Many good men, who really feel solicitous for the improvement and
elevation of the female sex, doubt the expediency of bestowing on
young ladies a regular scientific education. They doubt this, because
there is no profession in which the talents of women may be employed
without injury to the female character—to that retiring modesty which
should ever
“Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”
No person of reflection and good judgment, who wishes to promote the
happiness and respectability of woman, would seek to place her in the
lecture room of the physician—in the forum—the desk—or the halls of
legislation. The attempt to inspire our sex with the ambition to
appear like men, is too absurd to merit discussion. Would any lady
consider herself competent to direct the management of a ship in a
storm, or a fire-engine at a conflagration? The storms of the
political ocean, and the fires of party spirit, would as little accord
with her moral delicacy of mind and feeling. Still she was not formed
to be a trifler on earth. She has mental powers which, if not equal
with those of man, are yet far too precious to be wasted in indolence,
or allowed to rest in ignorance of their duties. Women have a vast
influence on society, which nothing can prevent; this influence will
be beneficial or deleterious in proportion to the reasonable and
enlightened manner in which it is exerted. To secure it on the side of
virtue and intelligence, should be the aim of every person who wishes
to promote individual and social improvement and happiness, and our
national prosperity and glory. There is no country where the right
direction of female influence is so necessary as in America, because
here the popular breath guides and impels as it were, the bark of
state. Our people must, therefore, be educated—not made learned in
ancient lore merely, or even instructed deeply in modern sciences, but
trained to the love of excellence, and habituated to the control of
the passions. The heart and the understanding must alike be
cultivated, and this can never be effected without the co-operation of
women.
It is in the department of _teaching_, that women exert their greatest
power. Important as is their influence in the nursery, the task of
education is but commenced there. Females might be extensively
employed in school keeping. Why should not a department so peculiarly
fitted to their talents, feelings and station, be more generally
appropriated to them? In New England, it is true, this has partially
been done; and to that, more than to any other single cause, may be
traced the general diffusion of learning among all classes of our
people. Had only men been permitted to teach a common or district
school, the expense would have prevented schools from being continued
in our thinly settled towns, except for a small part of each year.
Then, it is a truth, which few will feel disposed to question, that
the young imbibe instruction more readily from female teachers than
from those of the other sex. Another, and very important
consideration, is the effect which the employment has had on those
females engaged in it. Their own minds have been disciplined and
strengthened, and when married, they have carried into their own
families those habits of attention to intellectual improvement, which
have qualified them to judge of the talents and to direct the studies
of their own children. Thus, their influence on society has been
continually active in promoting the _fashion_ of learning,—that
peculiar mode of thinking, which, even among our poorest class,
attaches infamy to ignorance, and incites the dullest laborer to
consider himself disgraced if his children cannot at least read and
write.
Here, then, is the _profession_ to which I would direct the talents
and energies of my own countrywomen. The field is wide enough for the
display of all their genius, and there are laurels sufficient to
satisfy the most ambitious. Many distinguished female writers have
likewise been distinguished as teachers of children and youth. Mrs.
Hannah More was greatly indebted to her situation as an instructress
for the cultivation and {572} development of her extraordinary
talents. Mrs. Barbauld owed much of her literary excellence to the
necessity she felt of assisting her husband in the education of his
pupils. Miss Edgeworth, though not ostensibly a teacher, was
nevertheless stimulated in her literary career—first entered upon to
promote education—by the practical illustrations of its benefits,
which she daily witnessed while assisting her father in the
instruction of his numerous family. Among the French ladies, Madame de
Genlis, and Madame Campan, were distinguished for their skill in
teaching youth; and the genius and writings, of the first especially,
are well known. The present king of the French was her pupil, and to
her wise and efficient management, owes much of that practical
knowledge and energy of character which has distinguished his career.
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. There are many such to whom even a moderate
compensation would be wealth, and would stimulate to unwearied
exertion.
But above all, women should be at the head of establishments for the
education of their own sex. If it be found necessary, let gentlemen be
employed as teachers and lecturers occasionally,—but a lady should
always preside as directress. This is invariably practised in every
country, save America; and such a preposterous fashion, as that of
committing the scientific education of young girls, mostly to men,
cannot much longer continue here. Women will feel what is due to their
own character and dignity, sufficiently to rouse themselves to the
education, at least, of their own sex. The example of Mrs. Willard,
Principal of the Troy Female Seminary, and that of Miss Catharine
Beecher, not to mention others, demonstrate that ladies are capable of
understanding the philosophy of the human mind, and of preparing works
which facilitate the acquisition of knowledge. And then a lady, with
talents and energy, unites those feminine accomplishments which men
cannot know or teach.
In short, though there should be no encroachment on the prerogative or
duties of the men, yet women should remember that they too have
duties,—which they ought not, which they cannot, consistently with
duty and delicacy, surrender. One of these duties, is the
superintending the education of their own sex. This must not be
abandoned. Then, should men commit to their care the tuition of boys,
till the age of ten, twelve, or even later, they would probably find
the effect very beneficial. The influence of a sensible, intelligent
and pious woman, has a tendency to soften the turbulent dispositions,
and foster the kindly affections of boys—to instil the love of virtue,
and a horror of vice. Remember, the culture of the _heart_, as well as
the _head_, is essentially necessary to make men good citizens of a
Republic. A strong argument in favor of employing ladies as
instructors of children, may be found in their purity of principles
and feelings. A female advocating infidelity, or endeavoring to weaken
the bonds of moral and social order, is a phenomenon. Can the same be
said of the other sex?
Swift's “Liliputian Ode” is an imitation from Scarron. The French poet
concludes a long tri-syllabic poetical epistle to Sarrazin, who had
failed to pay him a visit, in the following words.
Mais pourtant
Repentant
Si tu viens
Et te tiens
Seulement
Un moment
Avec nous,
Mon corroux
Finira
Et cætera.
{573}
_Editorial._