In the 1860s, missionaries of the RCA (Reformed Church in America) carried out missionary work in southern Fujian. They soon realized that, in order for the Bible to have an important impact on people, the problem of illiteracy must first be addressed. In this regard, the education of women was more urgent than that of men.
At that time, Chinese people still had traditional conservative ideas about girls' education. They did not want to send girls to school and did not want to let their daughters study in schools with boys for fear of physical contact with boys. In order to solve this problem, the RCA established a special school for girls in Xiamen, Peide Girl's School, so that many local women could enter the school and study cultural courses.
The success of the Peide Girls' School also prompted the RCA to start a girls' school in Pinghe, which was also one of the most important missionary centers in the interior of southern Fujian.
In 1888, Alice Van Dyck, the wife of American missionary Pastor Alexander S. Van Dyck, founded the earliest Xiaoxi Girls' School in Zhangzhou, in Xiaoxi, Pinghe. When it was first established, all students attended classes in rented houses. Soon after, Xiaoxi Church, with the support of the Foreign Missionary Women's Committee, built a new school site on the east side of Xiaoxi Qiaotou Street Chapel, and students have been living in the new school building since then.
In the spring of 1892, when Pastor Henry N. Cobb, an American missionary, visited the church in Xiaoxi, he described the Xiaoxi Girls' School as follows: "Above the chapel is the girls' primary school, and as we ascended the narrow and steep staircase, we saw the smiling faces of eighteen girls and their teachers, who saluted us, welcomed us warmly, and offered us tea; but they have no better schoolhouse, and the upper floor is only about twelve or fifteen feet times twenty-five feet, which is divided into two parts. The front of the upper floor is used as a bedroom, and the back is for lessons and living. The windows were small. The rooms are dark and shabby and look uninviting." Although the school building was narrow, many girls still asked for admission.
In 1886, Pastor Leonard William, the first missionary of the RCA to come to Pinghe, built two girls' buildings together with his wife Helen William in the Houxiang Village of Xiaoxi. In 1893, Xiaoxi Girls' School added the Xiaoxi Gospel Society (commonly known as Xiaoxi Women's School), with Helen William as the principal. When the school opened, there were eight women boarders studying in the school, and the rest were mostly women who lived nearby and attended the day school.
The teachers of the school were mainly missionaries, including Min Meide, the Chinese name of a western missionary, who had the highest musical accomplishment and profound attainments among missionaries in southern Fujian, and the maternal grandmother of Zhangpu native Hong Ying, who graduated from a seminary. However, they did not live in the school but in the girls' building, nearly 500 meters away from it.
Pinghe Xiaoxi Girls' School and the Xiaoxi Women's Bible School were founded with the original intention of the church for women to learn to read and study the Bible, but the school did not ignore non-religious courses, such as geography, arithmetic, Chinese literature, nature, art, and music, and also taught home economics to women to improve their own quality and cultivation.
- Translated by Nicolas Cao
十九世纪六十年代，美国归正教传教士在闽南地区开展传教事工。很快他们认识到，要使圣经对人们产生重要影响，必须首先解决扫盲的问题。而在这之中，女子教育则比男性而言更为迫切重要。
在当时，国人尚且对女子教育持有传统保守观念，不愿送女子上学，更不愿意让自已的女儿在有男生的学校就读，生怕同男生有肢体接触。为了解决这一问题，美国归正教会在厦门创办了专门面向女童开展教学的“培德女学堂”，让许多当地的女子得以走进校门，学习文化课程。
培德女子学堂的成功办学，也促使教会开始在同样作为闽南内陆地区最为主要的传教中心之一的平和地区开始创办女子学堂。
1888年，美国传教士栗山大牧师娘艾丽斯在平和小溪创办漳州地区最早的“小溪女子学堂”。起初创办时，所有学生在租来的房子里上课。不久后，小溪教会在国外传道妇女委员会的资助下，于小溪桥头街礼拜堂东侧兴建了学堂新址，学员便从此在新校舍里住宿学习。
1892年春，美国传教士亨利·考伯牧师到小溪考察时，对小溪女子学堂这样描述：“礼拜堂之上是女子小学校，我们登上又窄又陡的楼梯, 看到18个女孩的笑脸，还有她们的老师，她们向我们行礼，热情地欢迎我们，请我们喝茶, 可惜她们没有好一点儿的校舍 , 楼上的面积大约只有12-15英尺乘以25英尺，分为了两个部分，前面作为卧室， 后面用来上课和起居，窗子很小，房间阴暗而简陋，看起来毫无诱人之处……”虽然校舍狭窄, 但仍有许多女孩要求入学。
1886年，最先来到平和传教的汲澧谰牧师和牧师娘汲海伦在小溪后巷村建了两座姑娘楼。1893年，小溪女学堂又增设了小溪福音学社（俗称“小溪妇校”）由汲海伦师娘担任校长。学堂开学时有8位妇女寄宿生在校学习，其余大多是就近走读妇女来堂学习。
学堂的教师主要是由传教士担任，其中有在闽南一带传教士中音乐素养最高，造诣颇深的闵美德姑娘，以及从神学院毕业的漳浦人泓莹的外祖母的等国内女传道人。但是，她们都不住在学堂，而是在远离学校近500米姑娘楼里生活起居。
平和小溪女子学堂和小溪妇女圣经学堂创建的初衷都是教会为妇女扫盲认字、读圣经，可学堂並没有勿视非宗教课程，如地理、算术、中国文学、自然、艺术和音乐，还向妇女教授家政学，以提高妇女的自身素质与修养。
福建漳州首个开创女子教育先河的学校——平和小溪女子学堂
In the 1860s, missionaries of the RCA (Reformed Church in America) carried out missionary work in southern Fujian. They soon realized that, in order for the Bible to have an important impact on people, the problem of illiteracy must first be addressed. In this regard, the education of women was more urgent than that of men.
At that time, Chinese people still had traditional conservative ideas about girls' education. They did not want to send girls to school and did not want to let their daughters study in schools with boys for fear of physical contact with boys. In order to solve this problem, the RCA established a special school for girls in Xiamen, Peide Girl's School, so that many local women could enter the school and study cultural courses.
The success of the Peide Girls' School also prompted the RCA to start a girls' school in Pinghe, which was also one of the most important missionary centers in the interior of southern Fujian.
In 1888, Alice Van Dyck, the wife of American missionary Pastor Alexander S. Van Dyck, founded the earliest Xiaoxi Girls' School in Zhangzhou, in Xiaoxi, Pinghe. When it was first established, all students attended classes in rented houses. Soon after, Xiaoxi Church, with the support of the Foreign Missionary Women's Committee, built a new school site on the east side of Xiaoxi Qiaotou Street Chapel, and students have been living in the new school building since then.
In the spring of 1892, when Pastor Henry N. Cobb, an American missionary, visited the church in Xiaoxi, he described the Xiaoxi Girls' School as follows: "Above the chapel is the girls' primary school, and as we ascended the narrow and steep staircase, we saw the smiling faces of eighteen girls and their teachers, who saluted us, welcomed us warmly, and offered us tea; but they have no better schoolhouse, and the upper floor is only about twelve or fifteen feet times twenty-five feet, which is divided into two parts. The front of the upper floor is used as a bedroom, and the back is for lessons and living. The windows were small. The rooms are dark and shabby and look uninviting." Although the school building was narrow, many girls still asked for admission.
In 1886, Pastor Leonard William, the first missionary of the RCA to come to Pinghe, built two girls' buildings together with his wife Helen William in the Houxiang Village of Xiaoxi. In 1893, Xiaoxi Girls' School added the Xiaoxi Gospel Society (commonly known as Xiaoxi Women's School), with Helen William as the principal. When the school opened, there were eight women boarders studying in the school, and the rest were mostly women who lived nearby and attended the day school.
The teachers of the school were mainly missionaries, including Min Meide, the Chinese name of a western missionary, who had the highest musical accomplishment and profound attainments among missionaries in southern Fujian, and the maternal grandmother of Zhangpu native Hong Ying, who graduated from a seminary. However, they did not live in the school but in the girls' building, nearly 500 meters away from it.
Pinghe Xiaoxi Girls' School and the Xiaoxi Women's Bible School were founded with the original intention of the church for women to learn to read and study the Bible, but the school did not ignore non-religious courses, such as geography, arithmetic, Chinese literature, nature, art, and music, and also taught home economics to women to improve their own quality and cultivation.
- Translated by Nicolas Cao
The First School for Chinese Women's Education in Zhangzhou, Fujian
