Implications

The conclusion summarizes Virginia Stephen’s homeschooling, Morley College teaching, and book reviewing apprenticeship, reviews the lessons she learned about curricula, pedagogy, and community from all her teachers, and recaps the significance of gender, class, and readers to her isolated, fragmented, and informal education. The conclusion also examines the implications of Virginia Stephen’s lessons: Virginia Woolf’s creation of the common reader, an emphasis on the pleasure of reading, a belief in democratic principles, great respect for the reader, an inclusive pedagogy, and an attempt to teach without being didactic. The lessons Virginia Stephen learned during her apprenticeship turned Virginia Woolf into an essayist compelled to teach, as evidenced by an essay canon that reveals a philosophy of education, a curriculum, and a pedagogy. A close reading of ‘The Novels of George Gissing’, Virginia Stephen’s last essay, demonstrates the apprentice has matured into an essayist who would write essays permeated with educational qualities even when not overtly pedagogical.