The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 9, August, 1836Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 9, August, 1836
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Indeed, there is no method by which a lady can, with safety and credit
to herself, so surely and speedily acquire that very necessary
knowledge for a popular writer—the knowledge of the human heart—as by
becoming an instructress of the young. Let American ladies, who wish
for literary distinction, if such there are, enter the school-room as
their temple of fame—and then they will be useful if they are not
celebrated. I shall be told that they cannot do this—that men have
engrossed the employment of school-keeping, as well as that of every
other, by which _money_ can be acquired; and that female teachers are
excluded from all schools excepting those of the very youngest
scholars. This is too true. Ought it thus to be?—Is it for the public
benefit, to employ men to teach schools, when women could do that duty
better,—even were the same compensation to be allowed to the female as
to the male?
It has become a proverb, that none but a man of inferior abilities,
will keep a school from choice—that it is a drudgery, in which no man
of genius will engage, but from necessity,—or persevere in, but from
pecuniary motives. Allow this repugnance to the business of
instruction to proceed, as perhaps it does, from man's superior
talents,—say, that it is not in accordance with the strong powers and
stirring energies of his mind, to rest contented in the prison of a
school-room; yet to women, less gifted with confidence in their own
abilities, and having so few objects of pursuit, it would furnish an
employment congenial as well as honorable. There is no branch of
learning taught in our common schools which females would not be
capable of teaching. They should also be employed, as assistants, in
every school and seminary, where there are pupils of their own sex.
One very important object to be effected by this arrangement, would be
the saving of expense. Women can afford to teach for a less reward
than men, even should they prove, as they often doubtless would prove,
the more capable instructors. To make education universal, it must be
afforded _cheap_. It is a false principle, which estimates the
benefits of a privilege by the money it costs. If it were true, our
Republican government would be a miserable one, in comparison with
those of royal magnificence. It is, usually, the _abuses_ of our
privileges, which form the largest item in their expense. Our nation
has need of all the talents of its citizens, exerted in the most
beneficial manner, to keep pace with the spirit of the age. Why then,
refuse the assistance of female intellect, when it might be so
usefully and appropriately exerted?—There are now, as it is reported,
about ten thousand schoolmasters in the State of New York. One half of
that number might, undoubtedly, be employed more profitably to the
country, and pleasantly to themselves, in other business, and their
duties, as teachers, better as well as cheaper, performed by
intelligent women.
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