You And I,
Reader, Were We Called On To Superintend The Education Of Girls Of
Sixteen, Might Not Select, As
Favorite points either the
hypothenuse or the ancient methods of populating young colonies.
There may be, and to us on
The European side of the Atlantic there
will be, a certain amount of absurdity in the Transatlantic idea
that all knowledge is knowledge, and that it should be imparted if
it be not knowledge of evil. But as to the general result, no
fair-minded man or woman can have a doubt. That the lads and girls
in these schools are excellently educated, comes home as a fact to
the mind of any one who will look into the subject. That girl
could not have got as fair at the hypothenuse without a competent
and abiding knowledge of much that is very far beyond the outside
limits of what such girls know with us. It was at least manifest
in the other examination that the girls knew as well as I did who
were the Romans, and who were the Sabine women. That all this is
of use, was shown in the very gestures and bearings of the girl.
Emollit mores, as Colonel Newcombe used to say. That young woman
whom I had watched while she cooked her husband's dinner upon the
banks of the Mississippi had doubtless learned all about the Sabine
women, and I feel assured that she cooked her husband's dinner all
the better for that knowledge - and faced the hardships of the world
with a better front than she would have done had she been ignorant
on the subject.
In order to make a comparison between the schools of London and
those of New York, I have called them both free schools. They are,
in fact, more free in New York than they are in London; because in
New York every boy and girl, let his parentage be what it may, can
attend these schools without any payment. Thus an education as
good as the American mind can compass, prepared with every care,
carried on by highly-paid tutors, under ample surveillance,
provided with all that is most excellent in the way of rooms,
desks, books, charts, maps, and implements, is brought actually
within the reach of everybody. I need not point out to Englishmen
how different is the nature of schools in London. It must not,
however, be supposed that these are charity schools. Such is not
their nature. Let us say what we may as to the beauty of charity
as a virtue, the recipient of charity in its customary sense among
us is ever more or less degraded by the position. In the States
that has been fully understood, and the schools to which I allude
are carefully preserved from any such taint. Throughout the States
a separate tax is levied for the maintenance of these schools, and
as the taxpayer supports them, he is, of course, entitled to the
advantage which they confer. The child of the non-taxpayer is also
entitled, and to him the boon, if strictly analyzed, will come in
the shape of a charity. But under the system as it is arranged,
this is not analyzed. It is understood that the school is open to
all in the ward to which it belongs, and no inquiry is made whether
the pupil's parent has or has not paid anything toward the school's
support. I found this theory carried out so far that at the deaf
and dumb school, where some of the poorer children are wholly
provided by the institution, care is taken to clothe them in
dresses of different colors and different make, in order that
nothing may attach to them which has the appearance of a badge.
Political economists will see something of evil in this. But
philanthropists will see very much that is good.
It is not without a purpose that I have given this somewhat glowing
account of a girls' school in New York so soon after my little
picture of New York women, as they behave themselves in the streets
and street cars. It will, of course, be said that those women of
whom I have spoken, by no means in terms of admiration, are the
very girls whose education has been so excellent. This of course
is so; but I beg to remark that I have by no means said that an
excellent school education will produce all female excellencies.
The fact, I take it, is this: that seeing how high in the scale
these girls have been raised, one is anxious that they should be
raised higher. One is surprised at their pert vulgarity and
hideous airs, not because they are so low in our general
estimation, but because they are so high. Women of the same class
in London are humble enough, and therefore rarely offend us who are
squeamish. They show by their gestures that they hardly think
themselves good enough to sit by us; they apologize for their
presence; they conceive it to be their duty to be lowly in their
gesture. The question is which is best, the crouching and
crawling, or the impudent, unattractive self-composure. Not, my
reader, which action on her part may the better conduce to my
comfort or to yours. That is by no means the question. Which is
the better for the woman herself? That, I take it, is the point to
be decided. That there is something better than either, we shall
all agree - but to my thinking the crouching and crawling is the
lowest type of all.
At that school I saw some five or six hundred girls collected in
one room, and heard them sing. The singing was very pretty, and it
was all very nice; but I own that I was rather startled, and to
tell the truth somewhat abashed, when I was invited to "say a few
words to them." No idea of such a suggestion had dawned upon me,
and I felt myself quite at a loss.
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