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    170 MIDDLE CLASS SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS.

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    It Is Very Easy To Find Fault With Our N...

    tion to the subject , so that it may be inquired into by all who have the opportunity . The number of these schools is enormousand

    , their influence on the future welfare of England very considerable ; so that it is well worth while to know something about what passes

    within them . Does the Government aid to the National Schools injuriously affect these schools ? What is the education and training

    of the mistresses . ? What education is _usiially given ? What books and apparatus are used ? & c . These and other questions should be

    inquired into , but it is exceedingly difficult to visit such establishments : they are privateand I have found the mistresses exceedingly

    jealous of inspection , most , unwilling to show a stranger ( and quite naturally ) anything of the school booksor to answer any questions .

    , The first school of this class which I visited was in a large country village , to which the small farmers and shopkeepers sent their

    daughters . It was considered a most respectable and superior establishment _\ the lady principal boasted of having an accomplished Indian lady to

    teach _langiiages and _lmisic ; I went with a farmer ' s daughter , who was an old pupiland whose extraordinary deficiency in reading and

    , writing at the age of thirteen quite excited my curiosity . The lady principal was a poor sickly creature utterly unfit for anything , but

    who had been obliged to do something for a livelihood . She had a certain kind of flabby ladylike manner which quite awed my blunt

    honest farmer friends . The school was conducted on the most old fashioned system ; the books were out of date , and the children were

    taught after this fashion , that there were four elements , earth , air , fireand water ! The Indian ladythe boast of the establishment ,

    , , was a negress , a "dashing ignorant American , who thought the most important part of her duty was to teach deportment and the small

    manners and vanities supposed to transmute the little female clod " hoppers into elegant young ladies .

    Other schools which I visited proved as bad ; and of the many of which I have received reports from trustworthy personsfew have

    , been much better . The teachers have little knowledge , and no idea that there is a difficult art called teaching which must be learnt .

    . Mistresses of such schools have often told me they _toere not used to ivor _/ c—were ladiesand quite unfit for this sort of thing

    We have , heard of , harshness and the indulgence of tyranny unchecked by any super vision or any public inspection , * cases of extreme

    atrocity are fresh in the minds of all . In one day I heard of two cases of blows being given for mistakes in reading ; and I am

    convinced that these ignorant , disappointed , and soured teachers oftener act harshly and misuse their despotic power than is at all supposed .

    • Despotic power over children , without a parent ' s natural and restraining affection , is a dangerous thing .

    Parents sometimes send their children to National and British Schoolsoften having tried private schools and found them fail _; we

    have often , questioned children from these schools , and generally

    • found them terribly ignorant .

    170 Middle Class Schools For Girls.

    170 MIDDLE _CLASS SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1860, page 170, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111860/page/26/