Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and editions
- Introduction
- I EDUCATION AND SOCIETY
- II HOME AND SCHOOL
- III SUBJECTS AND SKILLS
- 7 A sound English education
- 8 Religion and education
- 9 The accomplishments
- 10 Male and female education
- 11 Beyond the schoolroom: reading and the Brontës
- IV STRATEGIES AND METHODS
- V ORIGINALITY AND FREEDOM
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
9 - The accomplishments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and editions
- Introduction
- I EDUCATION AND SOCIETY
- II HOME AND SCHOOL
- III SUBJECTS AND SKILLS
- 7 A sound English education
- 8 Religion and education
- 9 The accomplishments
- 10 Male and female education
- 11 Beyond the schoolroom: reading and the Brontës
- IV STRATEGIES AND METHODS
- V ORIGINALITY AND FREEDOM
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
If religion was to be ‘the groundwork of [all] education’, and ‘the usual accomplishments’ were regarded as the second pillar of girls' education from the middle class upwards, a religious dimension should have been present in that part of the female curriculum as well. Some commentators on education certainly attempted to remind their readers that any human effort ought to harmonise with, even uphold, Christian values and principles. Priscilla Wakefield's observations on the merits of artistic pursuits supply a typical example:
Drawing, not merely for the purpose of making pleasing pictures, and obtaining applause, but for that capacity it gives to a proficient, of representing any object with ease and accuracy, is both a useful and an amusing qualification: nor are its good effects confined to the exercise of the art alone; it strengthens the habit of observation, and facilitates the acquisition of natural history, which is a study at once delightful and valuable; and it promotes a reverential admiration of the wisdom and goodness of the Great First Cause.
Even so, the continuous maintenance of a religious element in the accomplishments curriculum was an uncongenial, not to say hopeless, task. To begin with, the Bible could not serve as a universal teaching aid in a skills-orientated context. Of course, musical practice could comprise hymns as well as secular songs; drawings could feature ecclesiastical buildings and Biblical images; and works in foreign languages might be chosen partly for their devotional content.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Brontës and Education , pp. 102 - 120Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007