Vanessa Riley’s Regency Reflections

Woman Reading

Though she died just before the Regency began, Mary Wollenstonecraft (mother of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley) had an enormous impact on Regency ideas about the education of women.

The Original Feminist

In her ground-breaking book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollenstonecraft made the first strong and popular argument for women’s education. Though she’s considered one of the mothers of feminism, Wollenstonecraft’s feminism was very different from the feminism that makes headlines today. Instead of arguing for the right of woman to be just as raunchy as the guys, Wollenstonecraft was concerned  with women’s virtue: she argued that it was impossible for women to make wise  decisions if they’d never been taught how to think.

You couldn’t, Wollenstonecraft argued, raise a girl to only think about her looks, to only be concerned about snaring a husband, and then expect her to be smart enough to run a household or good enough to raise well-behaved children. If you wanted her to be fit to do her duties, you had to educate her.

Also, Wollenstonecraft argued, women were created as suitable mates for men, which meant they were of the same species – as Dorothy Sayers would later put it, women are human – and so what was good for men was good for women. God didn’t expect wisdom and virtue from men and silliness from women. If education gave men the tools they needed to be virtuous, education could give women those same advantages.

Controversy

Wollenstonecraft’s ideas weren’t completely accepted in her own day – they aren’t even now – but by stating her case so clearly and so well, she started a conversation that lasted all the way through the Regency and beyond. The “bluestockings” of the Regency – the bookish women – were Wollenstonecraft’s intellectual heiresses.

If you’re reading this today and you’re a woman who loves books, if you’re a woman who enjoyed a high-school and even a college education, Mary Wollenstonecraft is one of the brave pioneers you have to thank.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Originally posted 2012-09-24 10:00:00.

This month we’re been looking at the education of Regency students and scholars. The antics of schoolroom have provided fodder for many a novels. Did you know that many of your Regency Reflections authors have had interesting moments within the school walls as well.

So we asked our authors, “What was your biggest school days blunder?”

Laurie Alice Eakes
To be honest, I have nothing to share. I kept too low a profile in school unless I absolutely knew the answer just to avoid this sort of thing.

Unless this after school event gives it away…

I had a terrible crush on a geeky guy—Hmm, I married a computer geek turned lawyer geek—and wrote a poem to him. I can still remember part of it. Mind you, I was fifteen and painfully shy.

Oh, I wish I were a computer
Or a slide rule and equasions I could do,
For if I were one, or maybe both,
Some notice I might receive from you. . .

And so it went. Well, we were in the literary club together, and during a meeting, while sharing things, I accidentally pulled this poem from my notebook instead of the banal one I intended to share. . .

Oops.

Susan Karsten
This is going to sound really strange, since things have changed SO much. When I was in 2nd grade, in about 1962-63, I was asked, by my teacher, who I will call Mrs. Mustard, to come into the supply closet. This was a room, with shelves on 3 sides and a window. It was the teacher’s private little storeroom. She regretted to inform me that my red and white checked blouse had come untucked, and would I please not let that happen again. My, things have changed! By the way, this was a public school.

Kristy Cambron
I’ve always felt that as a student, you could try to blend in with the class and avoid any embarrassing moments. But alas, my  biggest education blunder was when I was in the on-stage role as the teacher. I was a corporate facilitator at the time and was training a class of more than forty adult learners on customer service soft skills. It was a great class – learners were energetic and engaged. Everyone smiled and seemed to throughly enjoy themselves  So when one learner approached me at the end of class, I hoped to hear positive feedback on her classroom experience. The last thing I expected was for her to tell me I’d just trained the class and no one had bothered to tell me that my suit pants zipper had been broken all day!

Naomi Rawlings
I accidentally went into the boys locker room before a basketball game. I didn’t realize the visiting team used the girl’s locker room, and I was just trying to get to the bathroom and following the sign that said girls. Fortunately I was in elementary school and it was a high school game. So I wasn’t old enough to get teased mercilessly for the rest of my day. But my cheeks still get red just thinking about it. I must have been the color of a tomato for the rest of the night!

Kristi Ann Hunter
Oh the options. I think the question might not be what was my biggest blunder, but which one am I willing to share in a public forum! When I was in sixth grade, my best friend had English and Math together. I feel quite bad for our teachers. We had to write a lot of sentences in English class. My friend and I made ridiculous sentences about polka dotted potties and remote controlled spitwads.

At the end of the day, in math class, we took turns sitting in front of each other and slowing pushing the other’s desk forward. We’d see how far we could get before the teacher got mad at us.

photos by Wikimedia Commons

What about you? What was your biggest schoolroom blunder?

Originally posted 2012-09-19 10:00:00.

I was lucky enough to get my part of my college education at a great books program – that is, a program based on the sort of education that’s been going over in England for centuries – back to the Regency time and beyond.

The big differences between what I did and what your average Regency gentleman did are:

1. I got to study the great works of Western literature in translation. Back in the day, you would have read Aristotle, Plato, Virgil and the rest in the original Greek and Latin.

2. I got to do it even though I’m a woman.

Self-Education

I’m almost a decade out of college now, and I still feel the effects of my great books education, in the best of ways. My world grew when I read those books, and, as I reread them, it’s still growing.

And if you’re in America, you’re literate, and you have a public library card, you too can read the books an educated Regency gentleman – an educated medieval gentleman, an educated Roman gentleman! – would have had (or longed to have) on his book shelves.

That’s the beautiful thing about education: it doesn’t have to stop. If there’s something you want to know about, if there’s wisdom you want to gain, you can do it. No, just reading books won’t give you all the benefit of reading them under brilliant professors and it won’t give you all the joy of discussing them with other eager-eyed students. But here are some hacks for the adult, self-starting student:

1. Try online courses, many of them free, in the subject area you’re interested in. iTunes U has a lot, and there are even Christian universities offering free, good content.

2. Use a book to help you find and understand good books. The Well-Educated Mind is one that will give you a guided course of good reading.

3. Pick translations of the great works that also have great introductions. Most copies of classic works in translation will contain introductions that explain the context of the work and why it’s important. I hardly ever skip these, because they’re like a mini-tour, giving me a heads-up about what I ought to be looking for when I read the book itself.

What Good Is It?

So, why should you try reading the great works? Well, I can’t answer it for you, but here are some benefits I’ve noticed for myself:

1. I have context. When I read new political ideas or religious ideas, they don’t seem bigger than they should. I can see where they fit on a continuum centuries long. When I read a new story, I can see the echoes of the old story it’s riffing on.

2.  The Bible makes more sense. When you read other works written around the same time as the Bible, it helps you understand the Bible better – and also to admire it more! When you see what kinds of things were written at the same time, the truth and beauty of scripture stand out.

3.  Some of it’s just plain enjoyable. So much of good literature is valued not just because it’s true or influential, but because it’s beautiful. Indulge yourself – read some Boethius!

4. You can recognize new lies as old ones. There isn’t much new under the sun. And if you’ve read about politics in Rome, you’ll learn something about politics in America. If you’ve read about temptation in Dante, you’ll recognize temptation in your day-to-day life.

5. You can recognize that truth is always truth. There’s something reassuring about reading across the centuries, because you can see that some things don’t change. The goodness of the Lord is everlasting, and it shows up in the written record of human history.

Question for you:

What’s your favorite old book? Or which do you think you’d enjoy reading the most?

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell 

Originally posted 2012-09-12 10:00:00.

I know God is in control, but it makes me sad that children today are not read to, sung to, or taught nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes originated centuries before the Regency, but were used even then for early language skill learning.

Two well-known nursery rhymes refer to school: Mary Had a Little Lamb (it followed her to school one day), and Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (This is the way we come home from school).

In our house we enjoy Kate Greenaway’s Nursery Rhyme Classics, a book with beautiful illustrations, mostly of children in Regency dress. Greenaway was a preeminent illustrator who lived from 1846 to 1901. Her drawings take you to a life forever beautiful, with children dancing in flowery meadows.

She used the Empire, Regency, and late-18^th century fashions for her most of her nursery rhyme illustrations. They are full of high-waisted dresses, pinafores, mobcaps, straw bonnets, and smock frocks. Some of her illustrations are of particular interest to Regency fans, since they feature young ladies and we can get a good look at many outfits. Great inspiration for our novels!

The popularity of her drawings led to a clothing fad in the 1880s and 1890s which had London’s mothers dressing their children Greenaway style.

Wondering what your favorite nursery rhymes are? Do you teach them to your children?

Originally posted 2012-09-10 10:00:00.

Kristi here.

In Regency England, education levels varied drastically from class to class and even person to person. For some people, it was the lack of availability that limited their education. If the family couldn’t afford tutors, then the children could only learn as much as their parents or governess knew.

Churches were starting to make some basic schooling available but it was limited and crowded and served many purposes besides just education.

Most of the public schools for young boys (which are much closer to the idea of private school in the US, or more to the point boarding school) had scholarship spots, but they could be difficult to get if you didn’t have tutors to get you up to a certain level before you applied.

Education was really reserved for the elite and well-to-do in Regency England.

This isn’t the case anymore. At least not in first world countries such as the US and UK. Now, everyone can attend school, is even required to by law. You even have options! Public school, private school, magnet schools, home schooling, online schooling, the possibilities are nearly endless on ways for you to get your education.

Options continue even as we age. College, vocational schools, apprenticeships, community classes, continuing education, online tutorials, even newspapers and documentaries put information at our fingertips.

Sadly, many of us take it for granted.

Nearly every teenager is back in school by now. Where I live, they’ve been in for a month already. Most of them gripe about it. They complain about having to go to school and learn. They skip. They slack. Some of them fail a class and couldn’t care less.

Don’t get me wrong, I know there are some that dedicate themselves to getting to most out of their education. But even kids with high grades can be coasting through school, doing just enough to get by. I know. I was one.

I know adults that have gotten within fifteen hours of a college degree and quit. Not because of money or family obligations. Just quit because they didn’t want to go anymore.

God isn’t happy with this. And as with most things, it drives down to the motive and spirit behind our clinging to ignorance.

“Much will be required of everyone who has been given much. And even more will be expected of the one who has been entrusted with more.” Luke 12:48

 

Based on the gift they have received, everyone should use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God.  1 Peter 4:10

God has given us the opportunity to learn things. Not just as scholars, but as people. We have access to the internet, to libraries, community and continuing education classes.

Several years ago there was a commercial for a college scholarship fund. The slogan was, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

When God made us in His image, he gave us a mind that could think and learn and be used to make better and wiser decisions using that knowledge.

All too often I find myself wasting that opportunity. I don’t want to take the time to research something, so I let someone else do the leg work and the thinking and just accept their conclusion. Sometimes it just feels safer to be ignorant, so I choose not to open my mind to the moments around me.

I don’t think that’s living up to what God required when he gave me a working brain, free from disease or other conditions that make thinking harder. I don’t think that makes me a good manager of what He gave me.

Be a good manager. Take every opportunity to learn something new. You never know when God will expect you to use it.

Have you ever learned something that seemed pointless at the time but later came in handy?

Originally posted 2012-09-07 10:00:00.