[CHAPTER XX.]
WOMEN AS EDUCATORS.
WOMEN AS EDUCATORS; MADAME DE GENLIS (1746-1830); PEDAGOGICAL WORKS; ENCYCLOPÆDIC EDUCATION; IMITATION OF ROUSSEAU; MISS EDGEWORTH (1767-1849); MISS HAMILTON (1758-1816); MADAME CAMPAN (1752-1822); COMMENDATION OF HOME EDUCATION; PROGRESS IN INSTRUCTION; INTEREST IN POPULAR EDUCATION; MADAME DE RÉMUSAT (1780-1821); OUTLINE OF FEMININE PSYCHOLOGY; THE SERIOUS IN EDUCATION; PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT; MADAME GUIZOT (1773-1827); LETTERS ON EDUCATION; PSYCHOLOGICAL OPTIMISM; NATURE OF THE CHILD; PHILOSOPHICAL RATIONALISM; MADAME NECKER DE SAUSSURE (1765-1841); MADAME NECKER DE SAUSSURE AND MADAME DE STAËL; PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION AND ROUSSEAU; ORIGINALITY OF MADAME NECKER DE SAUSSURE; DIVISION OF PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION; DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACULTIES; CULTURE OF THE IMAGINATION; EDUCATION OF WOMEN; MADAME PAPE-CARPENTIER (1815-1878); GENERAL CHARACTER OF HER WORKS; PRINCIPAL WORKS OF MADAME PAPE-CARPENTIER; OBJECT LESSONS; OTHER WOMEN WHO WERE EDUCATORS; DUPANLOUP AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.
562. Women as Educators.—One of the characteristic features of the pedagogy of the nineteenth century is the constant progress in the education of women. Woman will be better instructed, and at the same time she will play a more important part in instruction. Primary schools for girls did not exist, so to speak, in France, at the commencement of this century. Fourcroy, who reported the bill of May 1, 1802, declared that “the law makes no mention of girls.” But through the efforts of the monarchy of July, and still more of the liberal laws of the second and of the third Republic, the primary instruction of girls will become more and more general. Secondary public instruction will be created for women by the law of December 20, 1880, and the equality of the two sexes, in respect of education, will tend more and more to become a reality, through the influence of governmental action as well as that of private initiative.
But not less remarkable is the important part which women, by their abstract reflections or by their practical efforts, have taken in the progress of pedagogy. In the history of education, the nineteenth century will be noted for the great number of its women who were educators, some who were real philosophers and distinguished writers, and others, zealous and enthusiastic teachers.
563. Madame de Genlis (1746-1830).—While she does not belong to the nineteenth century by her pedagogical writings, Madame de Genlis has certain rights to a foremost place in the list of the educational women of our time. She had in the highest degree the pedagogic vocation; only, that vocation became a mania and was squandered on everything. Madame de Genlis wished to know everything in order that she might teach everything. “She was more than a woman author,” says Sainte-Beuve, wittily; “she was a woman teacher; she was born with the sign on her forehead.”
Young girls of their own accord play mamma with their dolls. From the age of seven, Madame de Genlis played teacher.
“I had a taste for teaching children, and I became school-mistress in a curious way.... Little boys from the village came under the window of my parents’ country-seat to play. I amused myself in watching them, and I soon took it into my head to give them lessons.”