"There are several circumstances in the situation, employments, and duties of women, in America, which require a peculiar mode o
f education. The early marriages of our women, by contracting the time allowed for education, renders it necessary to contract its plan, and to confine it chiefly to the more useful branches of literature. The state of property, in America, renders it necessary for the greatest part of our citizens to employ themselves, in different occupations, for the advancement of their fortunes. This cannot be done without the assistance of the female members of the community. They must be the stewards, and guardians of their husbands' property. That education, therefore, will be most proper for our women which teaches them to discharge the duties of those offices with the most success and reputation. [A] principal share of the instruction of children naturally devolves upon the women. It becomes us therefore to prepare them by a suitable education, for the discharge of this most important duty of mothers. The equal share that every citizen has in the liberty, and the possible share he may have in the government, of our country, make it necessary that our ladies should be qualified to a certain degree by a peculiar and suitable education, to concur in instructing their sons in the principles of liberty and government."—Benjamin Rush, from "Thoughts upon Female Education," 1787 The ideas put forth in the excerpt best exemplify the intellectual influence of which of the following? Transcendentalism The Glorious Revolution The Enlightenment The First Great Awakening
Benjamin Rush was a signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. He was born on January 4, 1746 and died in 1813. He was a civic leader in Philadelphia and also an expert on several fields, such as physics, politics, humanitarianism, among others. He was one of the most important characters in the American Enlightenment, a period that took place between the 17th and 18th century in the thirteen American colonies. This movement led to the American Revolution. As seen in the passage, one of its main characteristics was to give ideas a useful form in the nation and its people.
