On being questioned, Miss Beale explained in detail the whole system of the College, interesting the Commissioners in the method of teaching Euclid, one which at some points antedated by many years the present teaching of geometry in the public schools, and which has lately been adopted by the universities. At a time when schoolboys were learning Euclid by heart, Miss Beale was teaching it to girls by a method of explanation which they had to follow and finally reproduce without any learning by rote.
With regard to the teaching of Holy Scripture she said, ‘Each class teacher takes her own class, and that, I think, very important’; but on this subject little was said.
On the question of discipline and moral difficulties she explained that the government of the College was chiefly by personal influence, and that her plan was to make use of very simple means, such as changing the seat of a child who was suspected of being dishonest in her work. ‘It is a small thing, but it indicates want of trust, and it is by small things we govern.’ Such discipline obviously appeared slight to Dr. Storrar, who asked on hearing it, ‘Perhaps girls are more sensitive than boys in such matters?’ ‘I will not attempt to decide,’ replied Miss Beale, ‘but my opinion is that they are not.’
Asked her opinion on a system of examination, Miss Beale recommended a general Board for the examination of teachers, to be founded with national sanction, and an inspection of the schools under the management of those who had passed the examination. ‘There is one other point,’ she added: ‘the cause might be helped on by the establishment of a model school for the training of teachers; I hardly know how such would work.’
The evidence of the Commission, published in 1868, produced a great impression on Mrs. William Grey and her sister, Miss Shireff. Under their able leadership there was formed, in 1871, ‘The National Union for Improving the Education of Women,’ for the purpose of organising effort and helping to create a sounder public opinion with regard to education itself. The work of this society led two years later to the foundation of the Girls’ Public Day-School Company. By this agency, which was commercial as well as educational, High Schools were established in most of the important towns of England. There followed the numerous independent efforts and companies which have covered the country with a network of secondary schools for girls. In 1872, Miss Buss giving up her private property in her very successful school, by an act of self-sacrifice and generosity made it a public school by placing it in trust. A lower school was also established in Camden Town under the same management.
Miss Emily Davies also found her work aided by the Commission. She was largely instrumental in the opening of Local Examinations to girls. The foundation of the first women’s college at a university was laid by her when, in 1873, the college she had opened at Hitchin four years earlier was removed to Cambridge, where it became known as Girton. This step was perhaps even less of a venture, though more startling to the public mind, than the first beginning at Hitchin. Of this Miss Maria Hackett had written to Miss Beale:—
‘The proposed Foundation of a College for the Superior Education of Women is another most important measure in the same direction. I had much correspondence about twenty years ago, with your dear father, Mr. Mackenzie, and Mr. Storrs, on the subject, but I did not venture upon so extensive a scheme.’
Public examinations for girls necessarily followed the work of the Commission, the opening of women’s colleges, and the establishment of public schools for girls. Head-mistresses were called upon to face all the difficulties and drawbacks of these, as well as to accept their advantages, and in some cases also to incur odium, as they worked with measures which they knew to be not in themselves the best, but only the best attainable. Miss Beale had her own vision of what a public examination for girls should be. She had said at Bristol in 1865 that parents
‘are afraid of popular outcry, afraid that their children should take a low place, forgetting that (if the examination be conducted without any of the improper excitement of publicity), it is also a test and means of moral training, since those who work from the right motives simply do their best and are not overanxious about results. I do not desire that there should be a system of competitive examinations, but a general testing of the work done, and if this cannot be responded to in a quiet, lady-like manner, it does not speak well for the moral training of the school.’
She had also said:—