CORONA COLLEGE
           AS AN EXAMPLE OF ANTEBELLUM SOUTHERN EDUCATION

                              SECTION V
                               SUMMARY

        One of the most perplexing questions about antebellum
education has been: How different was the education of young Southern
ladies from that of their male counterparts? Historians have argued
that education differed greatly between the sexes in the
mid-nineteenth century South. Jane Turner Censer stated that the
subjects of chemistry, philosophy, and astronomy were a waste of time
for young women. [91]  Greek and Latin were also unnecessary because
these were political languages, and antebellum educators taught young
ladies never to engage in political discussions. [92]

        However, a comparison of curriculum proves these assertions to
be false, at least within the state of Mississippi. A four year
program at the University of Mississippi -- an all-male institution --
comprised:

     Freshman year: Herodotus; Greek Prosody and Exercises; Arnold's
        First and Second Latin Book, reviewed: Sallust's Cataline and
        Jugur thine War; Algebra; English Grammar; Homer's Illiad;
        Arnold's Latin Prose Composition; The Metamorphoses of Ovid;
        and Geometry

     Sophomore Year: Demosthenes on the Crown; Greek Prosody and
        Exercises; History of Greece and Rome; Classical Literature;
        Cicero's Moral Works; The Satires and Epistle of Horace;
        Arnold's Latin Prose Composition; Trigonometry, Plane and
        Spherical; Mensuration; Rhetoric; Caldwell's Manual Of
        Elocution; The Alcestis of Euripides; Brown's Ancient
        Literature; Odes and Epodes of Horace; Livy; Surveying,
        Levelling, and Navigation; Analytical Geometry; Wilson on
        Punctuation; and Logic

     Junior Year: Latin; Greek; French; Calculus, Differential and
        Integral; Chemistry; Figurative Language; Physics; Descriptive
        Astronomy; and Moral Philosophy

     Senior Year: Greek; Latin; Spanish; Physical and Practical
        Astronomy; Constitutional Law; Civil Engineering; Mental
        Philosophy; Modern Literature; Law of Nations; Mineralogy;
        Geology; Political Economy [93]

This curriculum might appear to be quite different from that of Corona
College; however, once analyzed, the two are quite similar. The only
higher mathematics offered to the young men and not to the young women
was calculus, and the only higher science was physics. Both of these
courses were relatively new at the University-- they had been added to
the curriculum only about two years before Corona opened. The girls at
Corona also learned three of the four foreign languages taught at the
state university. The fact that fourth year studies at Corona could be
selected by the student according to her interest is perplexing. Could
a scholar extend her study in the avenue of higher mathematics and
science? No evidence exists either to suggest that she could or could
not.

        The other difference was that the University of Mississippi
offered courses to prepare young men for their future careers. Courses
such as civil engineering and law or politics were unnecessary for
girls during the nineteenth century because they could never use them
again. These courses could be compared to modern business or
engineering programs; one does not study these unless one wants to
make his life's work in that particular field. Another reason that the
university offered the courses in civil engineering was that the
United States Military Academy did. Most American colleges and
universities patterned their programs after that of this
well-respected institution. Ladies would never have careers, so they
had no need to learn specialized skills.

        However, simple education was far more similar than it was
different. Institutions of higher learning for both sexes were
determined to develop the character of their students. For example,
both schools required students to attend daily prayers. Both
institutions concentrated on reading and writing, the functions of
language. If a student learned nothing else while at school, he or she
would learn to express himself. Nineteenth century education was aimed
at understanding the world and oneself. This aim was especially
important in a society that expected one not only to accept his place
in society, but to revel in it. Education was important to women for
exactly this reason. The courses that female educators chose were
those that would breed a satisfaction with their station. Educators
omitted political science classes because they might engender
discontent. Teachers chose the histories of Greece and Rome because
both societies were slaveholding cultures, and because most
intellectuals considered them to be peaks of civilization. Reading of
two successful slave societies would engender the belief, in both
young men and young women, that the ways of the South were right and
would complete their Southern educations. They would think as their
parents did and hold sacred the beliefs that Daniel Hundley set forth
in his SOCIAL RELATIONS IN OUR SOUTHERN STATES.



 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY