A commonly held view of mid-nineteenth century physicians, especially in New England, was that young schoolgirls should not be worked too hard and too long at their studies. The editorial below from a highly-respected medical journal is evidence of this unwarranted belief.
Every effort in the school now is to cultivate their minds at the expense of their bodies. They consequently have a sickly life, if perchance it is not cut off in early girlhood; they make poor mothers, are unable to nurse their children in many instances with a tendency to some of the most distressing complaints, and disease is propagated to their children. Much of this arises from the popular mistake that young misses must study algebra, chemistry, scientific botany, Latin, and perhaps Greek and Hebrew, by the time they are fifteen, in order to become ladies. They have no frolicking girlhood—because it is plebeian to romp out of doors with freedom, as nature intended in order to strengthen and perfect their delicate organization. A knowledge of domestic economy is decidely vulgar, and belongs to poor kitchen girls, whose red cheeks, round arms, splendid busts and fine health are perfectly contemptible. There is a kind of imagined gentility in always being under the care of a doctor, and jaunting through the country in pursuit of air, water, or expensive medical advice. Physicians deplore this wretched system, without being able to awaken public sentiment to its destructive character. Teachers are also aware of it, and exert themselves at times to counteract the evils which their every-day lessons exert on the frail, delicate pupils under their charge; but, alas, the poison and antidote are taken at once, and they exhibit the effects of their bad treatment, aided by silk hose in January, thin shoes, the impure atmosphere of crowded rooms and cold night air. Parents are the persons to blame and not the instructors of their children. Young girls are put to school too early and worked too hard and too long at their studies. More active play and fewer books, pudding-making in the place of algebraical equations, with a free exercise of their feet, which were actually designed for walking, would produce a race of women in our midst, such as cannot now be found, in regard to figure, capacity and beauty. What father has the moral courage to set the example, by allowing his daughters to become the angelic creatures they were designed to be, buoyant with spirit, vigor and health, fit companions of man, and the glory of an advanced civilization? Let them gambol in the open air, and, when indoors, act out the governing instincts of their nature in manufacturing rag dolls, till by means of bodily health and vigor, a foundation is laid for intellectual pursuits, and then and not before, may they with safety begin to be exercised in abstract, educational studies.
“A Maturity of Thought Very Rare in Young Girls”: Women’s Public Engagement in Nineteenth-Century High School Commencement Essays
