The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

The Modern Training of Girls.

(Continued from page 254).

Most of the objections that are brought against the modern teaching of girls, are really applicable to the training of the youth of both sexes. Mr. Hutchinson, in his Hunterian oration, has summed up the principles of advance in educational reform as concisely as it can possibly be done.

"Let our education become more objective, and concern things rather than books. Let us renounce utterly all remnants of the methods, by which the pedagogues of the past so often succeeded in making the very name of education distasteful. Let us trust to the intrinsic attractions of our subjects, and resort as little as possible to compulsion in respect to methods of study. Let our examinations become more objective and less verbal, and the examiner will soon be recognised as the friend and not the torturer of the candidate. Above all let us avoid the error of trying to make all minds fit into one and the same mould, and whilst doing all we can to encourage breadth in preliminary study, let us remember that there have arisen from time to time men, who without its aid, have brought gain to science and credit to themselves and their profession. Lastly, in reference to our University schemes and curricula of studies, let us remember Hunter's aphorism, that life precedes and causes organisation, not organisation life, and beware lest by the premature imposition of a too artfully contrived organisation, we hinder the development of life."

I believe that the science of education is being slowly advanced by means of experiments, and that as the aim of the teacher is slowly changing, so the mode of reaching it is being gradually modified. The mistakes that accompany valuable experiments are an essential part of ultimate success, and the principle of the higher education of women out not to be condemned, because mistakes have been occasionally committed by pioneers.

Sir James Paget tells us that he has paid attention to the subject of teaching, and that his study of the question has made him slow to dogmatise on it, but he certainly does not propose to withhold from girls the advantages, which he expects their brothers to enjoy. Sir James stated at a Speech-day at Shrewsbury School that "he had in his occupation of late years, had some opportunity to trying to ascertain which was the best subject for a boy to study, but all his efforts to ascertain that had only left him in greater difficult than when he was entirely ignorant of the whole. Great and various as were the methods of teaching and the subjects taught, he found there was great variety still in the minds of men and boys, to say nothing of the variety of women and girls, who were just as much to be considered, and until they could solve the difficulty as to what each child was to be fitted for in manhood and womanhood, they must be content to leave a great deal to what was called chance, and do the best they could be teaching all the subjects possible." The ideally perfect education for the "weaker sex" has not been as yet devised, but then neither has this desirable object been achieved for boys. At any rate we have no right to blame those who have been attempting tot amend the education of girls, for failing to strike out in a few years an ideally perfect training for them, which all the educators, from Quintilian to Dr. Arnold, have not as yet succeeded in elaborating for boys.

Another objection which is often made against the modern training of girls is, that they have to do the work at home without the teacher's aid. Preparation of lessons leads to evening work, and that is not a part of the discipline of the physiological life. It might be thought, perhaps, that home lessons were not worth maintaining. If, however, they are rightly set they are the best antidote against cram. The child who is set to work by himself or herself without the aid of the teacher, has to find out what he or she can do in his or her own strength. In his remarks on Australian schools; Dr. Dale has some paragraphs showing that is scholars are not allowed to work by themselves, they may easily become mental mendicants, always relying on the mental alms of other people. "I went," says Dr. Dale, "into one of the Girls' High Schools and heard a Latin lesson. In a sense it as admirable. The lesson which the girls were to bring up the next morning, the teacher went over with them in the afternoon. She connected every verb with its nominative and every noun with its adjective, disentangled the construction of every sentence, and did it with great ability and clearness, so that it was simply impossible for any girl of the class who had ordinary intellectual power, to miss the syntax of the sentence. I said to her after the lesson was over, "You have left nothing for these girls to d oat home. Do you think that is the wisest way of teaching language?" The mistress intimated that it was doubtless not the wisest way to teach a language, but it was the way to cram a language, and her business was the latter.

The fact is there must be a compromise between the physician and the teacher in the matter of the training of youth. Training weans the exercise of the faculties to their fullest extent, without straining the system beyond the point of recovery from the strain. In every particular case it is not possible to define the limits between training and straining. As the power of observation increases (and this will only follow improved education) parents will be better able than most of them now are, to judge of the powers of their child, and to give directions as to their capacity for study and physical exercise. Meanwhile mistakes will occasionally be made for want of precise data to start with; for the present, apart from the brute process of trying, you cannot in many cases ascertain how far a child is different from the average in physical and mental strength.

       But the drum
       Said 'Come,'
       "You must do the sum to prove it,"
       Quoth the Yankee sounding drum

Can we contemplate with satisfaction a school in which the routine should be laid out to suit the dullest and weakest? Would it be good for sound and healthy children to be trained as though they were sickly and delicate? Would not a kind of process go on in such a school, comparable to the deterioration of eyesight in the animals that live in the dark recesses of the Kentucky caverns. By a process of panmixia the strong children having no inducement to exercise their strength, and weakness proving no disadvantage, the general average of physical and mental force would be gradually lowered. The more we study human physiology the more we marvel at the delicacy of the human organism; but, nevertheless, no practical man in dealing with himself or anyone else, will treat it as though it were to be protected by cotton wool, and kept in a special case like a chronometer. The human frame, in spite of its delicate workmanship, is constructed to stand some amount of rather rough usage, although, of course, il ne faut pas brutalized la machine.

If we examine it exclusively from the point of view of the anatomist we may make as great a mistake as if we deal with it only as the vehicle of a mind to be prepared for a pass examination. It is possible for a physician by a process of abstraction to form a physiological ideal of life, which shall be as injurious to the interests of the child as the scholastic ideal of it set up by a pass coach. It is important for purposes of study, to abstract certain groups of facts and follow out the investigation of them to its logical issue. In this process the facts studied are separated from their surroundings, which are for the time disregarded as being of no moment in the investigation. When, however, practical use is made of the results of the investigation, the importance of the surroundings which have been previously ignored must again betaken into account, or else you attempt to realise an abstraction than which no task is more futile. The mixed conditions of success in life under which we live at all, render it imperative that we take the physiological ideal of life as a guide to living, and not as the end of life. So long as life is a warfare, or at least a struggle for well being, it will be liable to some of the troubles of war, and we cannot place the head of the Ambulance Department in the post of Commander-in-Chief of the army.

Then again we are intimidated by vital statistics, and we hear much of diseases which are on the increase in girls of school age, and little of those which are waning. It is easy to assert that the increase of High Schools is at the bottom of the increase of diseases, and it heightens the alarm to ignore the illnesses that are decreasing. I think, however, that attention should be paid to facts of which no statistics are forthcoming, and yet are familiar to those who remember the routine which the Higher Education of Women has superseded. What was the scene of there old fashioned and over-praised home education, which has been superseded by High School Education? Was it not too often the smallest back room on the ground floor, such as in well regulated modern houses is reserved for a smoking apartment? Was the atmosphere of this schoolroom so invigorating that appetites were always healthy, and that when bedtime came there were no apprehensions of sleepless nights or of what dreams might come in them? Was the dull monotony of lessons and constitutional walks productive of none but rosy cheeks? Statistics here are not to be had. In the absence of others I can supply a few of my own. One young lady for instance, whom I knew, had sixteen illnesses between Christmas and Easter, in spite of the advantages of the old-fashioned system of education. Indeed she may have had more, because the method of forming this numerical statement was based on counting the numbers of her medicine bottles. I have assumed, for argument's sake, that each bottle represented one illness, but I admit there is a want of precision about my method, for one bottle may have served or more than one illness, or two bottles may have been consumed during one illness. I cannot be sure. It opens up, however, a fruitful field of investigation into the occurrence of megrims as we all know that science is measurement.

Perhaps, however, the greatest improvement in the training of girls of late years has been the introduction of outdoor games, which have superseded backboards and constitutional walks. In this respect the education of girls is being more and more assimilated to that of boys. Nothing but financial considerations and conventional hours, prevent girls from enjoying the use of playing fields every afternoon, as boys have done for many generations. Even here, however, critics are not satisfied. It is thought that the exhausted brain is not refreshed by physical exercise. I rather agree, however, with Professor Tyndal, who points out that there are two quite distinct kinds of fatigue which may occur together or separately. The one is mental and the other physical. The distinction between the two may best be understood by an illustration. A sportsman after an unsuccessful morning may be tramping home on a dull November day along a dull, muddy road persuaded that he has not a trace of energy left in him. Suddenly the hounds cross the road in full cry. In a moment his weariness is forgotten. He crosses field and fallow, leaping hedge and ditch as fresh as if he had just left bed on Monday morning. His weariness was mental not physical. He thoughts his muscular energy was exhausted when he was only bored, that is, mentally wearied. Similarly a scholar may be weary of grammar and yet have a large reserve of physical strength for drill, gymnastics, or games.

Thus when objectors urge that girls' education has been too much assimilated to that of boys, I contend on the contrary, that the process of assimilation has not gone far enough. Until athletics receive the same kind of attention in girls' schools as they do in boys', I shall not be satisfied with the training which they provide. If there is one feature of the Boys' Public Schools which is more characteristic of them than another, it is the attention paid to athletics. The scholarship of cricket is as much elaborated as that of Greek and Latin composition, and a boy who misses a catch on the cricket field is apt to be as severely criticized by the master as one who makes a false quantity. Since French and German experts in educational matters, when they pay professional visits to this country, find much to admire and imitate in our playing fields, surely promotors of the higher education of girls should not neglect this important side of school life. In so far as in some High Schools for Girls athletic games have not been encouraged, the fault is not that boys' education has been too closely imitated, but that it has not been followed closely enough.

Much, however, has been done to give girls the same athletic frames as boys. I would urge those who assert that the physical powers of girls are deteriorating to bear in mind the literature of the first half of this century. What can be more amusing, or in the present connection more instructive, than to compare Miss Austen's description of the fuss attending a young lady's country walk on a rainy day with Dr. Richardson's account of the exercises of the girls at the end of the 19th century.

Let me quote first from Miss Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."

"Elizabeth Bennett feeling anxious about her sister determined to go to her, though the carriage was not to be had; and as she was no horsewoman walking was her only alternative. She declared her resolution."

"How can you be so silly," cried her mother, "as to think of such a thing in all this dirt! You will not be fit to be seen when you get there."

"I shall be fit to see Jane, which is all I want."

"Is this a hint to me Lizzie," said her father, "to send for the horses?"

"No, indeed, I do not wish to avoid the walk. The distance is nothing when one has a motive; only three miles. I shall be back by dinner."

"I admire the activity of your benevolence," observed Mary, "but every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and in my opinion exertion should always be in proportion to what is required."

So much for the preliminaries. Now for the account of the walk itself.

"Elizabeth, after starting with her sisters, continued her walk alone, crossing field after field at a quick pace, jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with impatient activity, and finding herself at last within view of the house with weary ankles, dirty stockings, and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise. She was shown into the breakfast parlour, where all but Jane were assembled, and where her appearance created a great deal of surprise. That she should have walked three miles so early in the day, in such dirty weather and by herself, was almost incredible to Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley."

After this account of so highly risky and unladylike an adventure as a three mile walk across the fields, let us turn to Dr. Richardson.

"No changes," he says, "which have come over our social life in the last twenty years are more remarkable than the physical training and education of women. We have learnt that women can carry with every advantage practise physical exercises as well as men. Croquet began the beneficent evolution, cycling followed, then lawn tennis, then cricket, afterwards swimming became popular, and now there is hardly an athletic sport or exercise of any kind in which the young woman does not take her share as well as the young men. The health of women is improving under the change. There is less bloodlessness, less of what old fiction writers called swooning, less of lassitude, less of nervousness, less of hysteria, and much less of that general debility to which, for want of a better term, the words malaise and languor have been applied. Woman, in a word, is stronger than she was in olden time. With this increase of strength woman has gained in development of body and limb. She has become less distortion. The curved back, the pigeon-shaped chest, the often distorted eyeball, the myopic eye, and puny, ill-shaped external ear--all theses parts are becoming of better and more natural contour. The muscles are becoming more equally and more fully developed, and with these improvements there are growing up amongst women, models who may in due time vie with the best models that old Greek culture has left us to study in its undying art." What a consolation it ought to be to read this cheering account of the health of the present generation of young women, as given by Dr. Richardson, for those who are alarmed by the following list of diseases which Sir James Crichton Browne attributes to modern High School girls:--Neuralgia, apathetic dementia, cyclones of mania, anticyclones of melancholia, insomnia, sopor, chorea, cephalalgia, hysteria, anaemia, chlorosis, leucocyteaemia, neurasthenia, erethism, and anorexia scholastica.

After perusing the pessimistic views of some lecturers, it is as refreshing to listen to Dr. Richardson as to breathe the air of the moors after a visit to a hospital.

In conclusion, I half apologise for treating my subject in a serious spirit. In society, at least, that sort of it which begins with a capital S, a woman who is in earnest is cautioned not to become a bore. Recent fiction that best holds the mirror up to nature, indicates how little of some of the cleverest women in modern society need such a caution. It is true that the same literature suggests a doubt whether the absence of the serious makes social life quite a success. In cases where society has treated women as man's emotional supplement, and encouraged them to direct all their energies to the art of amusing him, is the result quite satisfactory? By the use of his reason man is able to abstract the best gifts and graces of boon nature, and cultivate them unnaturally into a hideous growth like a gardener's prize chrysanthemum. But the mistake of distorting a human character is far more serious than merely producing a horticultural monstrosity. Goethe has expressed the discontent of many a woman in a line of his Iphigenie in Tauris.

       Ach, wie enggebunden ist des Weibes Glück.

I will not venture to prophesy whether this will always hold true as it does now. I am convinced, however, that by assimilating the education of girls to that of boys in the way I have described, the limits of women's happiness may be indefinitely enlarged. A training for girls with produces gorgeous butterflies is a far from the ideal, as that which turns out domestic drudges. If my remarks contribute nothing of consequence to my all important subject, may the rising generation of girls at least give me credit of the best intentions and remember me in their orisons, while I conclude in the words of an old mass--

       Sancta Felicitas
Sancta Perpetua
Sancta Agatha
Sancta Agnes
Sancta Cecilia
Sancta Scholastica
Omnes sanctae virgines
Orate pro nobis.

Typed by Sarah Delgado, Nov. 2024