732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



almost identical studies. The effort to cram mathematics, for instance, 

 into the female mind almost always results in failure. It is true that 

 there have been a few women distinguished as mathematicians, but 

 they have been so from natural predilection, and are exceptions to the 

 general rule. I have seen many cases of girls whose nervous systems 

 have been wofully disturbed in the endeavor to master algebra, geom- 

 etry, spherical trigonometry, and other mathematical branches of 

 knowledge that could not by any possibility be of use to them. And 

 how many women, notwithstanding all the efforts made, have even a 

 smattering of these subjects ? Their minds revolt at the idea. Never- 

 theless, not only are the higher branches of mathematics kept in the 

 curricula of many of our schools for girls, but even civil-engineering 

 and other applied mathematical studies are pursued. I do not think 

 that absurdity can go much further than this. They might as well 

 include navigation ; and as a woman was a short time ago licensed as 

 captain of a Mississippi steamboat, I shall expect to hear the fact used 

 as an argument in favor of this extension of the educational facilities 

 for girls. 



Doubtless in time the evils that I have endeavored to point out 

 this evening will be done away with. The craze for giving every 

 child a smattering of every branch of knowledge will disappear, but it 

 will probably not be in our day. All the world professes to be opposed 

 to cramming, but the system nevertheless goes on, not only unchecked, 

 but to a greater extent year after year. The days when children 

 really knew something well will doubtless come back, and the future 

 teachers in medical schools will not be disgusted as I have been 

 with the badly trained minds of many medical students who sit with 

 gaping mouths scarcely comprehending a word of a lecture, though 

 put in the simplest diction of the language. Pupils will then be 

 taught to think, and not as at present to absorb without under- 

 standing. 



One word more, and I have done. For the teachers, men and 

 women, in our public and private schools, I have the most profound 

 respect. They simply follow the system that is laid down for them, 

 and they do it, I verily believe, with a consciousness that it is faulty 

 in the extreme. They are, however, powerless to effect a change. At 

 the least suggestion toward a deviation from the beaten track, school 

 committees and commissioners of education, and, above all, blind and 

 ignorant parents, would insist upon " the pound of flesh," " the worth 

 of their money," and the cramming process would have to go on. To 

 these latter our efforts at reform must be addressed. A body such as 

 is the Nineteenth Century Club can do much toward the spread of 

 proper ideas in regard to this important matter, and, if it sees things 

 as I have endeavored to set them forth to-night, a mighty impulse 

 will be brought to bear in support of a righteous cause. 



