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>From: Connie Kirk <ckirk@stny.rr.com>
>Subject: Re: Mary Lyon & Mt. Holyoke
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>Hi Debbie,
>
>I think the conventional wisdom is that Dickinson went home from Mt. Holyoke
>because of health
>with, perhaps, heavy homesickness mixed in. However,
>I've always noticed a *marked* difference in her letters of this
>period after that and have wondered whether there wasn't more to the reason
>that this.
>
>As far as the school's practices, it appears that students had to declare
>which class they would be attending, religion-wise, (believers, hopefuls,
>no-hopes)
>so that's one way their differences were made known to the school
>community. There were also prayer meetings, etc., and one wonders what
>Emily
>did during those--did she refuse to go (was that allowed?), stand mute? So
>much
>is made of her refusing to go to church in Amherst, but it would make an
>interesting study how she
>dealt with this same pressure in an environment that also obviously had the
>education she
>craved. She had to live there and it seems that the "temptation" to conform
>to the everyday
>practices must have been greater to some degree, since faith and knowledge
>were so tied together.
>I've always wondered whether she suffered a kind of Faustian dilemma with
>that.
>
>I've also come to learn that even though Mary Lyon's ways may seem
>strict to us now, she is regarded as an important figure in the women's
>education movement.
>
>Best,
>Connie.
>
>
>
>
>
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