The Education of American Girls | Page 4

in our efforts to prevent those we fall into
quite as dangerous ones on the other side. More than in any other
country, then, it were well for us to follow in the paths already laid out
by the thinkers of Germany. I shall, therefore, make no apology for
using as guide the main divisions of the great philosophers of that

nation, who alone, in modern times, have made for Education a place
among the sciences. Truth is of no country, but belongs to whoever can
comprehend it.
Nor do I apologize for speaking of what may be called small things nor
for dealing with minor details. "When the fame of Heraclitus was
celebrated throughout Greece, there were certain persons that had a
curiosity to see so great a man. They came, and as it happened, found
him warming himself in a kitchen. The meanness of the place
occasioned them to stop, upon which the philosopher thus accosted
them: 'Enter,' said he, 'boldly, for here too there are gods!'" Following
so ancient and wise an authority, I also say to myself in speaking of
these things which seem small and mean: Enter boldly, for here too
there are gods; nay, perchance we shall thereby enter the very temple of
the goddess Hygeia herself.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION,
OR,
THE CULTURE OF THE BODY.
"Hæc ante exitium primis dant signa diebus."--Virgil.
"Now my belief is--and this is a matter upon which I should like to
have your opinion, but my own belief is--not that the good body
improves the soul, but that the good soul improves the body. What do
you say?"--PLATO, REP. BOOK III.
If we could literally translate the German word Fertigkeiten into
Readinesses, and use it as a good English word, we should then have a
term under which to group many arts of which a fully educated woman
should have some knowledge--I mean cooking, sewing, sweeping,
dusting, etc. When a woman is mistress of these, she is called capable,
that good old word, heard oftener in New England than elsewhere,
which carries with it a sweet savor of comfort and rest. Some
knowledge of these should undoubtedly constitute a part of the

education of our girls; but the "how much" is a quantity which varies
very materially as the years go by. For instance, the art of knitting
stockings was considered in the days of our grandmothers one to which
much time must be devoted, and those of us who were born in New
England doubtless well recollect the time when, to the music of the tall
old kitchen clock, we slowly, laboriously and yet triumphantly, "bound
off" our first heel, or "narrowed off" our first toe.
But weaving machines can do this work now with far greater precision;
and while stockings are so good and so cheap, is it worth while for our
girls to spend long hours in the slow process of looping stitches into
each other? Would not the same time be better spent in the open air and
the sunshine, than in-doors, with cramped fingers and bent back over
the knitting-needles?
Of Sewing, nearly the same might be said, since the invention of
machines for the purpose. Sewing is a fine art, and those of us who can
boast of being neat seamstresses do confess to a certain degree of pride
in the boast. But the satisfaction arises from the well-doing, and not
from the fact that it is Sewing well done; for anything well and
thoroughly done, even if it be only boot-blacking on a street corner, or
throwing paper torpedoes in a theatre orchestra to imitate the crack of a
whip in the "Postilion Galop," gives to its doer the same sense of
self-satisfaction. It would be folly now, as it may have been in old
times, for our girls to spend their hours and try their eyes over
back-stitching for collars, etc., when any one out of a hundred cheap
machines can do it not only in less time but far better, and the money
which could be saved in many ways, by wisdom in housekeeping and
caring for the health of children, would buy a machine for every family.
This matter of stitching being done for us, then, we may say that the
other varieties of sewing required are very few: "sewing
over-and-over," or "top-stitching" as the Irish call it, hemming, button
sewing, button-hole making, and gathering. Indeed, hemming,
including felling, might be also omitted, as, with a very few exceptions,
hems and fells are also handed over to the rapid machine; and
"over-casting" is but a variety of "top-stitching." There are then only
four things which a girl really needs to be taught to do, so far as the

mere manual facility goes--"to sew over-and-over;" to put on a button;
to gather,