| Abstract: | Conclusion Florence Nightingale once quoted from an address on education delivered at the Universities of St Andrew's and Glasgow, which
perfectly reflected her own standpoint: ‘…] education is to teach men not to know, but to do’ (Nightingale, 1873, p. 576).
It would seem fair to judge Florence Nightingale's contribution to education by the practical effect which her reforms had.
A letter written to her by Benjamin Jowett should stand as her epitaph:
There was a great deal of romantic feeling about you 23 years ago when you returned home from the Crimea …] and now you work
on in silence, and nobody knows how many lives are saved by your nurses in hospitals; how many thousand soldiers …] are now
alive owing to your forethought and diligence; how many natives of India in this generation and in generations to come have
been preserved from famine and oppression and the load of debt by the energy of a sick lady who can scarcely rise from her
bed. The world does not know all this or think about it. But I know it and often think about it (31 December 1879).
Original language: English
Alex Attewell (United Kingdom)
Assistant curator of a hospital museum in the west of England before joining the Florence Nightingale Museum, London, in 1989.
He became an Associate of the Museums Association in 1993 and Curator of the Florence Nightingale Museum in 1994. He often
lectures, gives broadcasts and organizes temporary exhibitions in the area of his expertise. |
