Second annual report of the Williams Secular School.

  • Williams Secular School
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second annual report of the Williams Secular School. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/48 page 19
    these subjects, to give very able introductory lessons to the youngest children. In all the classes except the sewing, the boys and girls are taught together. In philosophical subjects, the progress of the girls is not eq lal to that of the boys. Their inferiority is shewn in the power of grasping and applying general principles, and in appreciating causation. In learning matters of detail, isolated facts, and events, they are gene- rally superior to the boys. Thus, when the children are examined upon what they have just read, the girls usually answer more readily than the boys, so long as the answers are confined to the literal con- tents of the book, and answers in the words of the book are accepted ; but when they are required to supply original illustrations, or apply what they have been reading to new circumstances suggested by the teacher, the boys exhibit a decided superiority. By keeping these differences in view, and alternating the questions between the boys and the girls, they are made continually to assist each other. By comparing the conduct of boys and girls thus in school together, the moral superiority of the female character is strikingly evident. Their gentleness and docility, their kindness to each other, and conscientious faithfulness in the performance of every duty, added to the depth and earnestness of their religious emotions, render the moral government of the girls a task that is scarcely felt, and their presence is a powerful aid in the moral government of the boys. The petty jealousies, slan- derings, and other abuses chiefly originating in misdirected Love of Ap- probation, to which girls are most liable when restricted to the society of each other, are seldom manifested in the presence of boys; for their boisterous ridicule is as effective in suppressing these follies as the gentle sensitiveness of the girls is in appealing to the higher feelings of the boys and inducing them to practice moral self-restraint. When any symptoms of these jealousies manifest themselves, the teacher finds it quite sufficient to say that he has observed something of the kind, without mentioning the name, or in any way indicating the offender ; explaining at the same time, phrenologically, the origin of the folly, and that it is especially a girl’s failing. The curiosity of the boys is at once excited, and the girls, in their eagerness to avoid an exposure of their weakness, speedily adjust their differences and become better friends than ever. Affectation is treated in the same manner, the principal difficulty here being not in finding a moral remedy strong enough, but in moderating the force of its operation. In conclusion, the teachers beg to observe, that while the progress of the scholars in learning and in moral improvement has in the great majority of instances been highly satisfactory, not only to themselves, but they hope to their parents, yet it is not to be con- cealed that in individual instances they have experienced trouble and disappointment. Nature has bestowed different natural endowments n 2
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image