The Education of American Girls Part 19

Of course, we do not claim that sick girls ought to study, any more than sick boys, or that there are, at the present time, as many girls who can endure hard study, either spasmodic or continuous, as boys. We accept the fact, that American women are sickly women; we only protest against the false theory that makes our higher schools responsible for the fact.

In Dr. Clarke's chapter upon co-education, we read that "this experiment"--meaning co-education--"has been tried in some of our western Colleges, but has not been tried long enough to show much more than its first-fruits, viz., its results while the students are in college; and of these, the only obvious ones are increased emulation, and intellectual development and attainments."

Wondering how long it must be tried before it ceases to be an experiment, we read on a few pages, when we are told that "two or three generations, at least, of the female college graduates of this sort of co-education, must come and go before any sufficient idea can be formed of the harvest it will yield." Is it not rather dangerous to wait two or three generations for the result of an experiment, when it affects so important a question as our national life? But what if the experiment has been already tried? What if we can show by actual figures that, in addition to the increased intellectual development and attainments, time has proved that there has also been physical strength "to stand the wear and tear of woman's work in life?" If we can have intellectual development and physical activity combined, is it not a thing to be devoutly wished? If there is any other conclusion to be truthfully reached, than the one which obliges a woman to feel that, for the good of the race, she must content her longings after knowledge with only a few crumbs from the rich banquet which is spread temptingly before her, why put her faith in the justice of G.o.d to such a test?

It is this conclusion, and conclusions like this, spoken in the tone of authority, which have sometimes made weak women "speak of their physical organization with half-smothered anathemas," and led them "to be ashamed of the temple" which an all-loving, and, let us also add, an all-wise Father, has built for them.

If, in the place of this conclusion, against which all a woman's instincts rebel, we may truthfully teach her that there is no antagonism between her body and her brain, and that, for the good of the race, she ought systematically to develop both, we remove all stumbling blocks from her way, we lighten her burdens, we make her brave to endure, because our teachings correspond with all her preconceived ideas of justice and benevolence.

It was this view of the subject, rather than any belief in the modern theories of woman's sphere, that led the founders of Oberlin College to open her doors to women. She has tried the experiment for nearly two generations. Her last annual catalogue contained the names of over one hundred students, whose fathers' or mothers' names can be found in some earlier catalogue. Let us see with what results; for these are the data which Dr. Clarke says we must have, before we can reach any definite conclusion.

Oberlin has graduated, as shown by her last Triennial Catalogue, published in 1873, 579 men and 620 women. This does not include the 126 men from the Theological Seminary. Ninety-five women have graduated from the full cla.s.sical course, and received the first degree in the arts, 525 from the "Women's Course." But lest some should conclude from this name, that it stands for a diluted curriculum, suited to the weakened condition of woman's brain, or rather, her body--since we have it upon the best authority that her brain, under the most powerful microscope, shows no inferiority to man's--we will add, that the trustees of the college, at their last annual meeting, discussed the question of changing the name, and conferring a degree upon those completing this course, as Michigan University confers a degree upon those completing its Latin Scientific Course. The subject was referred to the Faculty, to be reported upon at the next Commencement.

Now, what of these 620 women, to whom Oberlin has given the privileges of a higher intellectual development? How have they stood the "wear and tear"? Surely they have been put to the test, for few of them have led inactive lives. Their names are to be found as teachers in our common schools; in our high-schools and seminaries, from Mexico to the woods of Canada; from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic; in our lists of missionaries, both in the home and foreign field; as professors in Female Medical Colleges; as founders of asylums and homes of refuge, and as leaders in all benevolent enterprises.

Now it is a law of nature, that where there is an imperfect development there is a tendency to early decay. If, then, the evils of continuous education for girls be as great as Dr. Clarke thinks, we should naturally expect to find more deaths among the Alumnae than among the Alumni of Oberlin. We turn again to the Triennial, and count the starred names. There are 60 among the former and 59 among the latter, making the per cent of deaths for the female graduates, 9.67; for the male graduates, a little over 10. But it should be mentioned that there were no women in the first cla.s.s, so that, as near as may be, the rates of mortality are the same. The number of deaths among the 95 women who have graduated from the full cla.s.sical course, is 10, making the per cent 9.5.

We see nothing here "to excite the grave alarm," but we do see something "to demand the serious attention of the community." If the question, whether girls can endure continuous education--which really means whether they shall be educated at all beyond the mere rudiments and polite nothings--is to be decided, such facts as these, to those who are honestly looking for the truth, mean more than pages of theorizing.

But some one says, tell us of the health of these 620 women. How many are hopeless invalids, dragging out "tedious days and still more tedious nights"? The limits of this essay would preclude the possibility of giving the individual history of each, even if it were known to us; but because facts here are worth so much more than general statements, and because Dr. Clarke says it is data that must decide this question, I have concluded to give the individual history, so far as known to me, of the Cla.s.s of '56. Not because there is anything peculiar in its history, but because it is my own cla.s.s, and I therefore know more about it. I take the names in alphabetical order, and call the roll:

The first answers from Buffalo, where, as a minister's wife, she finds ample opportunity to exercise all her powers. She reports good health.

The second is unmarried, and a teacher. For some years she has been working among the freedmen's schools at the South. When I last saw her, some five months since, she appeared the embodiment of good cheer and sound nerves.

The third was for eleven years a teacher in a private seminary in New York. A part of that time she had the entire charge of the school.

During the whole time she lost but two months from sickness. She is now in good health, and enjoying home life.

The fourth does not answer to any roll-call here. She came to us clad in mourning. Consumption had robbed her of a mother and sister, and we always felt that her hold upon life was slight. The years added somewhat of strength and elasticity, and we hoped against hope. She married soon after graduating, and moved to the South. When the war opened, she and her husband were obliged to flee; hunted from county to county and from State to State, they at last crossed the Ohio. No sooner had her feet touched her native soil, than, turning to him who was her all, she said--Go. She lived to see the war closed; but the watching and the waiting had been too much for her. The old family enemy claimed its victim.

The fifth, in reply to the question, "What are you doing?" answers: "Bringing up my boys. When my husband is away, besides attending to home duties, I have charge of his business, receiving and paying out large sums of money." She might have added, as I know, that she was general city missionary without pay; that, when there was no man to fill the place, she was Sabbath-school Superintendent, church organist, or leader of the choir, and that many a poor girl had had her sentence in the police court lightened through her timely intervention. I need not say that she is not an invalid.

The sixth, a dignified wife and mother, I have not seen for three years.

At that time she entered no complaint of poor health.

The seventh has been constantly employed in teaching. Once during the seventeen years the state of her health demanded a lengthening of the ordinary vacation. She gave herself to out-door exercise, and, when able to walk ten miles with perfect ease, she returned to the school-room.

She reports herself to-day as well, and offers as proof, that during the last year she has not lost a single recitation from ill-health.

The eighth I have heard from, from time to time; first, as a successful teacher, then as a successful housewife, never as an invalid.

The tenth was for many years a most earnest teacher. It is over a year since I heard from her. She was then well.

The eleventh is Preceptress of the Normal School at Ypsilanti, Michigan.

She is known throughout the State as one of its successful educators. I heard her read last week a most interesting paper, before the State Teachers' a.s.sociation. She looks as if continuous education and continuous teaching had both been good for her. When asked what she thought of Dr. Clarke's book she laughingly answered, "Look at me."

The twelfth answers from Illinois: "I am in good health, and so are my six boys. The two oldest are almost ready for college. They will, of course, go where their mother went. I am daily thankful I studied at Oberlin."

Away from the plains of Kansas comes the cheering words of the thirteenth: "A troop of merry children; good health, and a happy home."

The fourteenth writes: "Why do you ask if I am sorry that I studied at Oberlin? It is the subject over which my husband and I can grow enthusiastic at any time. My health impaired there? _No._ We hope to send our daughter soon."

The fifteenth we have not heard from for some time. We only know that as a minister's wife her life has not been an idle one. Ten years after graduating she was in ordinary health.

The sixteenth. Again we hear no response. "In Memoriam" is written over her grave.

The seventeenth lives in Mississippi. She was well when visited by some of our Union boys during the war. I have no later report to give.

The eighteenth certainly does not count herself an invalid; and

The nineteenth, who was, as a school-girl, the very personation of energy, looks forward to years of useful labor.

We are told that we must not look at the blooming cla.s.s on graduation day for the effects of co-education. We have not. We have waited seventeen years. Have we found anything there to frighten even a physiologist?

The theory of Oberlin has never been identical co-education, except in the cla.s.s-room. There "boys and girls are taught the same things, at the same time, in the same place, by the same faculty, with the same methods, and under the same regimen." But she has never held, practically or theoretically, "that boys and girls are one, and that the boys make the one," or that "boys' and girls' schools are one, and that that one is the boys' school." In all those general regulations which affect both s.e.xes, she remembers that half her children are girls: and the modifications which have consequently been made in ordinary college rules and customs, are found to be just as good for boys, and often a positive advantage. No early bell calls to chapel prayers, but, when the recitations are over, all a.s.semble for devotional exercises. There is no standing during these exercises, and the result is quiet, and an addition both to "the stock of piety," and "the stock of health."

Oberlin furnishes no pleasanter sight than this daily a.s.sembling of its thousand students for evening prayers.

Even in her architecture, simple and unpretending as it is, there is a recognition of the fact that girls are not boys. With one exception, there are no recitation rooms on the second floor; and, while the dormitories for boys are four stories high, Ladies' Hall has but two flights of stairs.

There is no effort made to excite an unhealthful emulation. Prizes are never offered, and ranking of cla.s.ses is unknown. A record is kept by each teacher, of the daily recitations in his department. If the average of any student is found to be unsatisfactory, he is informed of the fact, and an opportunity given him either to prepare for a private examination, or quietly to withdraw from his cla.s.s.

The Women's and Men's Departments are entirely distinct, the one being under the supervision of the Faculty, the other of the Ladies' Board.

This Board of Managers is at present composed of nine ladies, who live in Oberlin, and, with the exception of the lady Princ.i.p.al, are none of them teachers in the college. To them the trustees of the inst.i.tution have confided all questions touching the discipline, health, and general welfare of the girls. In doing this, they were, no doubt, actuated by the common-sense view, that women know best what women need, and that, therefore, a Board of Managers composed of experienced women and mothers would frame wiser laws for the government of girls than young tutors, or even gray-haired professors, with the best of intentions, could possibly enact.

To the women who have composed this Board, especially to those who were members during the early days of persecution, much of the success which has attended the experiment of co-education at Oberlin is due. The President of the Board, Mrs. M. P. Das...o...b.. has been identified with the interests of the inst.i.tution almost from its founding, and was for seventeen years Princ.i.p.al of the Ladies' Department. A sketch of her life may be found in _Lives of Eminent Women_. But an impress of her life is left not only in the characters of the 620 women who have graduated, but in the thousands who have studied for a limited time at Oberlin. She is to-day as energetic, as enthusiastic, as untiring in her devotion to sound education as when we first knew her twenty-two years ago. Her elastic step has yet promise in it. Her cheerful outlook upon life has the quickening influence of a June sunshine after a May shower.

Many in that last day will rise up and call her blessed.

It will be seen, from what has been said, that Oberlin, outside the recitation-room, has two distinct codes of rules, one for the girls and one for the boys. They differ widely. Boys are prohibited from smoking and drinking--no such restrictions are placed upon the girls. Experience has shown that late study-hours are injurious to the health of girls--and we have never seen it stated that they were good for boys--consequently, girls are required to retire at ten o'clock. "Now,"

says some one, with finger upraised, "if boys can study more hours than girls, they must accomplish more work, and have better lessons; then the boys are wronged by making them recite with the girls." In answer, we say, the simple fact is that they do not have better lessons; and, in proof, we ask any one to examine the cla.s.s-books of Oberlin for the last ten years. There are as many available hours for study between sunrise and 10 P.M. as any one, boy or girl, can use to advantage.

In the Ladies' Hall there is an experienced nurse, whose duty it is not only to care for the sick, but to look after the general health of all.

Special instruction upon various subjects is given the girls in the form of weekly lectures, or familiar talks, in which health, and how it may be preserved, is a leading topic.

Dr. Clarke, in great perplexity, asks doubtfully "if there might not be appropriate co-education?" We answer that there has been, for forty years at Oberlin. Not in just the sense, perhaps, in which he uses the term; not in so appropriate a way as it might have been, or, we hope, will yet be, when an improved condition of her treasury shall enable her trustees to carry out their wisely-perfected plans. But, notwithstanding the mistakes of inexperience, and the restrictions of poverty, the result has been, on the whole, satisfactory--at least, those who have tried it do not hesitate, in after years, to send back their own children.

No "inherent difficulty in adjusting, in the same inst.i.tution, the methods of instruction to the physiological needs of each s.e.x" has been found. It should not be overlooked, that there is a large Preparatory Department, composed of hundreds of boys and girls, in connection with the college, so that the experiment at Oberlin has not included a small number. Last year there were in the various departments 1,371 students, 648 of whom were girls.

The excuse of sickness for an absence is never questioned. This is well-known by every girl in the school; and yet we have never heard a Professor in the College, or a teacher in the Preparatory Department complain that girls were oftener absent than boys. The Professor in Physiology has kindly sent me the following:--"An examination of my cla.s.s-book, in all my recitations for the last five years, shows but a very slight difference in the average number of absences from recitations, for all causes, excused and unexcused, of women and men, viz.:--for each man, 35.31, for each woman, 36.76."

There is another fact which ought to be mentioned. Many of the girls who have completed a course of study at Oberlin have, at the same time, supported themselves. This they have done mostly by teaching, which has left them little time for rest or recreation even during the short vacations.[53] Of course this would have been impossible, if the expenses here were as great as in our eastern colleges; but reduce them to the lowest minimum, and, at the present rate of women's wages, the meeting of these expenses in addition to regular college-work is no slight consideration. Is it any wonder if some who might endure the one, fail under the weight of both? Several years ago, some benevolent Quaker ladies of Philadelphia gave a few hundred dollars for the benefit of this cla.s.s of girls, and within the last few months others have added to the sum. It is now proposed to secure a permanent fund of $10,000, the interest to be used in helping those who are helping themselves.

Noticing one other point, we are done. There is an intimation by our author, that boys educated in schools like Oberlin become effeminate, and girls masculine.

If such men as our United States Geologist, whose enthusiastic devotion to science has led to the exploring of the head-waters of the Yellowstone, and the opening with its rich treasures of the great Northwest--and if our representative in Congress, who voted against the salary bill and the retroactive clause, are specimens of effeminate men, the country can endure more of them.

If Mrs. Bradley, who years ago went to Siam, and, besides her numerous public duties as a missionary, has found time to carry on the education of her own children, sending back her sons, one of them, at least, fully fitted for college, and, now that her husband has been taken from her by death, still hopefully continues in the work--if Mrs. Cotting, who has so recently taught all Turkey that a rich nabob cannot force even a poor girl into an unwilling marriage; and that, in that country of harems, a woman has rights which the government is bound to respect--are masculine women, the world--humanity says, Give us more such women.

We have presented these statements not because we have any desire to enter into a controversy, but because we believe they are facts which thinking parents and teachers will be glad to know. If they have any bearing whatever upon this question, they go far towards proving that women are able physically, as well as intellectually, to meet the demands of any well-regulated college.

ADELIA A. F. JOHNSTON.