Catharine Beecher


Catharine Esther Beecher was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on female education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education.

Biography

Parents and siblings

Beecher was born September 6, 1800, in East Hampton, New York, the daughter of outspoken religious leader Lyman Beecher and Roxanna Beecher. She was the sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the 19th century abolitionist and writer most famous for her groundbreaking novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, and of clergymen Henry Ward Beecher and Charles Beecher.

Education

Beecher was educated at home until she was ten years old, when she was sent to a private school in Litchfield, Connecticut, where she was taught the limited curriculum available to young women. The experience left her longing for additional opportunities for education. She taught herself subjects not commonly offered to women, including math, Latin, and philosophy. She took over the domestic duties of her household at the age of 16, following her mother's death. Beecher became a teacher in 1821 at a school in New Haven, Connecticut. Catharine was engaged to marry Professor Alexander M. Fisher, head of the Mathematics Department at Yale College, but he died at sea before the wedding took place. She never married.

Female seminary

To provide such educational opportunities for others, in 1823 Beecher opened the Hartford Female Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, where she taught until 1832. The private girls' school had many well-known alumni, inc
Comprehending the deficiencies of existing textbooks, she prepared, primarily for use in her own school, some elementary books in arithmetic, a work on theology, and a third on mental and moral philosophy. The last was never published, although printed and used as a college textbook.
She was constantly making experiments, and practicing them upon the girls, weighing all their food before they ate it, holding that Graham flour and the Graham diet were better for them than richer food. Ten of her pupils invited her to dine with them at a restaurant. She accepted the invitation, and the excellent dinner changed her views. Thereafter they were served with more palatable food.

Opposition to Indian Removal Bill

In 1829 and 1830, Beecher led a women's movement to protest the Indian Removal Bill of President Andrew Jackson. This was the first national campaign on the part of women in the United States.
In the bill, Jackson requested Congress approve the use of federal money to resettle southeastern American Indians, including the Cherokee, to land west of the Mississippi River.
In response, Beecher published a "Circular Addressed to the Benevolent Ladies of the U. States," dated December 25, 1829, calling on women to send petitions to Congress protesting the removal. In the circular she wrote, "It has become almost a certainty that these people are to have their lands torn from them, and to be driven into western wilds and to final annihilation, unless the feelings of a humane and Christian nation shall be aroused to prevent the unhallowed sacrifice."
Congress passed the bill, and the Indian Removal Act became law on May 28, 1830.

Midlife in the West

In 1832, Beecher moved with her father to Cincinnati to campaign for more schools and teachers in the frontier. There she opened a female seminary, which, on account of her failing health, was discontinued after two years. She then devoted herself to the development of an extended plan for the physical, social, intellectual, and moral education of women, to be promoted through a national board. For nearly 40 years, she labored perseveringly in this work, organizing societies for training teachers, establishing plans for supplying the territories with good educators, writing, pleading, and traveling. Her object, as she described it, was "to unite American women in an effort to provide a Christian education for 2,000,000 children in our country." She made her field of labor especially in the west and south, and sought the aid of educated women throughout the United States.

Later life

In 1837, Beecher retired from administrative work. After returning East she started The Ladies' Society for Promoting Education in the West. In 1847 she co-founded the Board of National Popular Education with William Slade, a former Congressman and governor of Vermont. In 1852 she founded the American Women's Educational Association. Their goal was to recruit and train teachers for frontier schools and send women into the West to civilize the young. This became a model for future schools developed in the West.
It was claimed that hundreds of the best teachers the West received went there under the patronage of this system. To a certain extent the plans succeeded, and were found beneficial, but the careers of the teachers were mostly short, for they soon married.
In The American Woman's Home, published in 1869, Beecher and her sister presented a model home from a woman's perspective. The kitchen was inspired by a cook's galley in a steamship. A movable partition on wheels provided flexibility and privacy in the small home, and also served as a wardrobe. Chapters of the book discussing ventilation and heating anticipated modern central heating.
In 1878 Beecher died from apoplexy.

Views on and advocacy of education

In 1841 Beecher published, "A Treatise on Domestic Economy for the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School", a book that discussed the underestimated importance of women's roles in society. The book was edited and re-released the following year in its final form. Catharine Beecher was a strong advocate of the inclusion of daily physical education and developed a program of calisthenics performed to music.
In 1831, Catharine Beecher suggested teachers read aloud to students the passages from writers with elegant styles, "to accustom the ear to the measurement of the sentences and the peculiar turns of expression".
She went on to have the students imitate the piece read using words, style, and turns of expression in order to develop, "a ready command of the language and easy modes of expression". In 1846, Beecher pronounced that women, not men, should educate children and established schools for training teachers in western cities. She advocated that young ladies find godly work as Christian teachers away from the larger Eastern cities. The Board of National Popular Education, which was her idea, trained teachers in four-week sessions in Connecticut and then sent them out West. She believed that women had a higher calling to shape children and society.

Views on education

Beecher recognized public schools' responsibility to teach moral, physical, and intellectual development of children. She promoted the expansion and development of teacher training programs, deducting that teaching was more important to society than lawyers or doctors. Beecher was a strong advocate of the inclusion of physical education daily and developed a program of calisthenics that was performed to music. She also firmly believed in the benefits of reading aloud.

Women as educators

Beecher believed that women have inherent qualities that make them the preferred sex as teachers. As men left teaching to pursue business and industry, she saw the untapped potential of educated women and encouraged education of women to fill the increasing need for teachers. She considered women natural teachers, with teaching as an extension of their domestic role. She pushed and transformed teaching into women's work rather than a profession that women could thrive in.

Influential changes over time

In 1862, John Brinsley recommended students analyze and imitate classical Greek and Latin models while Beecher recommended English writers. They both believed that frequent practice and the study of important authors helped students acquire writing skills.
Beecher founded The American Woman's Educational Association in 1852, an organization focused on furthering educational opportunities for women. She also founded the Western Female Institute in Cincinnati and The Ladies Society for Promoting Education in the West. She was also instrumental in the establishment of women's colleges in Burlington, Iowa; Quincy, Illinois; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Beecher strongly supported allowing children to simply be children and not prematurely forcing adulthood onto them. She believed that children lacked the experience needed to make important life decisions and that in order for them to become healthy self-sufficient adults, they needed to be allowed to express themselves freely in an environment suited to children. It was these beliefs that led to her support of the system of kindergartens.

Anti-Suffragist

Beecher thought that women could best influence society as mothers and teachers, and did not want women to be corrupted by the evils of politics. She felt that men and women were put on the earth for separate reasons and accepted the view that women should not be involved in politics, but rather, they would teach male children to be free thinkers and moral learners and help shape their political ideas.

Schools

Three universities named buildings for her: Central Connecticut State University, The University of Connecticut, and The University of Cincinnati. The Cincinnati building has been demolished.