The Renaissance of Girls' Education in England: A Record of Fifty Years' ProgressZimmern, Alice
History
The Renaissance of Girls' Education in England: A Record of Fifty Years' Progress
Zimmern, Alice
Women -- Education -- Great Britain
The new day-schools met a real want, and success came to them at once.
It was natural they should attract the first relays of the ‘graduates’
that the women’s colleges were beginning to send out. Thus they were the
first to introduce improved teaching, and for a while they were supposed
to have a monopoly of it. In the prevailing dearth of good mistresses
they were able to get first choice; now, after the lapse of thirty
years, the supply exceeds the demand, and a good teacher is attainable
by any school of any grade that can satisfy the very moderate demands of
university women.
The high schools started with a very definite principle—the combination
of school teaching with home influence—doubtless the ideal for all
girls, supposing that each side duly fulfils its share of the
obligation. But now, in 1898, it is curious to note how far the high
school has travelled in twenty-five years. The original scheme of
morning-school, from nine to one, and afternoon preparation for a few
girls who had no quiet room at home, still prevails in theory, but
_quantum mutatus ab illo_ can best be realised by tracing a day’s
routine in school. First come the morning lessons, usually five in
number, with the short break for play or drill, then the school dinner,
to which over fifty girls sometimes sit down; again a short interval
before the afternoon classes, music lessons and preparation, which
usually go on till four, though girls who have no special duties at the
time may be found at play in the playground. Still later, if it be
summer, there may be an adjournment to the school field, often at a
considerable distance. Not till darkness sets in can it be said that the
day’s school life is over; and the elder girls still have some lessons
to prepare before bed-time. A healthful, well-filled happy day is behind
them, but where does the home influence come in? The girls might as well
be weekly boarders for all the share they have in the real life of home.
Saturday may see a cricket practice or a work party, or a school
committee, or a sketching expedition, or a match with some distant
school. Sunday alone belongs to the home. The numerous clubs, charities,
old girls’ meetings, etc. fill up all the time the girls can spare from
their lessons. Girls who do not live quite near frequently become
day-boarders, though the word is not used, and take dinner, and
sometimes even tea, at school. In some few cases the school even
undertakes to supply medical supervision and the general direction of
the pupil’s health, thus relieving parents of one more responsibility.
In fact the day-school is well on the road to become a boarding-school,
and the establishment of boarding-houses more or less loosely connected
with it is a further step in the same direction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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