Reflection Paper 19

Dame schools were quite different from public schools of today. They didn’t have many of the luxuries as public schools such as books, chalkboards, desks, or even a pad of paper to write on. Instead they had hornbooks, which was only a paddle with some nails hammered into it to hold paper, and were taught in one room in the teacher’s home; which for dame schools was a woman’s home. It was extremely important for girls, however basic the teaching might have been, because that was the main education they received. They weren’t supposed to go to school any further than that and receive a decent education like they boys did. They had to know just enough to be able to take care of the house and nothing else. They were taught by illiterate women how to read, to recite the alphabet, etc. instead of the schooling being free as public school is today, and parents of the students had to pay a fee to the teacher as it was an early form of private schooling. While the teacher was going about and doing her household chores she would teach the children and would teach the girls how to do things such as knitting, cooking, sewing, etc. Girls were never encouraged to learn more in education, they were basically told that basics were enough and that they shouldn’t want to know more and that knowledge was only for boys like most of the things in colonial times. Now, in public schools, girls are allowed to learn the same things as boys and are encouraged to want to know and to aspire whatever career they want instead of being a housewife. There is no longer a barrier between what boys can learn and what girls can learn, they are both treated equally without a second thought. Even boys can learn knitting and sewing if they choose not just the girls, subjects are being offered for both sexes and not monopolizing one or the other. I personally think that if back then, in colonial times, if the women stood up and said I would like to learn what the boys are learning that they would have had a bigger impact instead of waiting decades to achieve equality. I think that if you have a group large enough to go against something then you would win. As they always say, the more people you have willing to fight for a cause, the more chances you have at achieving what you desire.