The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-19
WOMEN AS TEACHERS.


population in towns and cities where coop
Grafton and division of labor may work to the
best advantage. Also, that the activities Of
She present are of the directive, rather than of
the purely muscular character, and that in
this line the special fitness or unfitness of sex
il a constantly vanishing element.
Woman is advancing with man into this
region Of thought and idea, of mental and
directive power. She will not hope nor can
she desire to be liberated from those humble
and loving labors which pertain to the period
Of productive life, wifehood and motherhood,
and of which the type is periodicity and con-
slant repetition of the humble duties Of the
home. These are multifarious in
their diversity, but right here her natural
agility and versatility her alertness Of mind
and motion, come into play. It is this very
character, inherent in woman and coeyal with
motherhood that fits her in peculiar sense
for the teacher of children.
Nature has made women the teachers of in
fants and little children, as she has intended
men for the instruction of youth and maturi-
ty. To this end, the matter of disposition is
Of more moment than that of intellect, for the
training Of little children should of all things
be gentle. sDo you know" says Richter,
whether the little boy who gathers flowers at
your side may not one day from his island
Corsica descend, as war god, into a stormy
universe to play with storms and destroy or
to purify and to sowg Would it then be indif-
ferent whether in educating him you had been
mis- Fenelon, his Cornelia or his Duboisw The
young girl OF woman who is with the
little ones in the primary grades, or
In the lone district schools of
the country may not be able
to break or bend the power of genius, and
may not even detect its presence or give it
special direction, but in this most important
decade of life, at the dawn of thought and
feeling, she should surround and overlay the
slumbering energies with all the tender habits
of gentle, womanly nature and with all the
bonds of love. Whether angels or devils
teach the little ones is far more important
than whether the teacher is college gradu-
ate or has the diploma of the professional
normal school. The tendency has been too
much to grade up teachers by their examina-
lions and certificates. The intellectual at
tainment is the measure, rather than the dis
position or the physique, on which the tenn
permanent and disposition depend. Teachers
Of children should be healthy and strong;
they should be well formed and even beauti-
full, like military cadets. They should be
sanguine and cheerful good feeders and good
ivers, always looking on the bright side.
What they know is something, but not the
one-half. So many occupations now open
to women that it is doubtful if those best
adapted are seeking positions as teachers.
Those who marry and care for homes are
ruled out in some cases peremptorily by
school boards, and in most cases by circum-
stances. Those who remain come to
5 the work of teaching by acct
dent more than by natural fitness.
Others arc drawn to a work for which they
have no physical or dispositional fitness,
through the overzeal of the professional nor
NAL schools. These promise to make teach
ers of all who pay their bills and take their
courses. The business Of making teachers,
\ E.~o%, ID, {o1-ax hxvo mt nd C@o&o
has been taken up by private schools, and is
entirely overdone. The natal inheritance,
the strength, form, beauty and temperament
on the physical side, and mental grasp will
power and view of life and motive involved
on the other side, are not considered. 1t is
cent. per cent, as shown by the examination
and diploma.
A city of loo, 900 people has about $50 women
teaching in its public schools There Is
manifest advantage in having them residents;
they know the children, the parents, the sys-
lem, the Supervising force They have been
through the mills; coarse ground in the grades;
refined in the high-school; polished, squared
Up, and shaped like row of fence pickets in
tie machine of the normal or training school,
and at the age of eighteen or twenty are put
in the grades as finished specimens of what
the schools can do. This is all excellent as
far as it goes, but it does not 60 far
enough. The young teacher should work in
the grades but half the day. This is wear
and tear enough. The other half she should
devote to the higher culture-to art, to music,
to literature, to the study of nature and to
those higher psychological and metaphysical
subjects which underlie teaching and mental