Education of Girls

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 17, 1879

Education of Girls.

The education of girls takes different forms according to the state of society in which they live. In old and well established communities, where there is permanent wealth and widely extended family connections, it is perhaps safe to educate girls as ornaments of society. But in a country like ours, where families are constantly being scattered and where the rich man of to-day may be poor and broken down to-morrow, it is not safe. The vicissitudes of life exact of girls as well as boys, a practical preparation for the uncertainties of the future.

It is a common every-day experience among women, that they need a practical knowledge of the world, and the ability to take care of themselves. A husband becomes disabled or dies and the responsibility for sustenance and education of the family devolves upon the woman. And even when property is left to women they require some knowledge of business matters to retain what they have. No man can safely assume that his daughters will not need a practical business education. On the contrary, he can assume that they will have occasion to use all the knowledge that they can obtain.

And why should we suppose that such knowledge would detract from the loveliness of women? Loveliness and ignorance are by no means synonymous terms. Unfortunately a false idea has prevailed among Americans on this subject, and we have educated girls as dolls, only to be played with and destroyed by bad men. Soft, and infantile ways, gushing manners, may be very attractive, but they do not constitute the characteristics of real womanly character. A woman, whether as a wife, mother or friend, is grandest when she is strong as well as lovely. And as she is naturally possessed of a degree of moral courage unknown to the man, why should not this grand trait be deliberately developed and made to take a practical form as soon as possible?

Many of our girls have voluntarily struck for a womanly independence and self-reliance. And no one acquainted with them will say that they are any the less attractive by reason of their fitness to fight the battle of life alone.—Sacramento Bee.