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    38 WOMEN IN ITALY.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    - A And Very That Striking Of Land Diffe...

    a chair occupying a central position on the platform ; at Ms either side four or five girlschoice specimens selected out of a large school

    , , proceede immediatel d before y ranged a somewhat themselves numerous , and the auditory examination , consisting forthwith 1 almost

    entirely of ladies . Very short was the time necessary to convince me , after the examination began , that my stock of Italian was

    amply sufficient for all the requirements of this exhibition , for nothing could possibly exceed the simplicity of the questions put by

    the examiner . Girls from ten to fifteen years of age were required to tell how many vowels there were in the Italian language , and after

    demanded that , a farther , by furnishing proof of words their cleverness in which these and information letters severall was y

    might be discoverable . " Right , very right , " said the professor of orthography ,

    applaudingly , as a girl mentioned bocca , in exemplification of the use of tho letter ' o ' in the Italian language ; " and now" he continuedin his

    ,, consequential manner , " I write the word bocca ( mouth ) upon this slate , and I require you to tell me , what letter it is necessary to add ,

    to convert this word bocca into boccia ( bottle ) . " The girl addressed , hesitated to give an answer , but the question being passed on to

    another girl was triumphantly answered . The French master ' s examination was equally puerile and absurd

    in character . After requiring the French for I , thou , he , she , it , etc ., requirements not always successfully complied with , he

    proceeded to make his pupils apply their knowledge of the personal pronouns to the conjugation , in French , of the phrase" To

    gain one ' s livelihood . " In geography and history , not even the , most superficial examination took place , and when the morning ' s

    performances came to an end , I could not help wondering at the display I had witnessed , of gross incapacity on the part of the teachers , and

    gross ignorance on the part of the taught . From the reputation that this school enjoyed and the number of

    pupils it contained , it was evident that the system of instruction there pursued , was not inferior to that adopted in other female

    educational establishments of the town . How fully , indeed , the knowlege displayed came up to the requirements of society , I had a striking

    proof in the surprise excited by my observation , that the examination from its extreme simplicity was solely adapted to children of a few

    years old . It was truly , however , no matter for wonder , that ladies who had been subjected to precisely the same system of tuition

    themselves , should find nothing to blame , or to smile at , in that morning's scene .

    While such is . the state of feminine education in the higher classes of societyit may well be supposed , as is actually the casethat in

    , , the lower ranks of female life , a state of the densest ignorance prevails . Even girls , whose parents enjoy a very respectable position

    in the world , remain quite ignorant of the arts of reading and

    writing ' . The popular opinion on the subject of the uselessness of

    38 Women In Italy.

    38 WOMEN IN ITALY .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1858, page 38, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091858/page/38/