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Talks with Our Daughters (1925)

44797 Etiquette Books
The book Talks with Our Daughters was written by Sister Mary Eleanore, whose life was deeply entwined with the history of Saint Mary’s College and women’s education overall. She was born Katherine Mary Brosnahan in Pierceton, Indiana in 1890. Her life is a testament to women’s education. She herself was highly educated, and she used her gifts and talents to help other women become educated and further develop institutions for women’s learning.

Sister Mary Eleanore attended the University of Notre Dame, receiving multiple degrees, including a doctorate. During her junior year of college, she became novitiate of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. She received her M.A. in 1918, marking another milestone. She and another Sister were the first Double Domers, receiving both undergraduate and graduate degrees at Notre Dame. They were also the first two women to receive PhDs from the University of Notre Dame, graduating with their doctoral degrees in 1923. 

After completing her own education, Sister Mary Eleanore decided to use this knowledge to help other women become educated. She became a teacher, though it is unclear if she taught at Saint Mary’s or at another school. She eventually became a Dean at Saint Mary’s College, all while maintaining a career as a writer as well. On top of these accomplishments, she also became the General Secretary of her order in 1937, but she unfortunately passed away three years later.

Talks with Our Daughters was published in 1925, only two years after Sister Mary Eleanore received her PhD. It contains a series of lessons written by Sister Mary Eleanore that were meant to educate and inspire the women she taught. In the preface, she describes herself as a “teacher and friend of girls,” which gave her insight into the type of advice they needed and how to frame that advice so it would be well-received (9). She says that her experience teaching women had shown her that they “readily respond to an appeal to their spirituality and idealism” (9), and she draws from this knowledge and experience in her book.

Her book is divided into two sections. Part 1 is titled “God and You,” and Part 2 is titled “You and Your Neighbor.” In the preface, Sister Mary Eleanore says that this reflects how “the whole meaning of Christian living is contained in the two great commandments enjoining the love of God and the love of neighbor” (9). The preface further explains that Talks with Our Daughters includes a series of lessons that educate women on ways to observe these commandments. Part 1 includes chapters that are titled: “The First and Only You,” “When You Go Down to Nazareth,” “When You Go Up to Calvary,” “Your Divine Lover’s Perfect Gift to You,” and “You Stand at the Crossroads.” Part 2’s chapters are as follows: “You Go to School,” “You and the Social Apostolate,” and “You Play the Game Called Life.”

In “You Go to School,” Sister Mary Eleanore discusses how school prepares girls for the next periods in their lives, and how our lives on earth overall train us for “the life of the hereafter” (85). She also says that knowledge is not a goal itself, but is instead a means to self-development because the word “education” means “to lead forth” (85). This point indicates the value that Sister Mary Eleanore placed on holistic education that would benefit women for their whole lives.

Talks with Our Daughters reflects Sister Mary Eleanore’s religious ideals and her belief that women’s education should also include a religious education, a topic that is still a matter of debate today. In her view, education is not useful if it is pursued for vanity or just for the sake of education itself. She believed that the goal of education is to prepare people for Heaven and to live a Christian life with good principles and character. This belief inspired her to write Talks with Our Daughters to give meaningful advice to the women she dedicated her life’s work to.

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  1. Theories of Education and Schooling Rachel Rowe

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