and guardian of young children. She holds her communion from nature. In the well developed female character, there is always a preponderance of affection over intellect. However powerful and brilliant her reflective faculties may be, they are considered a deformity in her character, unless overbalanced and tempered by womanly affections. The dispositions of young children of both sexes correspond to this ordination of Providence. Their feelings are developed earlier than their judg ment, and they aspire after a nature kindred to their own. They need kindness and not force, and their better instincts are to be fostered by a congenial warmth, rather than their reason to be addressed by a cold and severe logic. They can feel a thing to be right or wrong, before they can understand the rigorous demonstrations of the moralist, and hence appeals should be addressed to their sentiments rather than to their reflective powers. They are to be gently withdrawn, rather than rudely driven from whatever is wrong; to be won towards whatever is right more by a perception of its inherent loveliness and beauty, which they can appreciate, than by its general utility, which they cannot yet comprehend.

sor.

"In the correction of children, the stern justice of man thinks more of the abstract enormity of the offence, and he therefore chastises it with a severity proportioned rather to the nature of the transgression, than to the moral weakness of the transgresHence in rooting out an evil, he may extirpate much that is benevolent and generous; or, in subduing one propensity, may rouse into violent activity a brood of others more pernicious than itself. It requires a gentler, a more forbearing nature, and a nicer delicacy of touch, so to remove the evil as not to extirpate the good." - pp. 28, 29.

"The manners of females are more mild and gentle, and hence more in consonance with the tenderness of childhood. They are endowed by nature with stronger parental impulses, and this makes the society of children delighful, and turns duty into pleasure." *

We be

To all this we give our cordial assent, and more. lieve that females are not only the best teachers of primary schools, but they may be advantageously employed to teach the older boys and girls. Some of the towns have for many years employed women to instruct their winter schools, and are satisfied with the experiment. Indeed, with them it is no longer an experiment but a demonstration. And very many

* Mr. Mann's 5th Report, p. 45.

of them have given their testimony boldly to this fact. Looking over the Abstracts of the School Returns, we find many statements like the following:

The Boylston Report for 1840, says, in two of the districts females taught the winter schools, and “ we have never known them to be more ably managed, more successfully governed, or more faithfully instructed. The scholars have made all the proficiency that we could have expected under teachers of the other sex. The large scholars have, uniformly in the West School, and generally in the Centre, been more cheerfully submissive to the rules and regulations of the school, than in former winters, when under the male teachers."- Abstract, 18401, p. 91.

The Petersham committee say,

Four of our winter schools were taught by females; 'justice compels us to say, that the schools have made as good progress as those taught by males, and the school, which made decidedly the best appearance, was taught by a lady.” — p. 113.

The Upton Report states,

"This [winter] school was under the same successful teacher as in the summer, and made accelerated progress in education, and virtually established the fact, that females are better calculated to nourish and expand the bud of human intellect, than those who boast themselves their lords.". - p. 126.

The Westminster Report states,

"Four of our eleven districts have employed females during the past winter, and three of the four have been among our best taught schools." - p. 135.

The Belchertown committee report that,

"Five of our schools have been taught by females during the winter, and they have been among our best schools." — Abstract of School Returns, 1841 – 2, p. 110.

The Andover Report says,

"In two of our winter schools females were employed as teachers; and these schools would not suffer in comparison with any that were taught by males.

P. 4.

We have had under our own observation winter schools, in which a female was the guide and governess of stout and fullgrown young men and women, and taught them all the com

mon and higher branches, that are usual in our district schools. And we have never known an instance of failure in government, discipline, or instruction because the teacher was a female. On the other hand, we have known of one school, which for a series of years was disorderly and unmanageable under the care of men, suddenly restored to order and so continued under the direction of a woman.

We might quote many more statements like these from the various volumes of school returns, but here are enough for our purpose. This proof is positive. It is no theory, it comes from observation and experience. This evidence comes from all parts of the State. There has been no collusion, no concert of action, no general opinion to be supported. Each town has for itself, under all varieties of circumstances, tried its own experiment, repeated it year after year with the same satisfactory results, and given the same testimony. And while all of these have concurred in the statements given in favor of female instructors for winter schools, not one has spoken of or alluded to any failure in the female, although they have freely confessed the faults and the ill success of their male teachers.

It cannot then be said, that though a female may be a good governess for little children, or however excellent she may be in the primary school, she must fail in the management of the larger boys, and be incompetent for the instruction of the winter

schools.

It may be objected, that many of the present female teachers of the summer schools are not qualified to teach all the higher branches, which are studied in winter. This we admit; but the fault is not theirs but ours. The compensation, which we have given these females, has not been sufficient to enable them to expend money and time in qualifying themselves for the better discharge of their responsible duties.

"The price paid to the great majority of female teachers is less than is paid to the better class of female operatives in factories."― p. 34.

A good cook or expert tailoress may earn more in the kitchen or in the shop, than is offered in the school room.* Whereas

* In Louisville, Ky. the assistant female receives one hundred and fifty dollars a year for teaching the children in the public schools, while one hundred dollars a year, board, clothing, and all expenses of sickness are paid for a female slave, who cannot read, for cooking these children's

meat.

if our committees would pay females as liberally for teaching, as others pay them for weaving, sewing, or cooking, they would be encouraged to learn their art in advance as these do. Or if we would reward the female teacher as well as we do the male, we should command the best female talent and accomplishment for our schools.

"The disproportion between the wages of male and female teachers is very striking, and seems altogether indefensible on any principle of justice or policy. On an average, throughout the State, the compensation, which was paid to the sexes respectively is as $32,22 to $ 12, 78, which is a disproportion of more than two and a half to one. But why should a woman receive less than two-fifths as much as a man for services, which in no respect are of inferior value? This disparity is in the highest degree impolitic for the employer, as well as unequal towards the employed. Its inevitable consequence is to degrade the standard of female qualifications for teaching, and this is followed as inevitably by a deterioration in the quality of the instruction given." - p. 32.

Say what we will about the dignity of employment, or the benevolence of the teacher's vocation, still compensation must be the governing principle, in these, as in other matters, to invite men and women to the work; and the greatest talent and energy will flow toward those pursuits, which offer the highest reward. For this reason we have not obtained, for the instruction of our schools, the greatest power and accomplishment, which was purchasable in the market.

The occupations of men are many, while those of women are few; and yet there is about the same number in either sex, who want, or ought to want employment. Hence there is a greater competition among females for opportunities of labor than among men, and the wages of the former are less than those of the latter. Therefore the same reward purchases a higher order of service from women than from men. if any employment, for which either sex has equal fitness, should be open to the competition of both, and the same reward proposed to either for performing the work, more talent and skill will be offered from females than from males, because the competition will extend over a much larger proportion of the former than of the latter class.

Now

Believing that the female mind and temperament, in their best conditions, are not merely equal but superior to the male,

for the purposes of developing the mental powers and forming the moral character of youth, it is well to throw open our winter schools to the competition of both sexes. We are aware, that we shall here be told, that many, perhaps most of our female teachers are inferior to their brethren in the same profession. But, we repeat, we have not obtained for this purpose the greatest female talent and knowledge, and we are here comparing the female service, which we purchase for seven dollars a month, with the male service, which we purchase for twenty-four dollars. Let us now place both sexes upon the same ground of reward. Let us offer the same paypayment for the same labor, wherever it may be found, then we shall obtain more wisdom and learning, more power of accomplishing our purposes in women than we can in men. The education of our children is not a matter to be provided for with higgling parsimony, which is wise only to the extent of a penny, and beyond that foolish. But with liberal economy let us look at both ends of the bargain. Let us offer twenty-four dollars a month for the greatest capacity of government, the best tact in teaching, the greatest power of influencing youth for good, and of exciting them to a love of learning and truth, and we shall obtain the largest return for our money, by purchasing this of females.

But most unrighteously do we graduate the prices of this labor, not by the worth of the service rendered, but by some other and extraneous notions. The towns, which have employed females for their winter schools, and acknowledged their equality or superiority to the others, have yet done them the injustice to pay them less than half the wages, which they paid to their male inferiors, less than half of what was honestly due them. The town of Warren says,—

"We have employed five female and six male teachers during the winter, and the experiment has been attended with the most happy result in favor of the females."

"Some of the teachers were too young; one being only fifteen years old, and another a trifle older, both males, and having had no experience in teaching, it was hardly to be expected, that they would maintain that dignity or command that respect, which are requisite in order to be successful." Abstract, 1841 – 2, P. 103.

And yet we find that in this very town, the female teachers, including those who taught the winter schools, so much better