美國人物志:女子教育的先行者 瑪莉·里昂 (5/9)

After a year at Sanderson Academy, Mary decided that her handwriting was not good enough to be read clearly. She was a 21-year-old woman. But she went to the local public school and sat among the children so she could learn better writing skills. In 1821, Mary Lyon went to another private school where she was taught by Reverend Joseph Emerson. Mary said he talked to women "as if they had brains." She praised his equal treatment of men and women when it came to educating them. Three years later, Mary Lyon opened a school for young women in the village of Buckland. She called it the Buckland Female Seminary. Classes were held in a room on the third floor of a house. Mary's students praised her teaching. She proposed new ways of teaching, including holding discussion groups where students exchange ideas. Mary said it was while teaching at Buckland that she first thought of founding a private school open to daughters of farmers and skilled workers. She wanted education, not profits, to be the most important thing about the school. At that time, schools of higher learning usually were supported by people interested in profits from their investment.