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Sex And Education: A Reply To Dr. E.H. Clarke's "Sex In Education"

Creator: Julia Ward Howe (author)
Date: 1874
Publisher: Roberts Brothers, Boston
Source: Available at selected libraries

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by ROBERTS BROTHERS, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

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Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son.

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CONTENTS.

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PAGE
INTRODUCTION5
ART.
I. JULIA WARD HOWE 13
II THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. (From the "Woman's Journal," Nov. 8 and 15, 1873.32
III. MRS. HORACE MANN 52
IV. ADA SHEPARD BADGER72
V. CAROLINE H. DALL 87
VI BY C. 109
VII. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS. 126
VIII. FROM "BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER".139
IX. MERCY B. JACKSON150
X. PROFESSOR BASCOM164
XI. ABBY W. MAY 170
XII. MARIA A. ELMORE174
XIII. A. C. GARLAND. (From "Providence Journal.")183

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TESTIMONY FROM COLLEGES 191

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Vassar College 191
Antioch College 196
Michigan University 199
Lombard University 201
Oberlin College 202

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INTRODUCTION.

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I DO not know that I can better introduce this volume than by saying that it contains the views of a number of thoughtful persons, chiefly women, upon the matters treated of in Dr. EDWARD H. CLARKE'S work entitled "Sex in Education," and upon the book itself. Nearly all the papers here presented were contributed to various publications soon after the appearance of that book; several of them have been revised by their authors. Each is an independent expression of opinion, modified by no plan or intention of subsequent combination. The general agreement in their tenor, and the permission to republish them at this time and in this form, afford the only ground upon which the Editor can assume to speak for their authors. Her "we" therefore must be taken with this limitation.

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Most of the writers are experienced in the office of tuition, and in the observation of its effects. All of them have had occasion to form their own theories of what is desirable for the improvement of the condition of women. The facts and experience of their lives have led them far from Dr. Clarke's conclusions. To most of them, his book seems to have found a chance at the girls, rather than a chance for them. All could wish that he had not played his sex-symphony so harshly, so loudly, or in so public a manner. But since he has awakened public attention with his discovered discord, all would gladly combine in reassuring mankind of the compatibility of its foremost interests. Dr. Clarke's discord exists not in nature, but in his own thought. An appeal to the great laws of harmony will be sure to solve it, and set it out of sight.

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Most of us feel compelled to characterize this book in one aspect as an intrusion into the sacred domain of womanly privacy. No woman could publish facts and speculations concerning the special physical economy of the other sex, on so free and careless a plane, without incurring the gravest rebuke for insolence and immodesty. And yet it is important that mothers should know enough of these to guide and influence their sons in the right direction. But no man could endure the thought of having the physical functions peculiar to his sex so unveiled before the common sight of society, so suggested to and imposed upon its common talk. However, then, people may differ concerning the coarseness or refinement of the book, all must, we think, agree that its method violates the Christian rule of doing to others exactly as we would have them do to us.

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Despite Dr. Clarke's prominent position in this community, we do not feel compelled to regard him as the supreme authority on the subjects of which he treats. The object, then, of our publication is twofold. First and foremost we wish to put in a solid and tangible form the impression which his book makes upon men and women to whom the interests of Woman and of Humanity have long been the theme of careful study and anxious thought. And in the second place we desire to appeal to the wisdom and chivalry of the two professions on whose blended domain the book imposes its forced and absolute conclusions.

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To those most eminent in physics and in sociology we would say: "Take the social mixture of to-day, with its antecedents and concomitants. Analyze it fairly and thoroughly, and then tell us if the over-education of women is its most poisonous ingredient."

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To the high courts of education we would say: "Remodel carefully your laws and ordinances. The mischiefs arising from the separation of the sexes during the period of education are such as to make their co-education imperative. Youth cannot be driven and overworked in one sex with more impunity than in the other. Boys as well as girls break down under severe study, men as well as women, and at least as often. Let a milder and more humane régime be devised and enforced. No one loses health through the lessons of wisdom wisely explained. It is the hurried, undigested (also indigestible) tuition which nauseates and fatigues. Let the community be careful not only of what is taught, but of how it is taught. And above all, in view of the good of society, let not man and woman, who are to be partners in all the earnest tasks of life, come forth from a separate and unequal discipline, to meet as strangers in their fiery youth. What knowledge of character, what insight into sympathy and compatibility, may we not hope to find among young people who have met in the august presence of wisdom and science; who have assisted each other, not in the mazes of a bewildering dance, but in noble operations of intellect, in unravelling the problems of the, ages, in building the structure of the social world!"

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