LC
1671
M17
CONCERNING THE EDUCATION
OF GIRLS:
A PAPER
BY
MRS. EMMA MONT. MCRAE, A. M.,
Professor OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND LADY PRINCIPAL AT
PURDUE UNIVERSITY, LAFAYETTE, Ind.
PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY.

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EDUCATION
CONCERNING THE
OF GIRLS.
LC
1671
.M17
:
07-16-43 BBR
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
BY EMMA MONT. MCRAE, A. M.
Tw
WO HUNDRED years ago Fenelon, a
great French thinker on education, de-
manded that girls be given such training
as the intelligent performance of their duties.
required. When, a century later, Jean Paul
Richter came to view the needs of the girls of
his time he made the same demand-the educa-
tion of the girl must be in harmony with the
duties that lie nearest her. These thoughtful
men spoke out of an earlier time; they spoke
for the most part in behalf of girls who belonged
to the well-to-do classes, girls who were likely to
preside over well provided households. When
Fenelon and Richter made a plea for the fitting
of girls for their station in life they had in mind
the French and German girls of their times who
were to be fine ladies, called upon to manage
retinues of servants, to be the mistresses of well
appointed establishments. The American girl of
BB R
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to-day is to be viewed from a different stand-
point. Two hundred years, one hundred years,
have wrought marvelous changes, and so in the
United States to-day the education of girls has
become a far more complex problem than that
which confronted the thinker of the eighteenth
century. However, the principle upon which he
based his teaching is the only sound principle,
and the one to be recognized-the girl must be
educated in such a way that she may best per-
form the duties that come to her.
In the complexity of modern life have arisen.
many requirements, both inside the home and
outside the home, which demand the very best
effort of the earnest, thoughtful, well-trained
girl. She must be fitted for her station. But
who can determine the station of the American
girl? The possibilities of her usefulness seem
limitless. It follows, therefore, that she should
be given opportunity to become well grounded in
the essentials of such education as shall fit her to
grace the home that father and husband may
make for her, to make a home or continue one
for herself if taste or circumstances compel it,
5
and also to lend a hand in making other homes
holier and happier.
The girl of the earlier time, to whose education
any attention was given, was expected to attain
ease of manner, to have refined, lady-like instincts,
in short to be womanly, paying heed to the wel-
fare of her household. The girl of to-day needs.
none the less the sweet, womanly graces that
have to do with home-making; but she needs,
also, in the province of home, a far broader edu-
cation, that she may not in her, what may at
times seem to be attractive, ignorance, fail to
cope with the dangers that lurk in the modern
home. The simple life of the past found housing
in buildings in the plans of which were not in-
cluded the luxuries provided in modern architec-
ture; but if the luxuries were wanting, many of
the dangers were also absent. The convenience
and safety of the family may be assured if the
directing spirit be a thoroughly trained woman.
The home-maker should have such knowledge of
domestic architecture as will enable her to make
the most of her means for the comfort of the
family. She should have such knowledge of san-
6
itary science as will render her mistress of those
conditions that so often turn the home into a
house of mourning. This field includes not only
a knowledge of architecture that shall mean com-
fort, of general sanitation that shall grant im-
munity from polluted water and air, but includes
also a knowledge of the chemistry of foods to
such an extent that their preparation and combina-
tion shall contribute most to the health of the fam-
ily. The amount of food material wasted through
the ignorance of housekeepers is a menace to our
country; but, disastrous as is the waste, it is in-
significant when compared with the perils that lie
in wait for the victim of the average cooking.
Should a young woman be considered fitted for
any station in life who has not been fortified by a
practical knowledge that will enable her to meet
the emergencies of the household? The fact that
the health, the comfort, and even the life of the
family are given over to the poor, ignorant immi-
grant, utterly devoid of the skill needed to pre-
pare the simplest food, is a shame upon American
womanhood. The notion that piety and dyspepsia
are concomitant, has joined that other outgrown
7
superstition that a weak, insignificant body means
that the spirit shall enjoy an eternity of perfect
bliss when freed from the despised flesh. The
enlightened thought of to-day no longer tolerates
such a travesty upon human life. No, the girl of
to-day must prepare for the duties of to-day.
The fine spiritual insight which comes of master-
ing the thought of poet and seer, of philosopher
and historian, in order that it perform its highest
function, must be coupled with that kind of un-
selfishness which seeks to find, in the everyday
life of the present, the primal duties that bless
and heal and make life indeed worth living.
These simple duties, rightly appreciated and con-
scientiously performed, make good George Her-
bert's words take on new meaning:
"He who sweeps a room as by thy laws
Makes that and the action fine."
If the home be a rural one, there are almost
numberless opportunities for the girl to dream her
dreams into wonderfully beautiful realities. In
the garden she may see typified the blossoming
and fruitage of a wondrous life. The light of her
interest may become such a transforming power
8
as will illuminate the commonest plant that grows
and make it minister to some useful end. If
Emerson is right that a weed is a plant of the
use of which man is still ignorant and so calls it
a weed, it may be that many weeds are yet to
reveal their use and beauty at the bidding of some
young woman who is applying her knowledge of
horticulture and floriculture. Is this not a field
for thoroughly trained, home-loving girls? They
may read the story of "Buz" and make it a real
experience as they with tender, delicate, skillful
care follow the fortunes of the bees. Will the
girl of to-day be shocked at the suggestion that she
may with profit covet that vocation about which
so much of romance clustered in the olden time?
If she surround the work of the dairy maid with
the romance of science, she may well afford to
take unto herself the rewards of good butter-
making, both in the form of satisfaction in work
well done and also in the form of the highest
market price. Can the girl bring herself to the
raising of anything so prosaic as chickens? Can
it be that the pedigree of the favored poodle is
cherished as a fit ornament for my lady's cham-
ber and yet a sensible girl be disturbed by the
suggestion of chicken raising as an interesting
pastime? She will see that the poodle may have
its place, but that there is more sense in really
doing something which may contribute to her
financial independence. These occupations offer
an opportunity for a young woman, while still
retaining the protection of her home, and helping
to make it ideal, to have a lucrative vocation.
The girl that has learned to draw has laid a
foundation for an artistic sense, which will serve
to free her from the pretentious, tawdry things.
called pictures. Though she may never have
money enough to own a great work of art she
may have what is infinitely better, the capacity
to enjoy a masterpiece. She will not be so likely
to spend her money for worthless things called
ornaments. The art atmosphere in which she
will be while learning even the elementary prin-
ciples of drawing will give her such a stimulus as
that she will be wary of shams. If in addition to
drawing the girl be taught wood-carving, and
china decoration, she contribute to the real value
as well as the beauty of the household equipment.
ΙΟ
But suppose that duty or taste urge a woman
to go outside the home into the broader world of
work, then does it become her safety and her
happiness that she can employ her head and
hands in some sort of work needed by society.
Skill is in demand, and that woman who can do
something well is not apt to be in danger of pen-
ury. The danger lies in not being ready for an
emergency. Health and riches take wings, often
when least expected, so that the girl who to-day
is in a protected, even luxurious, home, may to-
morrow be in competition with men and women,
who then will seem to be the fortunate ones
because they have, through earlier necessity,
become inured to a work-a-day experience. The
necessities that may arise, even in the best or-
dered lives, ought to be an urgent stimulus to
some sort of preparation which shall make these
exigencies seem less formidable. Painstaking
fathers and mothers have long been made anxious
by the thought that the daughter might some day
be thrown on her own resources. The time was
when the kinds of employment open to women
were so limited in number as to give little chance
Q
II
for the exercise of individual taste. By far too
often one sorry failure followed another until de-
spair had well nigh conquered, and the poor
worker, herself not the only victim of her unskill-
ful attempts, had struggled on against the worst
odds until life really seemed not worth the living.
Frequently young women with an entirely false
attitude toward work have felt that nothing of-
fered itself for them to do except the work of
teaching. And so without any aptitude or special
training for the work they have crowded into the
schools as teachers. The schools have thus been
made institutions for the support of indigent girls
who were too ignorant or too selfish to refrain
from experimenting upon priceless material. Now,
however, there are many kinds of work open to
well trained, thoughtful girls. They need no
longer be confined to taking in boarders, trim-
ming hats and teaching school. These vocations
are still in need of well trained minds and skillful
hands, but the many girls that do not find in them
congenial employment may find in the different
branches of architecture and house decoration, in
the various applications of science to the industries,
12
in the almost boundless field of sanitary science,
and in pharmacy, some kind of work that may be
done enjoyably and profitably by those of the
most delicate and womanly instincts.
As the student of social questions, or even the
casual interested observer looks about upon ex-
isting industrial conditions, he can not fail to
lament the fact that in many instances unskillful
women are doing the work formerly done by
men, because they do it reasonably well for less
money than men have done it. This works a
hardship to both men and women. There should
be more women doing the work of the home, to
which they are better adapted, and more men in
the shops and factories doing the work that
would enable them to keep the families in the
home, the legitimate business of men. However,
this does not mean that girls should not have in-
dustrial training. They should have such train-
ing as will enable them to compete as to skill and
nothing else. Woman must be at a disadvantage,
often, when a question of physical strength
arises. She can not, in all cases, successfully
use her hands in the manipulation of appliances;
13
she can not, with safety, endure great physical
strain-in short, there are many things which
men do with impunity that women ought to
avoid. For this very reason they have no right
to expect that these limitations will not affect
their remuneration. But there is a field of indus-
trial activity wherein the deftness and delicacy of
women may be greatly to their advantage. In-
dustrial training, coupled with a thorough general
education, is of paramount importance for girls
because they can not afford to compete with men
when fitness is determined largely by physical
strength. They must learn to do something
which will bring into play their special gifts, and
they must come to compete with their brothers
in the realm of ideas. The woman designer can
sit in her own home and work out her own
conceptions into patterns of wondrous beauty,
and then submit them to manufacturers of wall
paper, carpets, textile fabrics, pottery, together
with scores of other things, and need not fear
that the question, whether the designer is a
woman, will be asked. The manufacturer will
select the design best adapted to his needs as he
14
sees them. If a woman does a great piece of
work she is likely to receive her reward. In the
realm of thought sex does not determine the value
of work. It would seem, then, that present
tendencies suggest the necessity of a thorough
education for girls. If it be a question as to what
should be done for boys, there can be no question
as to what should be done for girls. They must
be educated; they must know something of many
things; they must know much of some one thing,
and they must be able to do something.
Education has for its great purpose the refining
and purifying of the character, the attaining of
that fine self-possession which gives a classical
repose, a gentle dignity of bearing, a loftiness of
ideals; but this purpose may be even more fully
attained through a mastery of knowledge in its
applications to the great problems that arise out
of the needs of man. Applied knowledge brings
to the student all the real culture, all the disci-
pline that knowledge pursued for its own sake
can afford, and vastly more. When the ideal in
the education of woman is approached there will
be a finer adjustment of the work of the world.
15
Women will not be trying to do man's work
and men will be doing theirs in better fashion.
Women as well as men will learn that out of
chaos may come law and order-that education
has taken on a loftier significance, that it means
more than the cherishing of unrealized ideals.
Again, it may be said with emphasis that
young women of to-day do not wait for necessity
to urge them to take up some kind of work. It
is the growing fashion of the time for the daugh-
ters of the well-to-do, even wealthy, families to
busy themselves with some regular work. The
do-nothing girl has become unfashionable. The
size of the father's bank account is not any
longer the potent factor it once was. In the new
time that is so full of promise many girls will find
work that shall bring far greater returns than
those measured in dollars and cents. When
society is more fully alive to the true significance
of duty to one's fellows then will the sentiment
"each for all and all for each" take on a new
meaning. We are only beginning to understand.
the thought implied in public welfare. Reforms
are to be wrought out through the application of
16
physical laws.
The public health is to be
guarded, roads are to be made, buildings are to
be fashioned. The young woman who would
commit almost a crime were she to attempt to
teach children, not understanding or appreciating
the delicacy of the task, could see to it that her
scientific training is used in securing to them well
ventilated, properly lighted school rooms; she
could see to it that some immunity against deadly
disease is secured to the school children. In short,
the educated girl need not go far from her own
door, if she have inclination and fitness, to find a
great world waiting to be helped to a cleaner,
safer, happier life. We must put a fuller sig-
nification into our old-time appellations. The
"humanities," language, rhetoric, poetry, etc.,
have stood as definite sources of culture, but in
the future the term must be broadened-" human-
ities" must include all of that great body of
knowledge which tends toward human well-
being. The girl of to-day must help to turn the
sighs of struggling humanity into songs of rejoic
ing for the dawning of a better day.
¡
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GRADUATE LIBRARY
CARKEL BOOK
APR 0 5 1974
DATE DUE

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