(The Perry Pictures, Copyright, 1898, by E. A. Perry, Malden, Mass.)
One consequence of this low pay has been to accent a tendency which is fast removing education from the list of those professions in which men will engage. From 1870–71 to 1896–97 the percentage of male teachers decreased from 41.0 to 32.6; especially is this true in the older States. This is in striking contrast with one hundred years ago, when, except in infant schools, teachers were almost universally of the male sex. A variety of causes may be given for this change. The preëminent fitness of women for guiding the child during certain ages is acknowledged. Again, the decline of the rod and the introduction of a happy sympathy between teacher and pupil have helped the tendency.
But of all the forces which have contributed to this change, none has been more potent than the great increase of opportunities for the higher education of women. At the beginning of the century the United States was not behind European nations in its provision for the education of young women. No one thought of making anything like the same provision for both sexes. Women were refused admission to the colleges, and were obliged to content themselves with an elementary education or else meet the expense of private tutorage. Gradually, in protest against this state of things, girls’ seminaries were opened and girls’ high schools were established in the large cities. The idea of a seminary, “which should be to young women what the college is to young men,” was first given definite shape by Mary Lyon, who collected funds for that purpose, and in 1837, two hundred years after Harvard, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary was opened. Its success was complete; it offered the regular English and classical course, and its graduates entered generally into the teaching profession. Presently, colleges for women were incorporated, of which to-day the best known are Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, and Bryn Mawr. As the demand for the higher education of women increased, presently it was queried, why may not the two sexes be trained in the same institution? Is there any real necessity for a duplication of plants with the consequent weakening of resources? The West has advanced far beyond the East toward co-education. Oberlin College, founded in 1833, opened its doors to both sexes from the first, and most of the institutions that derive their spirit from the West have followed the same plan. As a result, some of the city systems are trying co-education in their high schools and elementary grades, and thus far, while there are many opponents, the general verdict is favorable.
IDEAL SCHOOLHOUSE AND GROUNDS. (Courtesy of Agricultural Department, Cornell University.)
But the women were not content with a general collegiate training or a normal course that fitted only for teaching. Within recent years they have entered into the other professions with a keen enthusiasm. They are allowed, in a few institutions, to take theological courses fitting for the ministry. The first woman physician was graduated in 1849 from the school at Geneva, N. Y.; since that time special medical schools for women have been opened and some colleges have decided to admit women on the same terms as the other sex. In most law schools, women may be admitted, and in several States there are women practicing at the bar. While the influence of tradition has been strong, yet there is to-day no reason why an American woman should not receive as full an education and as complete a training as her brother.
SUGGESTION FOR PLANTING A SCHOOLGROUND.
(Courtesy of Agricultural Department Cornell University.)
In considering the changes in school-life, the improvement in buildings and equipment must not be overlooked. With the appreciation of the value of education, there has come an attention to the environment of the pupil that manifests itself in the provision of text-books, in the erection of larger and better ventilated buildings, and in the adornment of school grounds. School architecture, especially where populations are dense, has become an important science, involving problems of light, heat, ventilation, etc., together with questions of furniture, fire-proof construction and playgrounds. There was a time when the most interest was aroused by the exterior, that the school might be an adornment to its neighborhood. To-day the important problems of arrangement receive the most attention, and deservedly so. We give two suggestive pictures of modern schoolhouses. Professor Liberty H. Bailey of Cornell University, in a pamphlet which has been extensively circulated, has advocated a judicious arrangement of shrubbery around a schoolhouse, as space permitted, with a view to the elimination of all bare and cheerless features from the landscape. This is especially adapted to country districts. As a comparison, the new Central High School of Philadelphia is given as one of the best types of a complete city schoolhouse. It has been erected at a total cost of over one million dollars.