318

IX. Oberlin College _Adelia A. F. Johnston._ 329

X. Vassar College. _Alida C. Avery, M.D._ 346

XI. Antioch College " " 362

XII. Letter from a German Woman _Mrs. Ogden N. Rood._ 363

XIII. Review of "Sex in Education." _Editor._ 368

XIV. Appendix. 392

"Die Weltgeschichte ist der Fortschritt in das Bewusstseyn der
Freiheit."--HEGEL.

THE EDUCATION

OF

AMERICAN GIRLS.

"Who educates a woman, educates a race."

THE

EDUCATION OF AMERICAN

GIRLS.

There seems to be at present no subject more capable of exciting and
holding attention among thoughtful people in America, than the question
of the Education of Girls. We may answer it as we will, we may refuse to
answer it, but it will not be postponed, and it will be heard; and until
it is answered on more rational grounds than that of previous custom, or
of preconceived opinion, it may be expected to present itself at every
turn, to crop out of every stratum of civilized thought. Nor is woman to
blame if the question of her education occupies so much attention. The
demands made are not hers--the continual agitation is not primarily of
her creating. It is simply the tendency of the age, of which it is only
the index. It would be as much out of place to blame the weights of a
clock for the moving of the hands, while, acted upon by an unseen, but
constant force, they descend slowly but steadily towards the earth.

That this is true, is attested by the widely-spread discussion and the
contemporaneous attempts at reform in widely-separated countries. While
the women in America are striving for a more complete development of
their powers, the English women are, in their own way, and quite
independently, forcing their right at least to be examined if not to be
taught, and the Russian women are asserting that the one object toward
which they will bend all their efforts of reform is "the securing of a
solid education from the foundation up." When the water in the Scotch
lakes rises and falls, as the quay in Lisbon sinks, we know that the
cause of both must lie far below, and be independent of either locality.

The agitation of itself is wearisome, but its existence proves that it
must be quieted, and it can be so quieted