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Title: A plan for improving female education
Author: Emma Willard
Release date: June 2, 2026 [eBook #78806]
Language: English
Original publication: Middlebury: Middlebury College, 1918
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78806
Credits: Daniel Lowe and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PLAN FOR IMPROVING FEMALE EDUCATION ***
Transcriber’s Note
This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. Small capitals
changed to all capitals.
A PLAN
FOR
Improving Female Education
By Emma Willard
A Reprint of the Second Edition of 1819
“My neighborhood to Middlebury College made me bitterly feel the
disparity in educational facilities between the sexes.”
_From a letter of Mrs. Willard_
_Published by Middlebury College on the
100th anniversary of the issue
of the first edition_
MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT
1918
_The following pages reproduce without change a document which has been
called the Magna Carta of the higher education of women in America. It
was written during the two or three years preceding 1819 in Middlebury,
in a house just across the street from the campus of Middlebury
College. Some years earlier Mrs. Willard had conducted in Middlebury
a school for young women not essentially different from the boarding
schools she condemns so vigorously. It was in contact with the worthier
education offered to young men in the college that she developed her
conviction of the need of radical change in the education of women and
the principles she put in force in her second school in Middlebury,
which was later removed to Troy._
_The world war and its attendant changes in the position and
occupations of women is leading to a re-examination of the purposes and
methods of women’s education. This notable address of one of the great
pioneers in the higher education of women in America is re-published,
not merely as a bit of antiquarian zeal on the part of the college
which furnished stimulus and suggestion to its author, but also as a
statement of principles and ideals which ought not to be neglected in
the effort to adapt the higher education of women to the larger place
in the life of the world which they are henceforth to occupy._
AN
ADDRESS
TO THE PUBLIC;
PARTICULARLY
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE
LEGISLATURE
OF
NEW-YORK,
PROPOSING
A PLAN
FOR IMPROVING
FEMALE EDUCATION.
BY EMMA WILLARD.
SECOND EDITION.
MIDDLEBURY:
PRINTED BY J. W. COPELAND,
1819.
Explanatory Note
Timely interest in the enclosed pamphlet written by Emma Willard,
pioneer in the education of women at Middlebury, Vermont, over 100
years ago, is given by the fact that Mrs. Russell Sage, who was a
great admirer of the work of Mrs. Willard, has just left to Middlebury
College the sum of $100,000.
_The Middlebury Register_ in its issue of November 22, 1918,
contains the following interesting statement by Dr. Ezra Brainerd,
president-emeritus of the College, indicating how Mrs. Sage became
interested in Middlebury:
“About thirty years ago I received an invitation to give a talk on
the life and work of Emma Willard during the twelve years she lived
in Middlebury when from 20 to 32 years of age. This talk was to be
given before the Emma Willard Association in New York City, at the
home on Fifth Avenue of Mrs. Russell Sage, who was the President of
the Association. I met there an interesting company who held in high
esteem the mature matron under whose guidance they had graduated from
the famous Ladies Seminary in Troy. It was not difficult to interest
them in an account of Emma Willard’s early life and of her confessed
indebtedness to Middlebury College for her advanced views regarding
the higher education of women. I succeeded in securing $2000 for an
Emma Willard scholarship in Middlebury College. The following year
came an invitation to address them again, and to publish a pamphlet
containing the substance of my talks. This was done at the expense of
a New York lawyer, a former pupil of mine, whose mother in Vermont
was a graduate of the Troy Seminary. The pamphlet passed through two
editions of 500 copies each, most of which were placed in the hands
of Mrs. Sage for distribution to the graduates of the Troy Seminary.
“This pamphlet was later republished by the United States Bureau of
Education, Circular of Information No. 4, 1900; whole number 265. On
page 130, under the headline of the article, the reader is informed
that it was ‘prepared originally for the Emma Willard Society of New
York by Ezra Brainerd, LL. D., President of Middlebury College.’
“Thus it would appear probable that the 100,000 dollar bequest is the
fair fruitage of the humble seed sown in faith so many years ago.”
ADDRESS, &C.
The object of this Address, is to convince the public, that a reform,
with respect to female education, is necessary; that it cannot be
effected by individual exertion, but that it requires the aid of the
legislature; and further, by shewing the justice, the policy, and the
magnanimity of such an undertaking, to persuade that body to endow a
seminary for females, as the commencement of such reformation.
The idea of a college for males will naturally be associated with that
of a seminary, instituted and endowed by the public; and the absurdity
of sending ladies to college, may, at first thought, strike every one
to whom this subject shall be proposed. I therefore hasten to observe,
that the seminary here recommended, will be as different from those
appropriated to the other sex, as the female character and duties are
from the male. The business of the husbandman is not to waste his
endeavours, in seeking to make his orchard attain the strength and
majesty of his forest, but to rear each, to the perfection of its
nature.
That the improvement of female education will be considered by our
enlightened citizens as a subject of importance, the liberality with
which they part with their property to educate their daughters, is a
sufficient evidence; and why should they not, when assembled in the
legislature, act in concert to effect a noble object, which, though
dear to them individually, cannot be accomplished by their unconnected
exertions.
If the improvement of the American female character, and that alone,
could be effected by public liberality, employed in giving better means
of instruction; such improvement of one half of society, and that
half, which barbarous and despotic nations have ever degraded, would of
itself be an object, worthy of the most liberal government on earth;
but if the female character be raised, it must inevitably raise that of
the other sex: and thus does the plan proposed, offer, as the object of
legislative bounty, to elevate the whole character of the community.
As evidence that this statement does not exaggerate the female
influence in society, our sex need but be considered, in the single
relation of mothers. In this character, we have the charge of the whole
mass of individuals, who are to compose the succeeding generation;
during that period of youth, when the pliant mind takes any direction,
to which it is steadily guided by a forming hand. How important a
power is given by this charge! yet, little do too many of my sex
know how, either to appreciate or improve it. Unprovided with the
means of acquiring that knowledge, which flows liberally to the other
sex--having our time of education devoted to frivolous acquirements,
how should we understand the nature of the mind, so as to be aware of
the importance of those early impressions, which we make upon the minds
of our children?--or how should we be able to form enlarged and correct
views, either of the character, to which we ought to mould them, or of
the means most proper to form them aright?
Considered in this point of view, were the interests of male education
alone to be consulted, that of females becomes of sufficient importance
to engage the public attention. Would we rear the human plant to its
perfection, we must first fertilize the soil which produces it. If it
acquire its first bent and texture upon a barren plain, it will avail
comparatively little, should it be afterwards transplanted to a garden.
In the arrangement of my remarks, I shall pursue the following order.
I. Treat of the defects of the present mode of female education, and
their causes.
II. Consider the principles, by which education should be regulated.
III. Sketch a plan of a female seminary.
IV. Shew the benefits which society would receive from such seminaries.
DEFECTS IN THE PRESENT MODE OF FEMALE EDUCATION, AND THEIR CAUSES.
Civilized nations have long since been convinced that education, as
it respects males, will not, like trade, regulate itself; and hence,
they have made it a prime object to provide that sex with everything
requisite to facilitate their progress in learning: but female
education has been left to the mercy of private adventurers; and the
consequence has been to our sex, the same, as it would have been to
the other, had legislatures left their accommodations, and means of
instruction, to chance also.
Education cannot prosper in any community, unless, from the ordinary
motives which actuate the human mind, the best and most cultivated
talents of that community, can be brought into exercise in that
way. Male education flourishes, because, from the guardian care of
legislatures, the presidencies and professorships of our colleges
are some of the highest objects to which the eye of ambition is
directed. Not so with female institutions. Preceptresses of these, are
dependent on their pupils for support, and are consequently liable
to become the victims of their caprice. In such a situation, it is
not more desirable to be a preceptress, than it would be, to be a
parent, invested with the care of children, and responsible for their
behaviour, but yet, depending on them for subsistence, and destitute of
power to enforce their obedience.
Feminine delicacy requires, that girls should be educated chiefly by
their own sex. This is apparent from considerations, that regard their
health and conveniences, the propriety of their dress and manners, and
their domestic accomplishments.
Boarding schools, therefore, whatever may be their defects, furnish the
best mode of education provided for females.
Concerning these schools it may be observed:
1. They are temporary institutions, formed by individuals, whose
object is present emolument. But they cannot be expected to be greatly
lucrative; therefore, the individuals who establish them, cannot afford
to provide suitable accommodations, as to room. At night, the pupils
are frequently crowded in their lodging rooms; and during the day
they are generally placed together in one apartment, where there is a
heterogeneous mixture of different kinds of business, accompanied with
so much noise and confusion, as greatly to impede their progress in
study.
2. As individuals cannot afford to provide suitable accommodations as
to room, so neither can they afford libraries, and other apparatus,
necessary to teach properly the various branches in which they pretend
to instruct.
3. Neither can the individuals who establish these schools afford
to provide suitable instruction. It not unfrequently happens, that
one instructress teaches, at the same time and in the same room, ten
or twelve distinct branches. If assistants are provided, such are
usually taken as can be procured for a small compensation. True, in
our large cities, preceptresses provide their pupils with masters,
though at an expense, which few can afford. Yet none of these masters
are responsible for the general proficiency or demeanour of the
pupils. Their only responsibility, is in the particular branch which
they teach; and to a preceptress, who probably does not understand it
herself, and who is, therefore incapable of judging, whether or not it
is well taught.
4. It is impossible, that in these schools such systems should be
adopted and enforced, as are requisite for properly classing the
pupils. Institutions for young gentlemen are founded by public
authority, and are permanent; they are endowed with funds, and their
instructors and overseers, are invested with authority to make such
laws, as they shall deem most salutary. From their permanency, their
laws and rules are well known. With their funds they procure libraries,
philosophical apparatus, and other advantages, superior to what can
elsewhere be found; and to enjoy these, individuals are placed under
their discipline, who would not else be subjected to it. Hence the
directors of these institutions can enforce, among other regulations,
those which enable them to make a perfect classification of their
students. They regulate their qualifications for entrance, the kind
and order of their studies, and the period of their remaining at
the seminary. Female schools present the reverse of this. Wanting
permanency, and dependent on individual patronage, had they the wisdom
to make salutary regulations, they could neither enforce nor purchase
compliance. The pupils are irregular in their times of entering and
leaving school; and they are of various and dissimilar acquirements.
Each scholar, of mature age, thinks she has a right to judge for
herself respecting what she is to be taught; and the parents of those,
who are not, consider, that they have the same right to judge for them.
Under such disadvantages, a school cannot be classed, except in a very
imperfect manner.
5. It is for the interest of instructresses of boarding schools, to
teach their pupils showy accomplishments, rather than those, which
are solid and useful. Their object in teaching is generally present
profit. In order to realize this, they must contrive to give immediate
celebrity to their schools. If they attend chiefly to the cultivation
of the mind, their work may not be manifest at the first glance; but
let the pupil return home, laden with fashionable toys, and her young
companions, filled with envy and astonishment, are never satisfied
till they are permitted to share the precious instruction. If it is
true, with the turn of the fashion, the toys, which they are taught to
make will become obsolete; and no benefit remain to them, of perhaps
the only money, that will ever be expended on their education; but the
object of the instructress may be accomplished notwithstanding, if that
is directed to her own, rather than her pupil’s advantage.
6. As these schools are private establishments, their preceptresses
are not accountable to any particular persons. Any woman has a right
to open a school in any place; and no one, either from law or custom,
can prevent her. Hence the public are liable to be imposed upon, both
with respect to the character and acquirements of preceptresses. I
am far, however, from asserting that this is always the case. It
has been before observed, that in the present state of things, the
ordinary motives which actuate the human mind, would not induce ladies
of the best and most cultivated talents, to engage in the business
of instructing, from choice. But some have done it from necessity,
and occasionally, an extraordinary female has occupied herself in
instructing, because she felt that impulse to be active and useful,
which is the characteristic of a vigorous and noble mind; and because
she found few avenues to extensive usefulness open to her sex. But if
such has been the fact, it has not been the consequence of any system,
from which a similar result can be expected to recur with regularity;
and it remains true, that the public are liable to imposition, both
with regard to the character and acquirements of preceptresses.
Instances have lately occurred, in which women of bad reputation, at a
distance from scenes of their former life, have been entrusted by our
unsuspecting citizens with the instruction of their daughters.
But the moral reputation of individuals, is more a matter of public
notoriety than their literary attainments; hence society are more
liable to be deceived with regard to the acquirements of instructresses
than with respect to their characters.
Those women, however, who deceive society as to the advantages which
they give their pupils, are not charged with any ill intention. They
teach as they were taught, and believe that the public are benefitted
by their labours. Acquiring, in their youth, a high value for their own
superficial accomplishments, they regard all others as supernumerary,
if not unbecoming. Although these considerations exculpate individuals,
yet they do not diminish the injury which society receives; for they
show, that the worst which is to be expected from such instruction, is
not that the pupils will remain ignorant; but that, by adopting the
views of their teachers, they will have their minds barred against
future improvement, by acquiring a disrelish, if not a contempt for
useful knowledge.
7. Although, from a want of public support, preceptresses of boarding
schools have not the means of enforcing such a system as would lead
to a perfect classification of their pupils; and although they are
confined in other respects within narrow limits, yet, because these
establishments are not dependant on any public body, within those
limits, they have a power far more arbitrary and uncontrolled, than is
allowed the learned and judicious instructors of our male seminaries.
They can, at their option, omit their own duties, and excuse their
pupils from theirs.
They can make absurd and ridiculous regulations.
They can make improper and even wicked exactions of their pupils.
Thus the writer has endeavoured to point out the defects of the
present mode of female education; chiefly in order to show, that the
great cause of these defects consists in a state of things, in which
legislatures, undervaluing the importance of women in society, neglect
to provide for their education, and suffer it to become the sport of
adventurers for fortune, who may be both ignorant and vicious.
OF THE PRINCIPLES BY WHICH EDUCATION SHOULD BE REGULATED.
To contemplate the principles which should regulate systems of
instruction, and consider how little those principles have been
regarded in educating our sex, will show the defects of female
education in a still stronger point of light, and will also afford a
standard, by which any plan for its improvement may be measured.
Education should seek to bring its subjects to the perfection of their
moral, intellectual and physical nature: in order, that they may be
of the greatest possible use to themselves and others: or, to use
a different expression, that they may be the means of the greatest
possible happiness of which they are capable, both as to what they
enjoy, and what they communicate.
Those youth have the surest chance of enjoying and communicating
happiness, who are best qualified, both by internal dispositions, and
external habits, to perform with readiness, those duties, which their
future life will most probably give them occasion to practice.
Studies and employments should, therefore, be selected, from one
or both of the following considerations; either, because they are
peculiarly fitted to improve the faculties; or, because they are such,
as the pupil will most probably have occasion to practise in future
life.
These are the principles, on which systems of male education are
founded; but female education has not yet been systematized. Chance
and confusion reign here. Not even is youth considered in our sex, as
in the other, a season, which should be wholly devoted to improvement.
Among families, so rich as to be entirely above labour, the daughters
are hurried through the routine of boarding school instruction, and at
an early period introduced into the gay world; and, thenceforth, their
only object is amusement.--Mark the different treatment, which the sons
of these families receive. While their sisters are gliding through the
mazes of the midnight dance, they employ the lamp, to treasure up for
future use the riches of ancient wisdom; or to gather strength and
expansion of mind, in exploring the wonderful paths of philosophy. When
the youth of two sexes has been spent so differently, is it strange,
or is nature in fault, if more mature age has brought such a difference
of character, that our sex have been considered by the other, as the
pampered, wayward babies of society, who must have some rattle put into
our hands, to keep us from doing mischief to ourselves or others?[1]
Another difference in the treatment of the sexes is made in our
country, which, though not equally pernicious to society, is more
pathetically unjust to our sex. How often have we seen a student, who,
returning from his literary pursuits, finds a sister, who was his equal
in acquirements, while their advantages were equal, of whom he is now
ashamed. While his youth was devoted to study, and he was furnished
with the means, she, without any object of improvement, drudged at
home, to assist in the support of the father’s family, and perhaps to
contribute to her brother’s subsistence abroad; and now, a being of a
lower order, the rustic innocent wonders and weeps at his neglect.
Not only has there been a want of system concerning female education,
but much of what has been done, has proceeded upon mistaken principles.
One of these is, that, without a regard to the different periods of
life, proportionate to their importance, the education of females has
been too exclusively directed, to fit them for displaying to advantage
the charms of youth and beauty. Though it may be proper to adorn this
period of life, yet, it is incomparably more important, to prepare
for the serious duties of maturer years. Though well to decorate the
blossom, it is far better to prepare for the harvest. In the vegetable
creation, nature seems but to sport, when she embellishes the flower;
while all her serious cares are directed to perfect the fruit.
Another errour is, that it has been made the first object in educating
our sex, to prepare them to please the other. But reason and religion
teach, that we too are primary existencies; that it is for us to move,
in the orbit of our duty, around the Holy Centre of perfection, the
companions, not the satellites of men; else, instead of shedding around
us an influence, that may help to keep them in their proper course, we
must accompany them in their wildest deviations.
I would not be understood to insinuate, that we are not, in particular
situations, to yield obedience to the other sex. Submission and
obedience belong to every being in the universe, except the great
Master of the whole. Nor is it a degrading peculiarity to our sex, to
be under human authority. Whenever one class of human beings, derive
from another the benefits of support and protection, they must pay its
equivalent, obedience. Thus, while we receive these benefits from our
parents, we are all, without distinction of sex, under their authority;
when we receive them from the government of our country, we must
obey our rulers; and when our sex take the obligations of marriage,
and receive protection and support from the other, it is reasonable,
that we too should yield obedience. Yet is neither the child, nor the
subject, nor the wife, under human authority, but in subservience to
the divine. Our highest responsibility is to God, and our highest
interest is to please him; therefore, to secure this interest, should
our education be directed.
Neither would I be understood to mean, that our sex should not seek to
make themselves agreeable to the other. The errour complained of, is
that the taste of men, whatever it might happen to be, has been made
a standard for the formation of the female character. In whatever we
do, it is of the utmost importance, that the rule, by which we work,
be perfect. For if otherwise, what is it, but to err upon principle? A
system of education, which leads one class of human beings to consider
the approbation of another, as their highest object, teaches, that
the rule of their conduct should be the will of beings, imperfect and
erring like themselves, rather than the will of God, which is the only
standard of perfection.
Having now considered female education, both in theory and practice,
and seen, that in its present state, it is in fact a thing “without
form and void,” the mind is naturally led to inquire after a remedy
for the evils it has been contemplating. Can individuals furnish this
remedy? It has heretofore been left to them, and we have seen the
consequence. If education is a business, which might naturally prosper,
if left to individual exertion, why have legislatures intermeddled
with it at all? if it is not, why do they make their daughters
illegitimates, and bestow all their cares upon their sons?
It is the duty of a government, to do all in its power to promote
the present and future prosperity of the nation, over which it is
placed. This prosperity will depend on the character of its citizens.
The characters of these will be formed by their mothers; and it is
through the mothers, that the government can control the characters
of its future citizens, to form them such as will ensure their
country’s prosperity. If this is the case, then it is the duty of our
present legislators to begin now, to form the characters of the next
generation, by controlling that of the females, who are to be their
mothers, while it is yet with them a season of improvement.
But should the conclusion be almost admitted, that our sex too are
the legitimate children of the legislature; and, that it is their
duty to afford us a share of their paternal bounty; the phantom of a
college-learned lady, would be ready to rise up, and destroy every good
resolution, which the admission of this truth would naturally produce
in our favour.
To shew that it is not a masculine education which is here
recommended, and to afford a definite view of the manner in which a
female institution might possess the respectability, permanency, and
uniformity of operation of those appropriated to males; and yet differ
from them, so as to be adapted to that difference of character and
duties, to which the softer sex should be formed, is the object of the
following imperfect
SKETCH OF A FEMALE SEMINARY.
From considering the deficiencies in boarding schools, much may be
learned, with regard to what would be needed, for the prosperity and
usefulness of a public seminary for females.
I. There would be needed a building, with commodious rooms for lodging
and recitation, apartments for the reception of apparatus, and for the
accommodation of the domestic department.
II. A library, containing books on the various subjects in which the
pupils were to receive instruction; musical instruments, some good
paintings, to form the taste and serve as models for the execution of
those who were to be instructed in that art; maps, globes, and a small
collection of philosophical apparatus.
III. A judicious board of trust, competent and desirous to promote its
interests, would in a female, as in a male literary institution, be
the corner stone of its prosperity. On this board it would depend to
provide,
IV. Suitable instruction. This article may be subdivided under four
heads.
1. Religious and Moral.
2. Literary.
3. Domestic.
4. Ornamental.
1. Religious and Moral. A regular attention to religious duties would,
of course be required of the pupils by the laws of the institution.
The trustees would be careful to appoint no instructors, who would not
teach religion and morality, both by their example, and by leading the
minds of the pupils to perceive, that these constitute the true end
of all education. It would be desirable, that the young ladies should
spend a part of their Sabbaths in hearing discourses relative to the
peculiar duties of their sex. The evidences of Christianity, and moral
philosophy, would constitute a part of their studies.
2. Literary Instruction. To make an exact enumeration of the branches
of literature, which might be taught, would be impossible, unless the
time of the pupils’ continuance at the seminary, and the requisites for
entrance, were previously fixed. Such an enumeration would be tedious,
nor do I conceive that it would be at all promotive of my object. The
difficulty complained of, is not, that we are at a loss what sciences
we ought to learn, but that we have not proper advantages to learn
any. Many writers have given us excellent advice with regard to what
we should be taught, but no legislature has provided us the means of
instruction. Not however, to pass lightly over this fundamental part of
education, I will mention one or two of the less obvious branches of
science, which, I conceive should engage the youthful attention of my
sex.
It is highly important, that females should be conversant with those
studies, which will lead them to understand the operations of the
human mind. The chief use to which the philosophy of the mind can be
applied, is to regulate education by its rules. The ductile mind of the
child is intrusted to the mother: and she ought to have every possible
assistance, in acquiring a knowledge of this noble material, on which
it is her business to operate, that she may best understand how to
mould it to its most excellent form.
Natural philosophy has not often been taught to our sex. Yet why
should we be kept in ignorance of the great machinery of nature, and
left to the vulgar notion, that nothing is curious but what deviates
from her common course? If mothers were acquainted with this science,
they would communicate very many of its principles to their children
in early youth. From the bursting of an egg buried in the fire, I
have heard an intelligent mother, lead her prattling inquirer, to
understand the cause of the earthquake. But how often does the mother,
from ignorance on this subject, give her child the most erroneous and
contracted views of the causes of natural phenomena; views, which,
though he may afterwards learn to be false, are yet, from the laws of
association, ever ready to return, unless the active powers of the mind
are continually upon the alert to keep them out. A knowledge of natural
philosophy is calculated to heighten the moral taste, by bringing to
view the majesty and beauty of order and design; and to enliven piety,
by enabling the mind more clearly to perceive, throughout the manifold
works of God, that wisdom, in which he hath made them all.
In some of the sciences proper for our sex, the books, written for the
other, would need alteration; because, in some they presuppose more
knowledge than female pupils would possess; in others, they have parts
not particularly interesting to our sex, and omit subjects immediately
relating to their pursuits. There would likewise be needed, for a
female seminary, some works, which I believe are no where extant, such
as a systematic treatise on housewifery.
3. Domestic Instruction should be considered important in a female
seminary. It is the duty of our sex to regulate the internal concerns
of every family; and unless they be properly qualified to discharge
this duty, whatever may be their literary or ornamental attainments,
they cannot be expected to make either good wives, good mothers, or
good mistresses of families: and if they are none of these, they
must be bad members of society; for it is by promoting or destroying
the comfort and prosperity of their own families, that females serve
or injure the community. To superintend the domestic department,
there should be a respectable lady, experienced in the best methods
of housewifery, and acquainted with propriety of dress and manners.
Under her tuition the pupils ought to be placed for a certain length
of time every morning. A spirit of neatness and order should here be
treated as a virtue, and the contrary, if excessive and incorrigible,
be punished with expulsion. There might be a gradation of employment
in the domestic department, according to the length of time the pupils
had remained at the institution. The older scholars might then assist
the superintendant in instructing the younger, and the whole be so
arranged, that each pupil might have advantages to become a good
domestic manager by the time she has completed her studies.
This plan would afford a healthy exercise. It would prevent that
estrangement from domestic duties, which would be likely to take place
in a length of time devoted to study, with those, to whom they were
previously familiar; and would accustom those to them, who, from
ignorance, might otherwise put at hazard their own happiness, and the
prosperity of their families.
These objects might doubtless be effected by a scheme of domestic
instruction; and probably others of no inconsiderable importance. It is
believed, that housewifery might be greatly improved, by being taught,
not only in practice, but in theory. Why may it not be reduced to a
system, as well as other arts? There are right ways of performing its
various operations; and there are reasons why those ways are right; and
why may not rules be formed, their reasons collected; and the whole be
digested into a system to guide the learner’s practice?
It is obvious, that theory alone, can never make a good artist; and it
is equally obvious, that practice unaided by theory, can never correct
errors, but must establish them. If I should perform any thing in a
wrong manner all my life, and teach my children to perform it in the
same manner, still, through my life and theirs, it would be wrong.
Without alteration there can be no improvement; but how are we to
alter, so as to improve, if we are ignorant of the principles of our
art, with which we should compare our practice, and by which we should
regulate it?
In the present state of things, it is not to be expected, that any
material improvements in housewifery should be made. There being
no uniformity of method, prevailing among different housewives, of
course, the communications from one to another, are not much more
likely to improve the art, than a communication, between two mechanics
of different trades, would be, to improve each in his respective
occupation. But should a system of principles be philosophically
arranged, and taught, both in theory and by practice, to a large
number of females, whose minds were expanded and strengthened by a
course of literary instruction, those among them, of an investigating
turn, would, when they commenced housekeepers, consider their domestic
operations as a series of experiments, which either proved or refuted
the system previously taught. They would then converse together like
those, who practise a common art, and improve each other by their
observations and experiments; and they would also be capable of
improving the system, by detecting its errors, and by making additions
of new principles and better modes of practice.
4. The Ornamental branches, which I should recommend for a female
seminary, are drawing and painting, elegant penmanship, music, and the
grace of motion. Needle-work is not here mentioned. The best style of
useful needle-work should either be taught in the domestic department,
or made a qualification for entrance; and I consider that useful, which
may contribute to the decoration of a lady’s person, or the convenience
and neatness of her family. But the use of the needle, for other
purposes than these, as it affords little to assist in the formation of
the character, I should regard as a waste of time.
The grace of motion, must be learnt chiefly from instruction in
dancing. Other advantages besides that of a graceful carriage, might be
derived from such instruction, if the lessons were judiciously timed.
Exercise is needful to the health, and recreation to the cheerfulness
and contentment of youth. Female youth could not be allowed to range
unrestrained, to seek amusement for themselves. If it was entirely
prohibited, they would be driven to seek it by stealth; which would
lead them to many improprieties of conduct, and would have a
pernicious effect upon their general character, by inducing a habit of
treading forbidden paths. The alternative that remains is to provide
them with proper recreation, which, after the confinement of the day,
they might enjoy under the eye of their instructors. Dancing is exactly
suited to this purpose, as also to that of exercise; for perhaps in no
way, can so much healthy exercise be taken in so short a time. It has
besides, this advantage over other amusements, that it affords nothing
to excite the bad passions; but, on the contrary, its effects are, to
soften the mind, to banish its animosities, and to open it to social
impressions.
It may be said, that dancing would dissipate the attention, and
estrange it from study. Balls would doubtless have this effect; but
let dancing be practised every day, by youth of the same sex, without
change of place, dress, or company, and under the eye of those, whom
they are accustomed to obey, and it would excite no more emotion, than
any other exercise or amusement, but in degree, as it is of itself more
pleasant. But it must ever be a grateful exercise to youth, as it is
one, to which nature herself prompts them, at the sound of animating
music.
It has been doubted, whether painting and music should be taught
to young ladies, because much time is requisite to bring them to
any considerable degree of perfection, and they are not immediately
useful. Though these objections have weight, yet they are founded on
too limited a view of the objects of education. They leave out the
important consideration of forming the character. I should not consider
it an essential point, that the music of a lady’s piano should rival
that of her master’s; or that her drawing room should be decorated with
her own paintings, rather than those of others; but it is the intrinsic
advantage, which she might derive from the refinement of herself,
that would induce me to recommend to her, an attention to those
elegant pursuits. The harmony of sound, has a tendency to produce a
correspondent harmony of soul; and that art, which obliges us to study
nature, in order to imitate her, often enkindles the latent spark of
taste--of sensibility for her beauties, till it glows to adoration for
their author, and a refined love of all his works.
V. There would be needed, for a female, as well as for a male
seminary, a system of laws and regulations, so arranged, that both
the instructors and pupils would know their duty; and thus, the whole
business, move with regularity and uniformity.
The laws of the institution would be chiefly directed, to regulate
the pupil’s qualifications for entrance, the kind and order of their
studies, their behaviour while at the institution, the term allotted
for the completion of their studies, the punishments to be inflicted on
offenders and the rewards or honours, to be bestowed on the virtuous
and diligent.
The direct rewards or honors, used to stimulate the ambition of
students in colleges, are first, the certificate or diploma, which
each receives, who passes successfully through the term allotted to
his collegiate studies; and secondly, the appointments to perform
certain parts in public exhibitions, which are bestowed by the
faculty, as rewards for superior scholarship. The first of these modes
is admissible into a female seminary; the second is not; as public
speaking forms no part of female education. The want of this mode,
might, however, be supplied by examinations judiciously conducted.
The leisure and inclination of both instructors and scholars, would
combine to produce a thorough preparation for these; for neither would
have any other public test of the success of their labors. Persons
of both sexes would attend. The less entertaining parts, might be
enlivened by interludes, where the pupils in painting and music,
would display their several improvements. Such examinations, would
stimulate the instructors to give their scholars more attention, by
which the leading facts and principles of their studies, would be more
clearly understood, and better remembered. The ambition excited among
the pupils, would operate, without placing the instructors under the
necessity of making distinctions among them, which are so apt to be
considered as invidious; and which are, in our male seminaries, such
fruitful sources of disaffection.
Perhaps the term allotted for the routine of study at the seminary,
might be three years. The pupils, probably, would not be fitted to
enter, till about the age of fourteen. Whether they attended to all,
or any of the ornamental branches, should be left optional with the
parents or guardians. Those who were to be instructed in them, should
be entered for a longer term, but if this was a subject of previous
calculation, no confusion would arise from it. The routine of the
exercises being established by the laws of the institution, would be
uniform, and publicly known; and those, who were previously acquainted
with the branches first taught, might enter the higher classes; nor
would those who entered the lowest, be obliged to remain during the
three years. Thus the term of remaining at the institution, might
be either one, two, three, four, or more years; and that, without
interfering with the regularity and uniformity of its proceedings.
The writer has now given a sketch of her plan. She has by no means
expressed all the ideas, which occurred to her concerning it. She
wished to be as concise as possible, and yet afford conviction,
that it is practicable, to organize a system of female education,
which shall possess the permanency, uniformity of operation, and
respectability of our male institutions; and yet differ from them, so
as to be adapted, to that difference of character, and duties, to which
early instruction should form the softer sex.
It now remains, to enquire more particularly, what would be the
benefits resulting from such a system.
BENEFITS OF FEMALE SEMINARIES.
In inquiring, concerning the benefits of the plan proposed, I shall
proceed upon the supposition, that female seminaries will be patronized
throughout our country.
Nor is this altogether a visionary supposition. If one seminary should
be well organized, its advantages would be found so great, that others
would soon be instituted; and, that sufficient patronage can be found
to put one in operation, may be presumed from its reasonableness, and
from the public opinion, with regard to the present mode of female
education. It is from an intimate acquaintance, with those parts of
our country, whose education is said to flourish most, that the writer
has drawn her picture of the present state of female instruction;
and she knows, that she is not alone, in perceiving or deploring its
faults. Her sentiments are shared by many an enlightened parent of a
daughter, who has received a boarding school education. Counting on the
promise of her childhood, the father had anticipated her maturity, as
combining what is excellent in mind, with what is elegant in manners.
He spared no expense that education might realize to him, the image of
his imagination. His daughter returned from boarding school, improved
in fashionable airs, and expert in manufacturing fashionable toys; but,
in her conversation, he sought in vain, for that refined and fertile
mind, which he had fondly expected. Aware that his disappointment has
its source in a defective education, he looks with anxiety on his other
daughters, whose minds, like lovely buds, are beginning to open. Where
shall he find a genial soil, in which he may place them to expand?
Shall he provide them male instructors?--Then the graces of their
persons and manners, and whatever forms the distinguishing charm of the
feminine character, they cannot be expected to acquire.--Shall he give
them a private tutoress? She will have been educated at the boarding
school, and his daughters will have the faults of its instruction
second-handed. Such is now the dilemma of many parents; and it is one,
from which they cannot be extricated by their individual exertions. May
not then the only plan, which promises to relieve them, expect their
vigorous support.
Let us now proceed to inquire, what benefits would result from the
establishment of female seminaries.
They would constitute a grade of public education, superior to any yet
known in the history of our sex; and through them, the lower grades
of female instruction might be controlled. The influence of public
seminaries, over these, would operate in two ways; first, by requiring
certain qualifications for entrance; and secondly, by furnishing
instructresses, initiated in their modes of teaching, and imbued with
their maxims.
Female seminaries might be expected to have important and happy
effects, on common schools in general; and in the manner of operating
on these, would probably place the business of teaching children, in
hands now nearly useless to society; and take it from those, whose
services the state wants in many other ways.
That nature designed for our sex the care of children, she has made
manifest, by mental, as well as physical indications. She has given us,
in a greater degree than men, the gentle arts of insinuation, to soften
their minds, and fit them to receive impressions; a greater quickness
of invention to vary modes of teaching to different dispositions;
and more patience to make repeated efforts. There are many females
of ability, to whom the business of instructing children is highly
acceptable, and, who would devote all their faculties to their
occupation. They would have no higher pecuniary object to engage their
attention, and their reputation as instructors they would consider
as important; whereas, whenever able and enterprizing men, engage in
this business, they consider it, merely as a temporary employment,
to further some other object, to the attainment of which, their best
thoughts and calculations are all directed. If then women were properly
fitted by instruction, they would be likely to teach children better
than the other sex; they could afford to do it cheaper; and those
men who would otherwise be engaged in this employment, might be at
liberty to add to the wealth of the nation, by any of those thousand
occupations, from which women are necessarily debarred.
But the females, who taught children, would have been themselves
instructed either immediately or indirectly by the seminaries. Hence
through these, the government might exercise an intimate, and most
beneficial control over common schools. Any one, who has turned his
attention to this subject, must be aware, that there is great room for
improvement in these, both as to the modes of teaching, and the things
taught; and what method could be devised so likely to effect this
improvement, as to prepare by instruction, a class of individuals,
whose interest, leisure, and natural talents, would combine to make
them pursue it with ardour. Such a class of individuals would be raised
up, by female seminaries. And therefore they would be likely to have
highly important and happy effects on common schools.
It is believed, that such institutions, would tend to prolong, or
perpetuate our excellent government.
An opinion too generally prevails, that our present form of government,
though good, cannot be permanent. Other republics have failed, and
the historian and philosopher have told us, that nations are like
individuals; that, at their birth, they receive the seeds of their
decline and dissolution. Here deceived by a false analogy, we receive
an apt illustration of particular facts, for a general truth. The
existence of nations, cannot, in strictness, be compared with the
duration of animate life; for by the operation of physical causes,
this, after a certain length of time, must cease: but the existence of
nations, is prolonged by the succession of one generation to another,
and there is no physical cause, to prevent this succession’s going on,
in a peaceable manner, under a good government, till the end of time.
We must then look to other causes, than necessity, for the decline
and fall of former republics. If we could discover these causes, and
seasonably prevent their operation, then might our latest posterity
enjoy the same happy government, with which we are blessed; or if but
in part, then might the triumph of tyranny, be delayed, and a few more
generations be free.
Permit me then to ask the enlightened politician of my country, whether
amidst his researches for these causes, he cannot discover one, in the
neglect, which free governments, in common with others, have shown, to
whatever regarded the formation of the female character.
In those great republics, which have fallen of themselves, the loss
of republican manners and virtues, has been the invariable precursor,
of their loss of the republican form of government. But is it not in
the power of our sex, to give society its tone, both as to manners
and morals? And if such is the extent of female influence, is it
wonderful, that republics have failed, when they calmly suffered that
influence, to become enlisted in favour of luxuries and follies, wholly
incompatible with the existence of freedom?
It may be said, that the depravation of morals and manners, can be
traced to the introduction of wealth, as its cause. But wealth will be
introduced; even the iron laws of Lycurgus could not prevent it. Let us
then inquire, if means may not be devised, to prevent its bringing with
it the destruction of public virtue. May not these means be found in
education?--in implanting, in early youth, habits, that may counteract
the temptations, to which, through the influence of wealth, mature age
will be exposed? and in giving strength and expansion to the mind, that
it may comprehend, and prize those principles, which teach the rigid
performance of duty? Education, it may be said, has been tried as a
preservative of national purity. But was it applied to every exposed
part of the body politic? For if any part has been left within the
pestilential atmosphere of wealth, without this preservative, then
that part becoming corrupted, would communicate the contagion to the
whole; and if so, then has the experiment, whether education may not
preserve public virtue, never yet been fairly tried. Such a part has
been left in all former experiments. Females have been exposed to
the contagion of wealth without the preservative of a good education;
and they constitute that part of the body politic, least endowed by
nature to resist, most to communicate it. Nay, not merely have they
been left without the defence of a good education, but their corruption
has been accelerated by a bad one. The character of women of rank and
wealth has been, and in the old governments of Europe now is, all that
this statement would lead us to expect. Not content with doing nothing
to promote their country’s welfare, like pampered children, they
revel in its prosperity, and scatter it to the winds, with a wanton
profusion: and still worse,--they empoison its source, by diffusing a
contempt for useful labour. To court pleasure their business,--within
her temple, in defiance of the laws of God and man, they have erected
the idol fashion; and upon her altar, they sacrifice, with shameless
rites, whatever is sacred to virtue or religion. Not the strongest
ties of nature,--not even maternal love can restrain them! Like the
worshipper of Moloch, the mother while yet yearning over the new born
babe, tears it from the bosom, which God has swelled with nutrition
for its support, and casts it remorseless from her, the victim of her
unhallowed devotion!
But while, with an anguished heart, I thus depict the crimes of my sex,
let not the other stand by and smile. Reason declares, that you are
guiltier than we. You are our natural guardians,--our brothers,--our
fathers, and our rulers. You know that our ductile minds, readily
take the impressions of education. Why then have you neglected our
education? Why have you looked with lethargic indifference, on
circumstances ruinous to the formation of our characters, which you
might have controlled?
But it may be said, the observations here made, cannot be applied to
any class of females in our country. True, they cannot yet; and if they
could, it would be useless to make them; for when the females of any
country have become thus debased, then, is that country so corrupted,
that nothing, but the awful judgments of heaven, can arrest its career
of vice. But it cannot be denied, that our manners are verging towards
those described; and the change, though gradual, has not been slow:
already do our daughters listen with surprise, when we tell them of the
republican simplicity of our mothers. But our manners are not as yet so
altered, but that, throughout our country, they are still marked with
republican virtues.
The inquiry, to which these remarks have conducted us is this--What
is offered by the plan of female education, here proposed, which may
teach, or preserve, among females of wealthy families, that purity of
manners, which is allowed, to be so essential to national prosperity,
and so necessary, to the existence of a republican government.
1. Females, by having their understandings cultivated, their reasoning
powers developed and strengthened, may be expected to act more from the
dictates of reason, and less from those of fashion and caprice.
2. With minds thus strengthened they would be taught systems of
morality, enforced by the sanctions of religion; and they might be
expected to acquire juster and more enlarged views of their duty, and
stronger and higher motives to its performance.
3. This plan of education, offers all that can be done to preserve
female youth from a contempt of useful labour. The pupils would become
accustomed to it, in conjunction with the high objects of literature,
and the elegant pursuits of the fine arts; and it is to be hoped that
both from habit and association, they might in future life, regard it
as respectable.
To this it may be added, that if housewifery could be raised to a
regular art, and taught upon philosophical principles, it would become
a higher and more interesting occupation; and ladies of fortune, like
wealthy agriculturalists, might find, that to regulate their business,
was an agreeable employment.
4. The pupils might be expected to acquire a taste for moral and
intellectual pleasures, which would buoy them above a passion for show
and parade, and which would make them seek to gratify the natural love
of superiority, by endeavouring to excel others in intrinsic merit,
rather than in the extrinsic frivolities of dress, furniture, and
equipage.
5. By being enlightened in moral philosophy, and in that, which teaches
the operations of the mind, females would be enabled to perceive the
nature and extent, of that influence, which they possess over their
children, and the obligation, which this lays them under, to watch
the formation of their characters with unceasing vigilance, to become
their instructors, to devise plans for their improvement, to weed out
the vices from their minds, and to implant and foster the virtues. And
surely, there is that in the maternal bosom, which, when its pleadings
shall be aided by education, will overcome the seductions of wealth and
fashion, and will lead the mother, to seek her happiness in communing
with her children, and promoting their welfare, rather than in a
heartless intercourse, with the votaries of pleasure: especially, when
with an expanded mind, she extends her views to futurity, and sees her
care to her offspring rewarded by peace of conscience, the blessings of
her family, the prosperity of her country, and finally with everlasting
happiness to herself and them.
Thus, laudable objects and employments, would be furnished for the
great body of females, who are not kept by poverty from excesses. But
among these, as among the other sex, will be found master spirits, who
must have pre-eminence, at whatever price they acquire it. Domestic
life cannot hold these, because they prefer to be infamous, rather
than obscure. To leave such, without any virtuous road to eminence, is
unsafe to community; for not unfrequently, are the secret springs of
revolution, set in motion by their intrigues. Such aspiring minds, we
will regulate, by education, we will remove obstructions to the course
of literature, which has heretofore been their only honorable way to
distinction; and we offer them a new object, worthy of their ambition;
to govern, and improve the seminaries for their sex.
In calling on my patriotic countrymen, to effect so noble an object,
the consideration of national glory, should not be overlooked. Ages
have rolled away;--barbarians have trodden the weaker sex beneath their
feet;--tyrants have robbed us of the present light of heaven, and fain
would take its future. Nations, calling themselves polite, have made
us the fancied idols of a ridiculous worship, and we have repaid them
with ruin for their folly. But where is that wise and heroic country,
which has considered, that our rights are sacred, though we cannot
defend them? that tho’ a weaker, we are an essential part of the body
politic, whose corruption or improvement must affect the whole? and
which, having thus considered, has sought to give us by education,
that rank in the scale of being, to which our importance entitles us?
History shows not that country. It shows many, whose legislatures
have sought to improve their various vegetable productions, and their
breeds of useful brutes; but none, whose public councils have made
it an object of their deliberations, to improve the character of
their women. Yet though history lifts not her finger to such an one,
anticipation does. She points to a nation, which, having thrown off
the shackles of authority and precedent, shrinks not from schemes of
improvement, because other nations have never attempted them; but
which, in its pride of independence, would rather lead than follow, in
the march of human improvement: a nation, wise and magnanimous to plan,
enterprising to undertake, and rich in resources to execute. Does not
every American exult that this country is his own? And who knows how
great and good a race of men, may yet arise from the forming hand of
mothers, enlightened by the bounty of that beloved country,--to defend
her liberties,--to plan her future improvement,--and to raise her to
unparalleled glory?
FOOTNOTES
[1] Several noted writers have recommended certain accomplishments
to our sex, to keep us from scandal and other vices; or to use Mr.
Addison’s expression, “to keep us out of harm’s way.”
Transcriber’s Note
Some inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have
been retained.
p. 15: archaic spellings “errour” and “existencies” left as printed.
p. 16: changed “controling” to “controlling” (by controlling that of
the females)
p. 28: changed “benificial” to “beneficial” (most beneficial control
over common schools)
p. 29: changed “analagy” to “analogy” (deceived by a false analogy)
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