The Education of American Girls   By: Anna C. (Anna Callender) Brackett (1836-1911)

EDUCATION

OF

AMERICAN GIRLS.

CONSIDERED IN A SERIES OF

ESSAYS.

EDITED BY

ANNA C. BRACKETT.

"The time has arrived, when like huntsmen, we should surround the cover, and look sharp that justice does not slip away and pass out of sight and get lost; for there can be no doubt that we are in the right direction. Only try and get a sight of her, and if you come within view first, let me know." PLATO REP. BOOK IV.

[Illustration]

NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, FOURTH AVENUE AND TWENTY THIRD STREET. 1874.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

LANGE, LITTLE & CO., PRINTERS, ELECTROTYPERS AND STEREOTYPERS, 108 TO 114 WOOSTER STREET, N. Y.

TO THE

SCHOOL GIRLS AND COLLEGE GIRLS

OF

AMERICA,

BECAUSE WE BELIEVE THAT THEIR IDEALS ARE HIGH AND THAT THEY HAVE STRENGTH TO MAKE THEM REAL,

This Book is Dedicated

BY THE

WOMEN WHO, IN THE INTERVALS SNATCHED FROM DAILY LABOR,

HAVE WRITTEN IT FOR THEIR SAKES.

PREFACE.

The Table of Contents sufficiently indicates the purpose and aim of this book. The essays are the thoughts of American women, of wide and varied experience, both professional and otherwise; no one writer being responsible for the work of another. The connecting link is the common interest. Some of the names need no introduction. The author of Essay IV. has had an unusually long and varied experience in the education and care of Western girls, in schools and colleges. The author of the essay on English Girls is a graduate of Antioch, has taught for many years in different sections of this country, and has had unusual opportunities, for several years, of observing English methods and results.

The essays on the first four institutions, whose names they bear, come with the official sanction of the presiding officers of those institutions, who vouch for the correctness of the statements. Of these, VII. is by a member of the present Senior Class of the University, who has instituted very exact personal inquiries among the women students. The author of VIII. is the librarian of Mt. Holyoke Seminary. The writer of the report from Oberlin is a graduate a teacher of wide experience, and has been for three or four years the Principal of the Ladies' Department of the college. The resident physician at Vassar is too well known as such, to need any introduction.

There are many other institutions whose statistics would be equally valuable, such, for instance, as the Northwestern University of Illinois, which has not only opened its doors to girl students, but has placed women on the Board of Trustees, and in the Faculty.

From Antioch, which we desired to have fully represented, we have been disappointed in obtaining statistics, which may, however, hereafter be embodied in a second edition. In place thereof, we give the brief statement of facts found under the name of the institution, supplied by a friend.

With reference to my own part of the volume, if the words on "Physical Education" far outnumber those on the "Culture of the Intellect," and the "Culture of the Will," it can only be said that the American nation are far more liable to overlook the former than the latter two, and that the number of pages covered is by no means to be taken as an index of the relative importance of the divisions in themselves. Of the imperfection of all three, no one can be more conscious than their author. The subject is too large for any such partial treatment.

To friends, medical, clerical, and unprofessional, who have kindly given me the benefit of their criticism on different parts of the introductory essay, my thanks are due. Especially do I recognize my obligation to Dr. W. Gill Wylie, of this city, whose line of study and practice has made his criticism of great value.