Teach Your Children Well - Catharine Beecher

1800–78

Talk about pressure! Catharine Beecher grew up as the daughter of a famous minister (Lyman Beecher), and her younger brother Henry gained even more fame as a church leader and abolitionist. Sister Harriet wrote the bestselling book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which further energized the abolitionist movement. Other brothers and sisters also became notable as activists, preachers, authors, and academics. This was one talented family.

As the oldest child, Catharine participated in the upbringing of her prodigious siblings, especially after their mother died when Catharine was just sixteen. But she was destined to make her own mark on society. In the United States at that time, the education of girls was not a high priority. Why would they need to learn philosophy or math if they would just grow up to marry and bear children?

Catharine had higher goals, not only for herself but for a whole generation of young women. After teaching herself many of the subjects normally reserved for boys, she became a teacher. At the ripe age of twenty-three, she cofounded a school for girls that would teach an ambitious curriculum, preparing young women to teach others. Promoting education for girls became her calling, as she continued to write, speak, teach, and establish new schools.

“If all females were not only well educated themselves,” she wrote, “but were prepared to communicate in an easy manner their stores of knowledge to others; if they not only knew how to regulate their own minds, tempers, and habits but how to effect improvements in those around them, the face of society would be speedily changed.”

And she did change the face of society, along with a few other like-minded educators. In that era, the country was growing westward, so Catharine started a program to train women to teach school in the “Wild West.” As she saw it, women had a general inclination to teach children. They just needed to receive a good education in order to educate others.

That raises a good question for us: What do we do with the things we learn? As we gain insights about Scripture, glean hard lessons from life, or read fascinating articles online, do we keep these to ourselves, or do we dare to share with others?

Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn even more.

Proverbs 9:9