Meet Mrs. B.

My name is Mrs. B, and I am Emily's and Caroline's science teacher. My author, Jane Haldimand Marcet (1769-1858), probably named me for Margaret Bryan, a well-known science writer. Jane Marcet wrote many books for girls, and my students and I star in every one of them.

Conversations on Natural Philosophy, a physical science book, was first published in 1805, followed by Conversations on Chemistry in 1806. Jane Marcet went on to write Conversations on Plant Physiology (what we would now call Botany) and Conversations on Political Economy (what we would now call Economics.) Girls who read her books, and boys too, would be very well educated! At least one boy who read her Conversations on Chemistry became a famous physicist. His name is Michael Faraday (1791-1867). But thousands of other people must have read them, too, because her books were best-sellers. Conversations on Chemistry alone went through 16 British editions, and at least 16 American ones. It was even translated into French and German.

When Jane Marcet first created me, she may have been thinking of me as a governess, like Jane Eyre in the novel by Charlotte Bronte (1816-1854). I'm very well educated for an ordinary governess, though. I might be a friend of the family, perhaps without any children of my own yet, who likes to teach girls.

My name is Emily. I am thirteen years old, and Mrs. B says I am ready "to acquire a general knowledge of the laws by which the natural world is governed" -- in other words, to learn about science. I think that girls should be very well educated so they can be good wives and mothers. Maybe I'll grow up to be a teacher, and even open my own school, like the famous teacher and writer Catherine Beecher (1800-1878). She believed that men and women had separate spheres in which they could "find happiness in living to do good.". Men should govern in public life, but women should learn to manage all aspects of private and domestic life, from households to schools, charities and religious instruction. Girls look after all those things much better than boysanyway!

I've been trying to teach my little sister Caroline, but she asks me too many questions, so I've had to ask Mrs. B. for help with her. It makes it more fun to learn when Caroline's with me!

My name is Caroline, and I am ten. My big sister Emily calls me "an inquisitive little creature" when we're getting along well, and "a pest" when we're not. I don't know if I like science, but I certainly don't want to miss out on anything fun that Emily gets to do! So I've started to tag along to her lessons with Mrs. B. Mrs B. tells me that I'm too fond of my own opinions, but I told her that will make it all the more impressive if she can get me to give them up. I don't know yet what I want to be when I grow up, but maybe I'll be like Lucretia Mott (1793-1880). She got married and had six children, while helping her husband run his business and fighting for the end of slavery. She was the president of the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, which called for equality for women and men.

Lucretia Mott wrote, "In a true marriage relation, the independence of the husband and the wife is equal, their dependence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal." I think that means that a husband and wife should always love each other without trying to boss each other around. I think that goes for sisters, too.