On female education and teaching

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Wisdom with careful hand her flow'rets stress,

Knowledge in its persuasive charms she shews'

She tempts the voyager o'er the destin'd way,

And wins him by indulgence to obey.

Blows, in her system, seldom find a place,

True worth is not the offspring of disgrace;

The flexile plant bends to the vernal gale,

While in the blast, its leaves and blossoms fail.

 . . . The trust reposed in parents and preceptors, is indeed important; the character of the rising generation is in their gift, and the peace or anarchy of society must result from them.  When we consider how few parents are endowed by nature, or qualified by improvement, for the judicious discharge of duties so essential, we are almost ready to give our voice in favour of that plan, which, in a certain celebrated community, placed their youth under the tutelage of the State, committing their education to persons deliberately chosen, and properly qualified for their high office.  Yet, against this arrangement, the authority derived from the Father of the universe, forcibly pleads!  The feelings of the parent indignantly revolt; and my right to direct my own child, is, in my own estimation, unquestionable.  Well then, there remains but one remedy — Let the cultivation of the minds of man and woman, in miniature, be that of description which will, in future, enable them to assume with advantage, the guardianship of their descendants.

Much, in this momentous department, depends on female administrations; and the mother, or the woman to whom she may delegate her office, will imprint on the opening mind, characters, ideas and conclusions, which time, in all its variety of vicissitudes, will never be able to erase.

Surely then, it is politic to bestow upon the education of girls the most exact attention: Let them be able to converse correctly and elegantly, (in their native strains) with the children they may usher into being; and, since the pronunciation is best fixed in the early part of life, let them be qualified to give the little proficients a pleasing impression of the French language; nor, it is conceived, ought it to be considered as unsexual, if they were capacitated to render the rudiments of the Latin tongue familiar.  An acquaintance with history would capacitate mothers to select their nursery tales from those transactions which have actually taken place upon our globe, and thus useful knowledge would supersede fairy legendary witches, and hob-goblins.  Geography also might be introduced, and the little prattlers, by information that the great globe whereon they move, has received the form of that orange which so pleasingly regales their palate, would, ere they were aware, be ushered to the avenues of instruction.  Astronomy too may lend its aid; the blazing fire may represent the sun, and the little bird revolving to is flame, on which they so impatiently wait to feast, under the direction of the well informed and judicious tutoress, may gradually account for light and heat, the grateful vicissitudes of night and day, with the alternate succession of the seasons; and thus would the talk of the future preceptor be rendered easy, a thirst for knowledge created, and the threshold of wisdom strewed with flowers.  

But children commonly pass from the hands of their parents to that of their tutors at a very early period; and was I invested with the powers of legislation, or was the gift of conferring honours mine, there is no order of citizens which I would so liberally endow, and raise to such distinction, as those individuals who devote themselves to the education of youth.  But then they should be persons unquestionably qualified for the office, and entitled beyond all controversy to the approbation of their country.  Arduous is the undertaking — the first abilities are requisite — and it is impossible to rate too high the worth of those who are thus suitably accomplished. . . . The magnitude of my subject, bars the supposition that it can be too warmly expatiated upon.  Children, I insist, should be brought forward with gentleness.  The wife of the king of Israel was not always wife; and when he is found so petulantly exclaiming, "Spare the rod and spoil the child," the probability is, that, crowded upon by the ill-regulated offspring of his illicit and multifarious amours, he had lost that balance of equanimity, which is so proper to the philosopher.  The tutor should never be permitted to act the part of the despot; he should never be free of access, and while he uniformly preserves a mild spirit of government, the pupil, under proper regulations, should be permitted a sufficient latitude of inquiry.

Every anxious parent experiences the difficulty of obtaining a preceptor, to whom he can confide the care of his children.  But if the emoluments of the office were proportioned to the solicitude and importance of the undertaking, if it was more honorary, and if there were greater distinctions annexed thereto, an adequate number of candidates, of meritorious candidates, would present.  Countless advantages would accrue to families, and consequences the most beneficial, would result to the community at large.

The ancients, we are told, formed such just ideas of the nature and momentous consequences of education, as to esteem the cultivation of the minds of their young people among the most dignified offices; and persons of the first consideration, possessing affluence, and obtaining general confidence, engaged in the arduous task, delighting to employ themselves in shaping the principles, and pointing the views, of those who were to succeed them in the great drama of life.  And was not this perfectly right?  The good preceptor is of course ennobled; and no just reason can be given why he should not take rank in the highest grade of the community.  

For my own part, I again repeat, that deliberate reflection upon the nature of his duties, and the magnitude of those effects which frequently depend upon his regency, has constrained me to regard him as more consequential, and of higher importance, than even the authority which is constituted supreme in any country; nay, further, that school dame, reduced by adverse circumstances to confer the rudiments of instruction, and to call into action the latent seeds of worth, is of more value (supposing the judiciously and faithfully performs the trust reposed in her) in the great scale of excellence, than she, who, from considerations of wealth or beauty, receives the adulation of gathering crowds.  

This is an obvious truth, inasmuch as it is the exertions of the tutoress, succeeded by the more extensive operations of the preceptor, that will render easy the seat of the magistrate, and supersede the necessity of coercive interposition, giving universal order to take place, as naturally as the hours succeed each other, or as the blessings of light proceed from the orb of the day.  

From whence is derived the felicity of families?  Undoubtedly from a due regulation of the individuals of which they they are composed, and particularly from a proper arrangement of the young people who constitute such important parts thereof.  From what source results the well-being of the great body of the people?  Indisputably from the information, correct movements, and order of its members.  

And is not the due qualification of teachers, and the faithful discharge of the duties of their office, the broad and solid basis, on which is erected the superstructure of whatsoever is necessary in the economy of private life, public usefulness, or general celebrity?  

I say then, if these things are true, let us encourage by every means the worthy preceptor; let us cherish him as the origin of virtue; and while we discountenance every vestige of tyranny, let us firmly resolve to strengthen the hands of those, to whom we have deliberately confided the care of our children.