Household Education

by Harriet Martineau

Overview

"Every member of the household-children, servants, apprentices-every inmate of the dwelling, must have a share in the family plan; or those who make it are despots, and those who are excluded are slaves." - Harriet Martineau, Household Education (1849)

Household Education (1848), one of Harriet Martineau's most popular books, encouraged readers to believe that a woman's domestic and academic education be considered equally and criticized the lack of emphasis on formal education of young girls at that time. Further, she dismissed the time period's common ideas of command and obedience in favor of freedom and rationality. Acclaimed as one of the 100 best nonfiction books by "The Guardian" (2017), this book of empowerment of the time period is a must-read for those who wish to delve into Victorian history, sociology, and feminism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646794669
Publisher:	Cosimo Classics
Publication date:	01/01/1900
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

HARRIET MARTINEAU (1802-1876), pioneering English writer and feminist, has been called the first female sociologist and the first female journalist in England. She is also the author of Society in America (1837) and How to Observe Morals and Manners (1838).

Read an Excerpt

19 CHAPTER III. THE NATURAL POSSESSIONS OF MAN. What are the powers of the human being ? I speak of those powers only which are the object of education. There are some which work of themselves for the preservation of life, and with which we have nothing to do but to let them work freely. The heart beats, the stomach digests, the lungs play, the skin transpires, without any care of ours, and we have only to avoid hindering any of these actions. Next, man has four limbs. Of these, two have to be trained to move him from place to place in a great variety of ways. There are many degrees of agility between the bow-legged cripple, set too early upon his feet, and the chamois hunter of the Alps, who leaps the icy chasms of the glacier, and springs from point to point of the rock. The two seem hardly to be of the same race; yet education has made each of them what he is. The two other limbs depend upon training for much of their strength and use. Look at the pale student, who lives shut up in his study, never having been trained to use his arms and hands, but for dressing and feeding himself, turning over books, and guiding the pen. Look at his spindles of arms and his thin fingers, and compare them with the brawny limbs ofthe blacksmith, or the hands of the quay porter, whose grasp is like that of a piece of strong machinery. Compare the feeble and awkward touch of the bookworm who can hardly button his waistcoat, or carry his cup of tea to his mouth, with the power that the modeller, the ivory carver, and the watchmaker have over their fingers. It is education which has made the difference between these. Man has five senses. Though much is done by the incidents of daily life to exerciseall the five, still a vast difference ensues upon varieties of training. A firem...