Work Text:
An educated daughter is dangerous. Everyone knows this. A girl should be raised to be beautiful, demure, a good cook and housekeeper, sensible about the finances of her home, and to care for her own children.
Fa Zhou worries he is making a terrible mistake.
Mulan is curious and intelligent. A son would be sent to study the ways of philosophy, law, and the means of warfare. Her mother, with loving frustration, tries to teach her how to keep a home. Zhou teaches her to read, to ride, to question, and he himself learns: an educated daughter is a gift.