LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE EDUCATION OF AMERICAN GIRLS.
[TO THB EDITOR OF THE " SPHOTATOR."]
.SIR,—Your article on "Sex in Education" suggested the proba- bility of "shoals of letters" in reply, and many of your readers have since turned somewhat impatiently to your columns in the hope that the subject of the education of girls might replace "the Busy Bee." Your correspondents, however, may have awaited the further information from America which has now reached us in a /volume of essays by American women on the education of American girls. Amongst the authors are well-known names, Anne Brackett, Edna Cheney, Lucinda Stone, the subject being treated from the warious points of view of physician, mother, and teacher, and the -claim advanced that "this is a woman's question, with which women themselves are the only persons capable of dealing." We are told that Dr. Clarke has called forth the exclamation from many American women, "I believe in educating women to be _physicians since I read that book, if I never did before."
The essays are various in style and aim, several describing an Ideal education. Amongst these, "A Mother's Thought," by Edna Cheney, is a gem, in its literary finish and its high morality; others, again, plead for "a larger, slower, and more intellectual -education for both boys and girls," and "a concentration of intel- lectual effort for both into four or six hours of the twenty-four," as advocated in your article. The main questions of discussion, lowever, are,—the degeneracy of health in America, and Dr. Clarke's representations that this degeneracy is connected with the higher education of women. The first point seems generally accepted as true, although one essayist refers to the numerous deaths amongst the early settlers, but the causes assigned by Dr. Clarke are dis- puted. Miss Brackett says, "We are told that a girl is sick. we do not want to know simply that she attended school, and studied and recited regularly ; we want to know also the kind of food she eats and how cooked, and the regularity of her meals. We want to know the state of ventilation in the school-room and her home ; we want to know how many hours of sleep she has, how many parties she has attended, what underclothing she wears, the manner in which that underclothing is arranged, the weight of her ruffled and double box-plaited dress-skirt and its mode of support, the thickness of the shoes habitually worn, the position of the furnace-register in the room, the kind of reading she is allowed to have, and her standing in her class as to thoroughness or superficiality, mental clearness or chaos." Miss Brackett refersfurther to "Dr. A. W. Holmes's wise saying that the Anglo- Saxon race is not yet fully acclimated on the continent." Another essayist says, "I am amazed when I see it stated that length of time cannot transform the sturdy German Friiulein into the fragile American girl. The influence of climate does this in one generation, for our Irish and German population. During the past three years I have parted with three satisfactory Irish servants, who were in the incipient stages of consumption. I dismissed them because no influence of mine could persuade them to retire early, wear waterproof shoes, or thick and warm clothing." We bear further of inherited "abnormal development of the nervous system, from fathers fevered with restless mercantile speculation," and of "depressed and morbid tendencies inherited from mothers overworn with housework ;" but these evils appear to be checked by the healthy physical and moral tone pervading the Universities open to mixed education, the reports stating a general improvement in the health of the women graduates. At Antioch College, 13i per cent, of the men graduates of past years have died, and 9.1 percent. of the women; of the women, three-fourths are married, four-fifths of whom have children. Michigan LTniver- sity has been open to women four years ; the Chairman's report states that the number in attendance has increased to 61, that "their record is as creditable in all branches as that of their class- mates of the other sex,"—he "doubts if an equal number of young women in any other pursuit of life have been in better health during the year." The editorial college paper, conducted entirely by the young men, Bays, "They pertinaciously keep their health and strength in a way that is aggravating, and they per- sist in evincing an ability for close and continued mental labour which, to the ordinary estimator of women's brain- power, seems like pure wilfulness." 11 rom Oberlin College the testimony is even more important. It has been open to women for forty years, 620 women have graduated from it, and 100 students now in the College are the children of former students. The essay from Oberlin is written by the resident lady physician, who gives a list of answers sent from the former students of one year to inquiries respecting health. Amongst this list are such answers as the following :—" Bringing up my boys, when my husband is away, besides attending to home duties ; I have charge of his business, receiving and paying out large sums of money." Another, "A troop of merry children, good health, and a happy home." Another, "Successful teacher, once ill during seven- teen years." Another answers from Illinois, " I am in good health, and so are my six boys. The two oldest are almost ready for college ; they will of course go where their mother went."
We are told that the women now studying in American colleges "have an aim in life beyond the mere fact of graduating from a great University. They believe that there is a future before them in which they are to do a woman's work, in a manner all the better for this higher education " ; but they are also aware that Dr. Clarke, by recommending constant interruptions in study during a girl's growing years, would destroy the power of benefiting by later study. Habits of application, if gained at all, must be gained before the age of eighteen ; and the most valuable American testi- mony of mothers and teachers leads to the concurrent opinion that, under conditions of health, in the education of girls "the regular cultivation of the intellect and the muscles, as compared with the emotions, is of supreme importance." It is needless to dwell on the value of the testimony afforded by these extracts, which, in all probability, will be endorsed by the thoughtful women of England, Germany, and other " educational " countries. The controversy which has excited so much attention in America as to form a link between the women, (girls from the Western Colleges having written to strangers in the central cities to beg that they may not be deprived of their college seats,) has scarcely reached our shores. But it may yet bear useful fruit, if it direct attention to the value of regular and concentrated intellectual work, with obedience to the ordinary laws of health.—I am, Sir, &c.,
AN ADVOCATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
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