Cecilia Fryxell

Cecilia Fryxell during her time as Principal at her school at Rostad, Kalmar, (portraite by wood engraver Evald Hansen)
Rostad full of life during the time of Cecilia Fryxell's living and schooling there (Photo in the 1860s by John Dryselius)

Ulrica Cecilia Fryxell (born 14 August 1806 at Kantenberg, Vassända-Naglum – died 6 May 1883 in Kalmar), was a Swedish educator and principal, regarded as a pioneer within the education of girls in Sweden. The girls school in Sweden from the mid 19th century onward was influenced by her methods.

Biography

Her father was Gustaf Fryxell and mother Catharina Maria Liljegren and her grandfather Jöns Olof Fryxell. She was a relative of the poet and educator Anders Fryxell. Cecilia Fryxell early supported herself as a governess to wealthy families: first to the landowner L M Uggla at Svaneholms manor in Dalsland and thereafter to landowner and courtier Olof Nordenfeldt at Björneborg in Värmland south of Kristinehamn In 1843, she decided to become a missionary after a sermon held by Peter Fjellstedt. Fjellstedt arranged for her to be educated for missionary service at a missionary institute at Basel in Switzerland. However, she was considered unsuitable as a missionary for health reasons. Instead, she studied the boarding schools for girls in Switzerland and Germany in 1843-47, and was employed as a teacher at Waisenhaus in the Basel Institute.

In 1847, she returned to Sweden, and was employed at the Societetsskolan. In 1848, she opened her first school for girls in Helsingborg by the aid of Peter Wieselgren, vicar in Hälsingborg. The school had room for 40 students. In 1852, she moved her girl-school to an estate of Count G. Lewenhaupt, Carlslund outside Västerås, where she could house 100 students. However, she wished to have her own building for her school, and in 1858, she was able to buy the manor Rostad outside Kalmar, were her school was housed from 1859 until 1877.

Her school at Rostad was entirely her own. She accepted students from all over Sweden, from neighboring nations as well as internationally: she even had some students from North America. 30 of her students lived at the school. These places were so in demand that parents booked places for their daughters for years in advance. The students were parted in three classes as well as one teacher's class. A foreign language was practiced every week, and exercised with the teacher at the afternoon of that week. She herself was the teacher in the subjects History and Christianity. She is not considered to have be innovative in introducing new subjects, but she was recommended for her way of focusing on the personality of her students. She is described as strong and forceful and not tolerant in questions of religion and personal moral, but despite this, the life on her school was described as informal, familial and jolly. In 1877, she donated her school to the state and initiated a people's seminary on the estate.

Cecilia Fryxell had a large influence upon the girls schools and women's education in contemporary mid 19th-century Sweden, when a wave of girls schools were established all over the country. Many of her students became teachers and founders of girl's schools themselves in other parts of the country, such as Elsa Borg in Gävle, Sophia Posse and Frederique Hammarstedt in Stockholm, Natalia Andersson in Västerås, Maria Henschen in Uppsala and Sigrid Rudebeck in Gothenborg.

References

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