C89-5-110 Box 2 Folder 19  page 2

Charlotte Female Institute.

Location, Building, Etc.

     Charlotte is situated in a healthy and fertile portion of Western North Carolina, and is fast becoming one of the great railroad centers of the country. It is thus placed in direct communication with every portion of this and the adjoining States.

     The citizens of Charlotte, anxious to have a female school of high character, have erected a spacious and elegant building, which, for beauty of architecture, convenience of arrangement, and adaptation in every respect to the purpose for which it was intended, is equalled by few institutions, and surpassed by none in the Southern country.

     The sleeping rooms, which are adapted to the accomodation of four pupils, are provided with every comfort, carpeted floors, good beds, and are visited twice a day by one of the teachers. The whole house is so arranged and furnished as to be a pleasant home for girls. It is lighted with gas, and furnished with rooms for bathing.

The greatest attention paid to cleanliness and ventilation.  

     The school-room is large, well ventilated, and furnished with desks of the latest and most approved style.  The Institution is furnished with a handsome and complete set of apparatus for the illustration of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry: also with large and well-selected sets of Geographical and Astronomical Charts, Globes, &c.  

     A fine Stereopticon, with plates for the illustrations of Astronomy, Botany, Geology, &c., was added to the apparatus of the Institution during the past session. 

     The grounds around the Institute are handsomely laid out, planted with flowers and shrubbery, and everything is done to render out-door exercise pleasant.

Government.

     We aim to promote a high sense of honor in our pupils, so as to lead them to realize their individual responsibility. We confide in and trust them; and this plan, after twenty years' trial, we have no cause to regret. The boarders are considered members of the family: are treated as ladies, and expected and required to behave as such.  At the table, where all, teachers and pupils, sit together, and where much pains is taken to make everything pleasant, and home-like, their manners are particularly attended to, and conversation encouraged.

     In the afternoon every young lady is required to change her dress and engage in some needle-work, either useful or ornamental. They sit with the family.  All eating at unseasonable hours, or in the sleeping-rooms, is prohibited : and parents are requested not to send boxes of eatables from home. The table is plentifully supplied three times a day with wholesome, palatable, well-cooked food; and such boxes are not only unnecessary, but often produce unkind and selfish feelings.

     The pupils are required to take regular exercise every day.

Dress.

The dress of the boarders receives particular attention; extravagance is discouraged, but every pupil is required to be neatly dressed at all times.  Parents make great mistakes as to the quantity of clothing required for young ladies at school; a few dresses, judiciously selected, would save the parents much money and the teachers much trouble.

     It is certainly a very important part of an education to know how to dress. Neatness and good taste should be cultivated.

Religious Instruction.

     The school is opened every morning and closed every evening with reading the Scriptures, and prayer and singing, besides the regular family worship.  The first recitation on Monday morning is from the Bible.  The afternoon of every Sabbath is devoted to the study of Jacobus' Notes on the Gospel.  When no particular preference is expressed, the pupils accompany the family of the Principal to the Presbyterian Church.  Parents who wish their children to attend a place of worship different from that attended by the Principal, must find some friend under whose care they can be placed.   No calls or visits are allowed on the Sabbath.

Course of Instruction.

     We are convinced that the greatest difficulty in female education of the day is the mistaken ambition of young ladies to go over the course of study and graduate.  At the early age at which it is customary in our day for young ladies to leave school, it is impossible for their minds properly to grasp and digest the studies usually assigned to them, and in attempting to get all, they really get none thoroughly; and we would most earnestly entreat parents, who intrust the education of their daughter to us, to all sufficient time for the healthy unfolding and disciplining of their minds, and not to allow them to attempt too many studies at once, or to stop their studies just at a time when they are becoming properly trained to appreciate them.