Work and Play in Girls' Schools / By Three Head Mistresses

by Dorothea Beale; J. F. Dove; Lucy Helen Muriel Soulsby

The animal world too is specially calculated to develop the affections rightly. The character of the human being is too complex, too far above the understanding of the child, and as long as he is dependent, he should not be exercised in observing and chronicling the doings of those whom he cannot yet understand. It is something to give him objects, on which he can exercise his powers of criticism and observation. So too the sense of responsibility may be fostered towards those who depend upon him, and are in his power.

Astronomy.These two sciences bring the child into contact with things on the earth; he might next lift up his eyes to the heavens. It delights the child to learn the names of the constellations, and trace their forms, to notice the movements of the planets, the changing aspect of the sky as the years go round. The sense of the greatness of the universe gradually dawns on him, and the awe and reverence for that power and wisdom which is revealed in the heavens, prepares the way for those deeper teachings which belong to religion. Especially stimulating is astronomy to the developing reflective powers, from the number and variety of problems it suggests; and yet it is not altogether baffling, for the child can be led on to draw conclusions respecting the movements and distances of the heavenly bodies; very early he can be shown how to solve such questions by simple processes, and thus the mathematical passion awakened; surely most of us can remember the first time that our soul really ascended into the seventh heaven. I have heard a mathematician describe what it was to him—how at fourteen he fled from the school into the fields to be alone.

Physical geography.And what next? There is something near to the child, which he can touch, which lies at his feet, a magic book with mysterious characters, in which he reads of infinite time; let him open the pages of the great rock-book, and gather the relics of the past. Geology will help him to observe in a new way; astronomy and geology (I use it in the sense of earth-history) are more suited than the two first to the beginning of the reflective period, because there is nothing to be done to alter the objects of the two last sciences—whereas we can do much, and observe the effect of our doings on plants and animals.

Physiography, including geology and all that has to do with the phenomena of Nature included under the head of physical geography, would claim a two years’ course and unify the subjects already touched on: the pupil will learn many facts on physical science.

And now the girl, say about fifteen, with an increasing power of abstraction and reflection, and a greater knowledge of mathematics, will be ready to receive more formal and definite instruction regarding what we call matter and force—elementary physics; the subjects of light and heat, electricity or chemistry might be selected; the girl is becoming the woman—the reflective powers are gaining the ascendant—she is longing to interpret more than to gain ever more knowledge, she understands something of physics and chemistry; let her return now to her first study and carry it still further, see the mysteries of life revealed in the flower, take physiological botany, the chemical changes produced by the physical processes, watch the plants as they grow, and trace the relation of flower and insect, plant and animal—recognise that all-embracing intelligence working in all, which has harmonised not only the outward things, but the intelligence of every living creature, and made each able more or less to know the laws of their life and to obey them. The developing and deepening religious instinct will find utterances from heaven in these earthly things, hear the voice of God among the trees of the garden. Later still we can pass into the inner temple, treat of physiology, show how marvellous is the living tabernacle of the soul, how fitted for our temporary abode.

It is objected by some that physiology should not be studied because it involves the whole circle of sciences, whilst others regard it as the most necessary and fundamental branch of instruction. Experienced teachers know that much of great educative and practical value can be given on the lines of Mrs. Bell’s Laws of Health, and brought home to comparatively uneducated people by the tracts of the Ladies’ Health Society, and we all know how important it is for those who are growing into womanhood, that the subject should be treated with the wisdom and judgment and reverence which it demands.

On the later stages of the teaching of natural science I do not propose to dwell. Those who take up science as a speciality will have to limit the field, and others will be guided by circumstances, but whatever special line they may follow later, such a course of study must surely have nourished the powers of the mind, developed the sympathies, disciplined the character, enlarged the horizon beyond the petty concerns which occupy the whole attention of the uneducated of all sorts and conditions. The woman who has really thought about these things, when she travels will see things with different eyes, she will understand enough to profit by the companionship of able and thoughtful men, and later perhaps to share it may be a man’s work as Miss Herschel, and Mrs. Huggins, and Mrs. Proctor, and Mrs. Marshall, and Mrs. Sidgwick and many more—to be the friend of her brothers and the first teacher of her sons—and she will surely have learned the first lesson of wisdom, the humility which knows that all we know is to know that our knowledge is as nothing in the presence of the Infinite, that if any man think that he knows, he knows nothing as he ought to know it.

I have worked out the order in detail in respect to science; it will be enough to touch very briefly on the parallel teachings in other subjects, which must also be taught scientifically.

Take, e.g., language. The child is ever observing and imitating; restless activity characterises the child.

The teacher has to perfect the observing powers by insisting on right pronunciation, as I have shown in another chapter, first in English, then in another language; knowledge is first empirical.