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[20] d [Fuller as a Teacher in 1838] Evelina Metcalf [2 May 1838] Miss Fuller was quite displeased and mentioned the names of two or three who she thought had not tried nor studied their lesson at all. She thought there were but few in school whose natural powers were not good but she wished to arouse our dormant faculties and break up the film over our mind in order that the rays of the sun might shine upon it. She wished us to know what we could do and to collect our scattered senses and not say as an answer to every question “I don’t recollect” but to think and judge from our own experience if we did not know the exact words of the book. There are some in the class who seem not to profit by Miss Fuller’s kind words of reproof and advice and do little else but trifle when in the class. I heard one of the young ladies say who did not know her lesson that we should have more time to talk if we did not know our lesson but it is the reverse for Miss F does not feel in spirits to converse after hearing a poor lesson. After we had recited our lesson Miss Fuller told us the meaning of genius and talent and reason and understanding but I am almost afraid to try to write them and as she has promised to tell them again some time I shall leave it and try to get clearer ideas. Evelina Metcalf (1820–1883) was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and attended private schools there and in Charlestown, Massachusetts. She entered the Green Street School at age eighteen, along with her two sisters, and kept a journal between 23 April 1838 and 9 January 1839, covering eight months of Fuller’s time at the school. In 1841, she married George Hunt (1811–1895), a jeweler who was passionate about entomology and botany, and she became active in various philanthropies, including the Sanity Commission during the Civil War. She died in Providence, where she had spent her entire life. Like all of Fuller’s students at the Green Street School who have left records of their time there, Metcalf was much taken by her teacher, asking, “How and when did she ever learn about everybody that ever existed?” Evelina Metcalf [21] Miss Fuller wished us to bring her some topics on which reason and understanding can be applied and a list of men of genius and talent. The lesson in Moral Science was very interesting being on the subject of slavery a subject that I often hear discussed at home. Dr Wayland says domestic slavery is not the relation that exists between man and man but is a modification at least of that which exists between man and the brutes. I have not time to write any of the conversation though I would like to. Miss Fuller kindly offered to show the girls that stay to dinner the romantic walk that she has long been talking of. She would not tell those girls that lived on this side of the bridge because she thought they ought to know. Six of us accompanied her and we had a very delightful walk and had I time I would write some account of it. We were very much obliged to Miss Fuller and after school wrote her a note of thanks to which we all signed our names to show her that we were not entirely unmindful of all her kind love and treatment to us. I often think that she thinks that we are the most ungrateful beings in the world for we appear so cold and dead. . . . [7 May 1838] After the girls had gone we had a very pleasant conversation with her until two o’clock. She described her first coming here and how much she was disappointed when she saw the great ignorance of all the girls that were placed under her care. She said she despaired at first of teaching them anything and did little else but show them their ignorance the first few weeks. She thought their improvement had been more rapid than she could have anticipated and they had made wonderful progress in many things. I hope she can say so of her new scholars but I fear she cannot of me. . . . [12 December 1838] How and when did she ever learn about everybody that ever existed? I...

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