the same, the matter of which our bodies are composed might then
secure a chance for respectful and rational attention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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