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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
tutions would come forth with stability of character. They would
have perseverance, fortitude, and courage to surmount obstacles, and
such principles that they would not be swayed by a wrong influence
however popular.
There should have been experienced teachers to give lessons to
young ladies in the cooking department. Young girls should have
been taught how to cut, make, and mend garments, and thus become
educated for the practical duties of life. For young men, there should
have been establishments where they could learn different trades,
which would bring into exercise their muscles as well as their mental
powers.
If the youth can have but a one-sided education, which is of
the greater consequence, a knowledge of the sciences, with all the
disadvantages to health and life, or a knowledge of labor for practical
life? We unhesitatingly answer, The latter. If one must be neglected,
let it be the study of books.
The Education of Girls
There are very many girls who are married and have families
who have but little practical knowledge of the duties devolving upon
a wife and mother. They can read, and play upon an instrument of
music; but they cannot cook. They cannot make good bread, which is
very essential to the health of the family. They cannot cut and make
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garments, for they have never learned how. They regard these things
as unessential, and in their married life they are as dependent upon
someone to do these things for them as are their own little children.
It is this inexcusable ignorance in regard to the most needful duties
of life which makes very many unhappy families....
Equalizing Labor
The minds of thinking men labor too hard. They frequently
use their mental powers prodigally; while there is another class
whose highest aim in life is physical labor. The latter class do not
exercise the mind. Their muscles are exercised, while their brains are
robbed of intellectual strength; just as the minds of thinking men are
worked while their bodies are robbed of strength and vigor by their