On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    176 MI-DDIiE CLASS SCHOOLS EOR GIRLS.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

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

    them _, wrote * 9 { decimal point nine /) . Yet most-of these children ¦ were very far advanced in the arithmetic book . A clever teacher

    _, with a quick original mind , will turn all lessons to practical account , and finding out what will be the probable future of her pupils ,

    prepare them for it and keep it before their minds . While the essential duties of these future women as mothers ,

    house-keepers , and governors of families must always be kept in view before and beyond every other object , the fact that most of

    the girls will probably have to work during- some years for their own livelihood must not be lost sight of . The advantages and

    disadvantages of the different employments for women ought to be laid . before the elder pupils , and the principles of social and political

    economy taught to them . They should above all be taught the vast resources of our colonies , and fitted to be emigrants by giving them

    independent habits , quickness to help themselves in emergencies , and an intimate _acquaintance with the countries they may visit .

    The history of our colonies , their geography , and products , should be familiar to them ; then there would be no . danger of girls refusing ,

    as I have known many do , to leave England , fearing everything of which they know nothing . I have known numerous instances

    of brothers aiid husbands departing alone for Australia , the Cape , and America , because their sisters and wives drew back with horror

    from daring the utterly unknown . The daughter of a nursery gardener , about thirty years of age , told me tremblingly that she

    had consented to go with her family to Australia , " but how she was to get through the earth to the other side , where she

    understood Australia to be , she did not in the least know . " This is only to be equalled by a schoolmistress who wrote to me that she

    actually did pass through three regions to arrive at the Cape of Good Hope—the region of ice , the region of fire , and the region of

    wind ! In these middle class schools for girls , no public exhibitions , or

    prizes , or displays , should be encouraged . If any public examinations are thought necessary , they should be very cautiously

    conducted , as such examinations are generally productive of more moral mischief than intellectual good . No schools should be

    entirely closed to the public . It is a good plan to examine the children by dictated written questions as well as by vocal questions ;

    and these written questions and answers should be kept and compared at stated intervals , in this manner progress in writing ,

    spelling , and general neatness can be tested , as well as the proficiency of the children in special branches of knowledge . A clever

    teacher will make of these dictations a very useful lesson , and also a thorough test of the general intelligence of the pupils . These

    questions should cover a wide field of thought and observation , and care should be taken to make the children sometimes answer by

    means of drawing plans and forms from memory .

    I will conclude by reiterating the main points of this paper .

    176 Mi-Ddiie Class Schools Eor Girls.

    176 _MI-DDIiE CLASS SCHOOLS EOR GIRLS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1860, page 176, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111860/page/32/