literature, painting, and dramatics , more like the curriculum of a young man‟s preparatory program than other schools for young ladies. The program helped configure Catharine‟s later ideas about education for women. Miss Pierce‟s school also offered training in the social instincts of the students with “instruction on those rules of delicacy and propriety so important for every young woman” as well as “lady-like manners” and “cultivated and refined and conversation.” For Catharine Beecher, this early social consciousness was an invaluable asset. The religious and moral instruction for young women was meant to make them agreeable and was urged upon them as social usages, only secondarily as the path to holiness. With a gregarious, out-going personality, Beecher found social skills to be a principal strength. At the time, Litchfield was also reputed to have the best law school in the country. She moved with ease within the scintillating environment of intelligent young people. On a visit to relatives in Boston as an older teenager, she replicated her social abilities among the family and young people there. At twenty, Catharine was marriageable, a dangerous state for a young woman who had not yet espoused conversion. She entered into a three-year struggle with her father and, eventually, her preacher brother, Edward, over the state of her soul. A young woman could be free and investigative in her father‟s household, but as she approached marriage, she had to settle into the parameters of conversion and obedience to a husband to fit the New England Calvinist mold. Lyman had struggled with each of his children to bring them to salvation and overt conversion. For her seven preacher brothers, conversion meant obedience to God and ministerial careers. For Catharine, a woman, “religious submission was linked to civil and social submission in marriage which commonly followed it as the second step to adulthood,”5 and “submission to God was a prelude to a lifetime of earthly submission to a husband.”6 In the spring of 1821, as she prepared to leave for a New London school to assume responsibilities for classes in domestic arts, drawing, and painting, Lyman intensified his efforts for her religious conversion before she left home. In the same period, Alexander Metcalf Fisher appeared on the scene. Intelligent and dedicated to scholarship, at 24, he was appointed to Yale‟s Professorship in Natural Philosophy. Three years Catharine‟s senior, he had established a reputation for his skill in scientific thought, mathematics, and a character influenced by New England orthodoxy. Having read one of Catharine‟s poems in Lyman‟s magazine, The Christian Spectator, he accompanied a ministerial classmate to Litchfield who was to preach for Lyman so he could meet Catharine. Although the romantic road was rocky, at length they were reconciled to love for each other and engaged within a year.

literatura, pintura e dramática, máis como o currículo da preparación dun mozo programa que outras escolas para xovencas. O programa axudou a configurar as ideas posteriores de Catharine sobre educación para mulleres. A escola de Miss Pierce tamén ofrecía adestramento nos instintos sociais dos estudantes con "instrucións sobre esas regras de delicadeza e rapaza tan importantes para cada muller nova", así como "modos como a dama" e "cultivados e refinados e conversas". Para Catharine Beecher, esta precoz conciencia social foi un ben inestimable. A instrución relixiosa e moral para as mulleres novas tiña que facelas agradables e instáballes como usos sociais, só secundariamente como camiño cara á santidade. Cunha personalidade grega e continuada, Beecher atopou as habilidades sociais para ser un dos principais puntos fortes. Na época, Litchfield tamén tiña a fama de ter a mellor escola de avogados do país. Ela mudouse con ela facilidade dentro do ambiente escintilante dos mozos intelixentes. Nunha visita a familiares en Boston como adolescente maior, replicou as súas habilidades sociais entre a familia e os mozos alí presentes. Aos vinte anos, Catharine era casable, un estado perigoso para unha muller nova que aínda non tiña engadido a conversión. Entrou nunha loita de tres anos co seu pai e, eventualmente, co seu irmán predicador, Edward, polo estado da súa alma.Unha muller nova podería ser libre e investigadora na casa do pai, pero cando se achegaba ao matrimonio, tivo que establecerse nos parámetros de conversión e obediencia a un marido para adaptarse ao molde calvinista de Nova Inglaterra. Lyman loitou con cada un dos seus fillos para levalos á salvación e á conversión excesiva. Para os seus sete irmáns predicadores, a conversión supuxo a obediencia a Deus e as carreiras ministeriais. Para Catharine, unha muller, "a submisión relixiosa estaba ligada á submisión civil e social no matrimonio, que normalmente a seguía como o segundo paso para a idade adulta", 5 e "a submisión a Deus foi un preludio de toda a vida da submisión terrestre a un marido". 6 Na primavera de 1821, mentres ela se preparou para ir a unha escola de Nova Londres para asumir responsabilidades para as clases de artes domésticas, debuxo e pintura, Lyman intensificou os seus esforzos pola súa conversión relixiosa antes de marchar da casa. No mesmo período, Alexander Metcalf Fisher apareceu en escena. Intelixente e dedicado á bolsa, aos 24 anos, foi nomeado á profesora de Yale en Filosofía natural. Catro anos de idade principal, tiña unha reputación pola súa habilidade en pensamento científico, matemáticas e un personaxe influído pola ortodoxia de Nova Inglaterra.Lendo un dos poemas de Catharine na revista de Lyman, The Christian Spectator, acompañou a un compañeiro de clase a Litchfield que debía predicar a Lyman para que coñecera a Catharine. Aínda que a estrada romántica era pedregosa, polo miúdo reconcilíronse para amarse e comprometerse dentro dun ano.