Woman’s great mission is to train immature, weak, and ignorant creatures to obey the laws of God; the physical, the intellectual, the social, and the moral.

Catharine Esther Beecher (1800 – 1878) 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. The daughter of outspoken religious leader Lyman Beecher and Roxanna (Foote) 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. To provide such educational opportunities for others, in 1823 Beecher opened the Hartford Female Seminary, where she taught until 1832. 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 failing health, was discontinued after two years. 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, ex-governor of Vermont. In 1852 she founded the American Women's Educational Association.

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.

“To produce the greatest possible happiness with the least possible evil.”

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.

EIGHT MODE OF SECURING THE OBJECT FOE WHICH MIND WAS CREATED.

Having set forth the object for which the Creator formed mind, we are thus furnished with the means for deciding as to the right mode of its action in obtaining this object. We may discover the design of a most curious machine, and perceive that, if it is rightly regulated^ it will secure that end ; while, if it is worked wrong, it will break itself to pieces, and destroy the very object which it was formed to secure.

The same may be seen to be as true of mind as it is of material organization, and the question then is most pertinent. What is that mode of mental action which will most perfectly secure the end for which mind is made ?

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The great want of our race is perfect educators to train new-born minds, who are infallible teachers of what is right and true.

From

COMMON SENSE APPLIED TO RELIGION

OR,

THE BIBLE AND THE PEOPLE.

BY CATHARINE E. BEECHER

1857