It may be urged, that, even if it is studied, it will soon be forgotten. And so will much of every thing studied at school. But why should that knowledge, most needful for daily comfort, most liable to be in demand, be the only study omitted, because it may be forgotten?
It may also be objected, that young ladies can get such books, and attend to them out of school. And so they can get books on Chemistry and Philosophy, and study them out of school; but _will_ they do it? And why ought we not to make sure of the most necessary knowledge, and let the less needful be omitted? If young ladies study such a work as this, in school, they will remember a great part of it; and, when they forget, in any emergency, they will know where to resort for instruction. But if such books are not put into schools, probably not one in twenty will see or hear of them, especially in those retired places where they are most needed. And is it at all probable, that a branch, which is so lightly esteemed as to be deemed unworthy a place in the list of female studies, will be sought for and learned by young girls, who so seldom look into works of solid instruction after they leave school? So deeply is the writer impressed with the importance of this, as a branch of female education, at school, that she would deem it far safer and wiser to omit any other, rather than this.
Another reason, for introducing such a branch of study into female schools, is, the influence it would exert, in leading young ladies more correctly to estimate the importance and dignity of domestic knowledge. It is now often the case, that young ladies rather pride themselves on their ignorance of such subjects; and seem to imagine that it is vulgar and ungenteel to know how to work. This is one of the relics of an aristocratic state of society, which is fast passing away. Here, the tendency of every thing is to the equalisation of labor, so that all classes are feeling, more and more, that indolence is disreputable. And there are many mothers, among the best educated and most wealthy classes, who are bringing up their daughters, not only to know how to do, but actually to do, all kinds of domestic work. The writer knows young ladies, who are daughters of men of wealth and standing, and who are among the most accomplished in their sphere, who have for months been sent to work with a mantuamaker, to acquire a practical knowledge of her occupation, and who have at home learned to perform all kinds of domestic labor.