The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-08-17
WOMEN AND SCHOOLS,

among OtOer changes IN the ScDoOl |
law recommended by the Territorial
Teachers Institute, in recent session at
Seattle, is the proposition to make all
women over twenty-one years Of age
eligible to any office connected with the
public school system. The justice of
this measure cannot fail to be apparent
to every one, while its utility will in
many localities be recognized. The
Vancouver Independent cites an instance
that occurred in q district of Clarke
county where the directors failed to do
busy to bother with school affairs" A
woman, a wife, and mother of six or
seven children, mounted a horse and
rode twenty miles and back with baby
in her arms to consult the superintend-
ent about what to do for a school, The
result of her energy and action was that
she saved the district the public money
and not long afterward succeeded in
starting a school (which was carried on
until the men got to quarreling and
broke it up."
Now, the question right here arises,
was this woman less busy than the men
who had no time to attend to school
matters and organize school, bat who,
as the sequel proved, had ample time to
quarrel and break it up? Was it be-
cause she was unemployed and time
dragged that she took this matter In
hand? Or was it not because she took
more interest in the matter of the edu-
cation of the children growing up about
her than did the fathers thereabOuts?
The paper above quoted goes on to say
that "nearly every district in the county
has one or more devoted, intelligent
mothers who would do better work in
the management of the school than the
majority of busy men," Again we say,
not because the men are more busy
than the women is this true, for it is no.
ticeable that men have plenty of time to
attend to that which interests them,
from dog fight to a railroad meeting,
and from vestry meeting to political
caucus, but because women, naturally,
it would seem, take more interest in the
cause of education usually than men do.
1t is the mother who takes double
burdens upon herself in order to get the
children "off to school" in season; who
"gives out' the lesson morning and
evening that insures the "head mark'
or credit tokeni who listens with atten-
tion to the rehearsal of the defamation
that shall stamp her son aDemosthenes,
and puzzles over the crooked chirogra-
ply in which the daughter proudly dis
plays her knowledge of'"The Seasons"
The mothers visit the schools lin town
on Friday afternoons while the fathers
are talking politics, and in the country
suffer all the Inconvenience of packing
and slowing the family into close quar-
ters to accommodate E'the master'' who
is "boarding round" The comfort she
receives for it all is the thought that by
these means they are able to give their
children
A better bringing up
Than his had been or hers"
The management of school affairs In
every district should be intrusted to
those most competent, most interested,
and most willing. If these are women,
in their hands the matter should be
placed; if men, let them lead. And that
the best materials may always be avail
able, let the law place men and women
on an equality in the matter.
There was more excuse for keeping
women in the background, or ignoring
them altogether in educational matters,
when "the three RS, readin', 'ritin',
and 'rithnetic," were considered the es-
sentials, not to say the superfiuities, Of
woman's education, than now, when
high schools, academies, and colleges
are throwing wide their doors and bid
ding women enter, and the faces OF
women, young and middle-aged, aglow
with intelligence and refined by culture,
rise thoughtfully from behind teachers
desks throughout the length and breadth
of the continent.