Good Girls
On raising little girls in an age of degeneracy
Modern educational philosophy seeks primarily to optimise for exam performance and nothing more. Every vice and sin is cast as a civil rights personality to be protected and “celebrated”. The mention of character and virtue is met in modern pedagogy with accusations of “judgement and hate”. This culminates in the millennial gentle parenting epidemic of parents who have mini therapy sessions with toddlers who have no ability to understand their parents psychobabble. We need to judge vice and hate poor character in order to promote the good. But what does the good even look like? It is not perpetual tolerance and “niceness”. There is something more to it and we can all feel that to be true.
This is how 19th century governess, teacher and writer Charlotte Mason describes the healthy child in her book Home Education, Volume I (pg 94-95):
“the bright eye, the open regard, the springing step; the tones, clear as a bell; the agile, graceful movements that characterise the well-brought up child are the result, not of bodily well-being only, but of ‘mind and soul according well,’ of a quick, trained intelligence, and of a moral nature habituated to the joy of control.”
How do we know that we are bringing up children, and specifically, girls well? Much has been written about raising boys well, but little has been adequately written about raising little girls well that goes beyond mere shows of good etiquette and good manners. Because we don’t merely want girls that seem but girls that are good. Many girls are experts at seeming to be whatever they need to be to “get ahead”, very few are taught about being. There is nothing so tragic as seeing a little girl with the fakeness of a seasoned politician in her sweet girlish notes. There is nothing so tragic as seeing an eighteen year old girl with the listless regardless eyes of a prostitute and the mouth of a truck driver. Anyone who has daughters today would share in the fear of getting this wrong. But the first step to get it right, is to have clear goals.
I am not an expert in parenting
In fact, I am very new to parenting with two little girls who are two and one years old. As eugenicists care about physical traits, I care about character because although our physical traits may influence our destiny, it is our character which ultimately forms it. Many a physically excellent specimen have led mediocre if not outright tragic lives because they did not have good character.
Although I do not yet know how to achieve all of these ends in the parenting of my children, I have determined that the following are the laudable and valuable parenting goals. Other parents might wish for their daughters to be rich, or beautiful or have lots of credentials and accolades. I only wish for my daughters to be good. And this is how I define good.
Well-brought up girls have the following qualities: