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Education . From the opening of their first school, Baylor University, in 1846, Texas Baptists have provided for the education of females. J. M. Carroll explained that the state
"probably had as little as any other State in the South, and much less than some, of that old spirit that argues that the education of boys is of far more importance than that of girls."
J. M. Carroll, A History of Texas Baptists (Dallas: Baptist Standard Publishing Co., 1923), p. 396.
Waco University, which became Baylor University when it consolidated with the male department of the Independence school in 1861, pioneered in coeducation, that is, instructing women in the same classes with men—a bold experiment that was given a trial period of ten years then unanimously declared a success. Ibid., pp. 732-733. The only thing more important than a girl's education was her being a Christian, said one Baptist in 1896, and another pointed out to parents that it was a goal well worth the sacrifice of their own comfort or investments.BS , January 9, 1896, p. 15; BS , January 17, 1895, p. 8.
Throughout the nineteenth century Texas Baptists insisted that women's biblical rights included"the right to think and render intelligent service"
BS , January 21, 1897, p. 14. (Underlining mine.)
even though they limited those areas of service.The commitment to females' education and declaration of the absence of prejudice, however, were not tantamount to the provision of equal education for girls. The female department of Baylor at Independence was a stepsister to the male department throughout their combined history, 1846 to 1886. Records of state Baptist convention proceedings indicate that
"educationally, twice as much space and attention were given to the boys as were given to the girls."Carroll, p. 396. Trustees of the school tried unsuccessfully to withdraw from the oversight of the Baptist State Convention in 1869 and were sharply critical of the denomination's lack of interest in the
"intellectual cultivation of our daughters."
Robert A. Baker, The Blossoming Desert (Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher, 1970), p. 130.
Although President Rufus Burleson of Waco University welcomed women into the classrooms with men in 1865 (it was an economic move in unstable times), those women graduated Maid of Arts or Mistress of Arts rather than Bachelor of Arts.L. R. Elliott, ed., Centennial Story of Texas Baptists (Chicago: Hammond Press, 1936), p. 157.
Discrimination and disinterest in female education stemmed from a lingering conviction that
"riddles of life, of society, morality and humanity"did not trouble a girl's thoughts and that
"intellectual ambition"produced a
"cold, unloved and unhelpful woman."
BS , November 14, 1895, p. 14; BS , July 22, 1897, p. 10.
Even if a girl were bright and educated (the line of reasoning went), her cultivation would be wasted because once out in the world,"no one would ever ask or know whether she got good grades in algebra or Latin"; they would only notice if she were gentle and refined.
BS , August 7, 1902, p. 11.
Within educational circles, this spirit was manifested in teaching girls practical information like domestic arts, good health, frugality, and neatness rather than philosophical or analytical subjects. The woman's pages of Baptist newspaper in the 1880s show that the training produced women who were interested in pious, inspirational aspects of religion and, beyond that, in household hints, gardening facts, livestock information, and recipes.
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