The rudiments of the following lessons are taught: Reading; elementary geography; history; moral lessons; object-lessons; infantile songs and games.
During our visit to the girls’ school we stopped before each class, and a few girls were called out and examined by the master or mistress presiding over their studies. All these girls were intelligent in appearance, seemed well conversant with the subject in question, and were ready with their answers. Arithmetic and mathematics generally were the only branches of study in which they appeared deficient; but on the whole the instruction (unfortunately limited to the Greek language for want of funds) is excellent. The needlework, both plain and ornamental, is copied from models brought from Paris, and the girls show as much skill in this department as they do aptitude for study in others.
I questioned the directress on the general conduct and morality of the girls, and she gave me the best account of both. No distinction is made between the rich and poor; they sit side by side in the same class, a custom which, in countries where education is more developed, would be intolerable, but which, for the present, in a place where class distinctions are not so great, tends to improve the manners of the lower without prejudice to those of the upper. The opinion of the schoolmistress was, that the girls of Salonika, whilst more docile and more easily managed, were not less intelligent than the Athenian girls, whose more independent spirit often occasioned trouble in the schools.
From this establishment has been formed a training school for girls who wish to become school-mistresses; six professors instruct in the following subjects:
I. Greek.
II. Universal history.
III. Mathematics (including arithmetic and geometry).
IV. Physics, geology, and anthropology.
V. Philosophy, psychology, παιδαγωγία.
VI. Vocal, instrumental, and theoretical music.