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    222 ON THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS,

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    «. The It Is Female Encouraging Tion 1 T...

    tlieir stead . _TJie ribbons and laces inust be sold , and if women are not well enough taught to act as saleswomen without occasioning

    delays and inconvenience to the customers by their want of quickness , men will assuredly be employed for the purpose . The good

    instruction given in National Schools is of little use in fitting- girls to take these situations , for as the scholars generally belong to the

    class of laboring poor , they rarely possess the requisite manners and appearance , nor can they make any money deposit as a security

    for honesty , which is not unfrequently required . It is a curious anomaly , that girls of the lower orders are provided

    with a superior education , of which , for the above reasons , they can make little use , while nothing of the kind is within the reach of

    the poorer division of the middle classes , to whom good instruction would be of such inestimable value .

    There are several other branches of _jDractical education , besides arithmetic and book-keeping , which might be taught in

    middleclass schools with great advantage , but it would take too much space to enumerate them . Perhaps , however , it may be said , that

    as there are _already complaints that the market for educated "women is overstocked , it -would be worse than useless to train others to

    enter it , but everything depends on the kind of instruction given . Of _j _^ ractically and specially educated women there is an actual

    scarcity , there being for instance , at this moment , a great demand for them as matrons of charitable institutions , a demand that cannot :

    be supplied , as women of the working classes , though often well educated , are unsuitable in other respects , while middle-class women

    are too ignorant . But it is _jDerfectly true , that there is a great surplus of unpractically educated _accomplished women , as is shown

    by the numbers who become governesses , and by the low rate of remuneration they receive . It is shown also by the crowds of those

    who , too ill-taught even to be teachers , still call themselves educated women , and are anxiously , and of course vainly , seeking * for some

    employment by which bodily weakness and mental ignorance combined may be enabled to earn a livelihood .

    These , are the very people produced by the private schools , of which we have been speaking , whose sufferings are so much to be

    deplored , and whose numbers we seek to diminish by means of special and practical instruction . At present the evil has an

    inclination to multiply itself ; for as practically and specially educated women can obtain well remunerated work , they do not care to teach

    , and consequently useful learning is expensive , while the number of persons who try to live by teaching accomplishmentsmakes

    accom-, plishments cheap to learn , and people learn them as they buy bargains , purchasing what is of no use because it is cheaper than

    what would really be of service . The only way to check this is to provide useful instruction at a

    cheap rate .

    If any one is afraid that by enabling women to engage in remu-

    222 On The Education Of Girls,

    222 ON THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS ,

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1860, page 222, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121860/page/6/