Girls Schools

Until the last two decades of the 19th century, Jane Marcet s Conversations on Chemistry47 was the key chemistry resource 

As we described above, it was NLCS and KEVI that pioneered the introduction of chemistry laboratories. A few other schools followed their lead, including Redland High School, Bristol,50 and St. Swithun s School, Winchester.51 St. Swithun s acquired a chemistry laboratory in 1895, after an open flask releasing chlorine gas was left deliberately in a classroom prior to a tour by the Administrative Committee (see Fig. 1.1). One of the students taking the chemistry practical examination in 1897 reminisced  

In those days a don was in charge in cap and gown. An enterprising examiner had given red phosphorus as the unknown substance. About ten minutes after we had commenced a nervous 

The practical approach and independent research are introduced early in our science s -]labuses. . .  

But the fervour for science education for girls seems to have abated in the early decades of the 20th century. In 1912, the Headmistress of Sacred Heart School, Hammersmith, described how the educational reforms of the later decades of the 19th century had emphasised the teaching of natural science. She added  

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Buss wanted her school to give girls a very different education from that prevalent at the other girls schools she wanted her pupils to have equal opportunities to boys, and that included real science ... 

It [NLCS] also set out to offer their daughters an education quite different from anything available anywhere else. There was, for example, the inclusion of science within the curriculum. Science was not really taken seriously by most girls schools until well into the twentieth century. Robert Buss [Frances Buss s father] made a memorable science teacher as Annie Martinelli, an early pupil later remembered His talents were simply wonderful. His Chemistry series was marvellous, especially for smells and explosions. ... 

Miss Brook s knowledge of Science almost equalled the vacuity of her information about Physiology and Mathematics. Nevertheless, she admired wholeheartedly the work of the Science Staff. She also rejoiced when Malvern Girls College acquired such a reputation for achievement in scientific circles that it became the first Girls school to be awarded 10,000 from the Industrial Fund for the Advancement of Scientific Education in Schools.58... 

Delamont, S. (1993). Distant dangers and forgotten standards Pollution control strategies in the British Girls School, 1860-1920. Women s History Review 2(2) 233-251. 

Stem, R. (1912). Science in Girls Schools. School World 14 460-461. This issue of School World had a whole section (pp. 452-465) on the contentious issue of the appropriate science for girls. Amongst the contributers were L. M. Faithfull, Ida Freund, Charlotte L. Laurie (science teacher, CLC), Jessie White, and Arthur Smithells. 

Overlapping with Browne, Mary Christina Thompson41 was appointed in 1938 as Demonstrator and Assistant Lecturer. Mary, the daughter of William Thompson, a London accounts clerk, was educated at James Allen s Girls School, Dulwich. She entered Bedford College in 1930, completing her B.Sc. in 1933, then continued to a Ph.D. in organic chemistry with Eustace Turner.42... 

Violet Corona Gwynne Trew,15 bom on 26 June 1902 to A. N. Trew (mother), was educated first at St. Olafs, Beckenham, and then at James Allen s Girls School, Dulwich. She completed her B.Sc. at Bedford in 1926 and a Ph.D. in 1928, becoming Bedford s first internal doctoral degree in chemistry. 

Smithells, A. (1912). Science in girls schools. School World 14 460. 

During our time frame, the most prominent woman researcher in the Cambridge Chemistry Laboratories was the spectro-scopist, Delia Margaret Simpson.47 Bom on 5 February 1912 in London, the daughter of Robert Simpson, a sanitary inspector, and Delia Maud Pope, a teacher, she was educated at the Haberdashers Aske s Hatcham Girls School. Simpson entered Newnham in 1930, completing her studies in 1934. 

From 1859 until his death at age seventy-three, Johann Jakob Balmer (1825-1898) was a high-school teacher at a girls school in Basel, Switzerland. His primary academic interest was geometry, but in the mid-1880s he became fascinated with four numbers 6,562.10, 4,860.74, 4,340.1, and 4,101.2. These are not pretty numbers, but for the mathematician Balmer, they became an intriguing puzzle Was there a pattern to the four numbers that could be represented mathematically The specific numbers that commanded Balmer s attention were four of many, many such numbers Balmer could have examined. But the four numbers Balmer chose were special because these numbers pertained to the atom of hydrogen. We shall return to these numbers shortly. 

Girls school—160 cubic feet per head. .. 72.8 Pettenkoter. 

Meldrum, (i), 43, crit. Divers, B.A, Rep., 1902, 557 Perrin, Les Atomes, 1914, 23, 41, said this chemical method was used exclusively in girls schools in France. 

In single-sex education women can study without male prejudices. They can concentrate on learning, studying and networking. The female students and lecturers enjoy the comfortable atmosphere. A lecturer reported I like to teach and I like to support and motivate women in technology. I was in a girl-school and I enjoy studying in an undisturbed atmosphere (without male students) very much. I like to... 

Since 2009, there have been suspected mass poisoning attacks on girls schools in Afghanistan (Pita and Gunaratna, 2010). The victims have suffered nausea, vomiting, and imconsciousness, but there have been no deaths reported or confirmations that chemical attacks had taken place. The Taliban, which opposes female education, has denied responsibility. 

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