The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1872-11-15
NUMBER 40

-ss-.. NUMBER 40 |
Probably the. Almighty knew
what he was about when no Great
ed a man for every woman, or
dained that q family should con-
sist of husband and q wife, disI1
tributed boys and girls in the same
household, and endowed man with
decisive ability to complement the
holy office of Wonanhood. There |
is An actual IS well as an idea
world; realm of definite reason
ing, logical sequence, human rela-
tons and limitations, as surely as
realm of high sentiment and as
piratIoa for eternity. There is a
seYere government of human pas
sions, appetites, even of. the high
eiaeiements of our being, without
which We all float into vast shall
lows ofTagne and negative exis-
tehce. In all that ''reins up" the |
spirit, puts human being in posi- |
ton to clay aside every weight
and run the race Of life, man is,
commander-in-chief of the world. |
There is, especially. a most de-
cisfve realm Of American circum-
stances and obligations about the
mass Of the children5in American
public schools? For half dozen
years, at the most, they are gath
cred by the paternal state in the
school room, and then they are
cast out into the terrible current
that sweeps, away the boy or girl
OF our land into precocious
maturity. To place these children
exclusively in contact with women,
generally young and inexperienced
in the ways OF the world, often of
such a style OF birth and oppor-
tunity that the whole of human
life outside their narrow girlish
circle is terra tncosnita, and, es-
peciaily the American practical
and public world, an uninterrupted
riddle, is to do q very sperilous
thing for American society.
The whole sensitive nature OF
the child is developed at home,
and, in the present pIe-occupied
state of fathers, is even there too
much in the hands of the women
OF the family. As consequence,
American children. in cities espec-
tally, where men are so terribly
absorbed in outdoor life, bear the
marks of too exclusive feminine
training. Far more sensitive, pre-
cocions, interesting than the
children of other lands, they are
less, vigorous, more excitable, ir-
ritable. and lngovernable, than
any previous generation, of chill
dren Ia any civilized country. |
Their virtues and faults are those
OF the average womanhood of the |
United States. The one need of
American family life now is a !
strong infusion of paternal firm
ness, consistency, and practical
wisdom. We believe it is owing |
greatly to the neglect of paternaI
duty In the American family that
our cities are s~arming with a
crop of children that will tax the
highest skill of the doctors to keep
alive, puzzle the divine to convert,
and test the statesman TO keep in
side the limits of q wise American
citizenship. -E .a
The fact is, n woman can not be
a man, and she can not play man
without terrible arrangement of
human life. To divide the house,
as we are doing in our cities, MAX
ing the father a Yagrant money
maker without, and the mother an
ambitious social autocrat within,
will land US in social pandemon-
ium. The child needs perpetual
contact with man and woman eve
~ day, in every phase of its life.
1t may be agreeable and chivalrous
for our educated young men to
rush off into business, and the ex-
elements of public and profess
sional life, leaving the young wo-
manhood of the land to shoulder
this tremendous institution, the
common school, but a.e we sure
it will be for the worse if done.
Especially do our children need
masculine wisdom and firmness in
the school-room, because this is
the great school of American
citizenship. 1t is preposterous to
say that girls of the usual age of
our public school teachers can
train up these heterogeneous
masses of children into due oh
servance of their social relations
with one another, and give them
adequate ideas of American citi.
zenship. These girls do not them
selves expect to become active
citizens, and are afflicted with the
haziest ideas of the industrial and |
public life that awaits the boys
they instruct. At best their in
terest in boys is literary, person
al, and moral, and their pupils go
out almost untouched in that
which should be an especial object
of common-school training. Gene.
rally our superior lady teachers
are most deficient in this direction
their contemptuous indifference
to every thing outside the sphere
of refined woman's life being too
evident. 1t is owing to this that.
while our great public schools are
gaining power in all that stimu-
lates Juvenile hveliness, precocity,
readiness to seize on the attractive
side of culture, our children are
coming out of their educational |
courses too tender, sensitive, and |
impracticable to fit in to the stern |
demands of our national life. i
This lack cannot be met by
placing supervision in tho hands |
of strong men. Every idea un-
dergoes 8 radical change in pass
ing from q male superior through |
the soul of woman to a child.
We need the perpetual contact of
an experienced, wise, good man.
at least with all the upper grades
of our district schools; and if we
can have men In these places, who |
are fathers of children of mature
age, weil-informed in the ways of |
the American world, so much the
better. Such a change as this
would develop what is SO much
needed in our eountry-a reliable
class of professional common
school masters, No normal train
ing can impart that experience
and wisdom which only come BIZ /
years and actualknowledge of life.
Unmarried women-almost the
only class OF mature women in
our common schools-can not sup
ply this. want. While we would