ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapter we saw that the education of upper-class girls lacked a fixed goal. Since they were excluded from a public career, these girls had only one prospect: marriage and motherhood. Yet, though they were expected to be able to spin and weave, their education was not tailored to the domestic tasks of wife and mother. From the late republic onwards upper-class girls, as a rule, received an elementary education and quite a number of them followed (part of) the course in grammar on a level with the boys of their class, during which they were instructed in the same subjects and read the same ‘school’ authors. In addition to this, some of them were instructed in the liberal arts, especially mathematics and philosophy What purpose did this education of upper-class girls serve? Why were they-up to a certain level-educated in the same way as boys although they were excluded from a public career? These questions are discussed in the first part of the present chapter, which deals with ‘objectives and ideals’.
