Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1889-05-02
SCHOOL SUFFRAGE.

Weakness Oh tne fresent SCHOOL system
as Presided Over by Men-Eiigibllity of
Women to School Ofices
At this time, when there Is so wide
an awakening OF women to their duties
in regard to the public schools, the fol-
lowing good article by Mrs. Ellen B.
Dietrich, which lately appeared in the
Covington (Ky) Daily Commonwealth,
will have special interest;
THAT Kentucky once had Lawmakers
who were men OF sense is evident from
this extract from her Revised Statutes,
1852, Chapter 6, Sec 1:
An election shall be held at the schoo-house
Of each school district, from a m till 2 p. m.,
OF the first Saturday OF April of each year, for
the election of three trustees for the district for
one year, and until others are elected and quail
flied, The qualified voters of the district shall
be the electors, and any widow having a child
between six and eighteen years of age may also
vote in person or by written proxy. II she has
no child, but is taxpayer, she may vote on the
question OF taxes
at is rather strange that they did
not also limit the right of school suf-
frage to widowed fathers, in order to
have the scales Of justice balance; but
perhaps the next Legislature will be
sensible enough to make voting for
school trustees, with that of all munich
pal affairs, equally just for all men ard
women.
Certainly, il either sex should be
given the sole right Of deciding about
children's education, it should be the
mothers, sisters and maiden aunts, as
in ninety-nine out of a hundred families
the men know little and care less about
what the children are doing at school.
The mother, having been educated her.
self with the idea that school affairs
belong to politics" submits, as she
has been trained to do, to the evils OF
the System" without protest.
1.-The trustees are most Of them men
who, absorbed in their own business or
profession, give the school the very
least amount Of thought and time that
will suffice to hurry through with that
business A former member OF the
school board says it is almost impossi-
BILE to get quorum at any of the ordi-
nary meetings, that it is great bore,
and somebody ought to take hold of it
who has more time and interest in the
subject of education.
'Now the one point on which all men,
the broad-minded men and the little,
narrow-minded men agree, is that it is
womans peculiar duty tolook after the
interests of children. After child is
six years of age, the greater part of its
life is spent in the school-room until it
goes to the workshop, store or factory.
With the age of six it passes from the
mothers care to the guardianship of the
school trustee. The guardian selects
the man or woman into whose hands
are given the plastic souls and tender
bodies of the children for from three to
six of their working hours at the most
impressionable period Of their lives, and
concerns himself very little further
about child, teacher or school-room.
"As all the decision is now left to
men, men appoint other men to wash
the windows, sweep the floors and
make the fires OF the chool-houses.
Not because men like to wash and
sweep; it is doubtful if one of them
would do 1t in his own house; but be-
cause in most Covington school-houses
it pays better to pretend to wash win
dows and sweep floors than 1t does to
teach.N For instance, thirty-ive of the
women school-teachers are paid less
than any of these male janitors, the
wages of the latter ranging from nine
ty to two hundred and forty dollars
per year more than these women teach
ers receive.
1.-THE women having no representa-
tive on the school board, the male
trustees naturally allow the male teach
ers twice as much as some of the high
est paid, and five times as much as the
poorest paid women teachers are able
to get. Women must begin in the low
est grade. and may work up to be mans
assistant, never higher, while any man
who has influence enough to get in at
all, goes in as principal.
"Do the male teachers have families
to support9
$50 do the women teachers.
'.Do the male teachers do better
workP
mo one even pretends that they do.
Have women ever been tried and
found capable OF filling the highest Of
fees OF schools?
"Yes. Women are eligible to school
Offices generally in Illinois, Iowa. Kan
sas, Louisiana, Massachusetts,, Michi-
gan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ver-
mont and Wyoming; to school district
Offices in Colorado; to any Office except
State Superintendent in Wisconsin;
some offices are open to them in Maine,
and all Offices in California. Ten
women were elected county superin.
tendents in Illinois in 1873. many oi
whom have served ever since. and have
proved themselves satisfactory, both a:
20 the millions OF dollars that have
passed through their hands, and also il
their duties TO teachers and pupils. II
Des Moines. Ia. Mrs l. NJ. Wilson
has been city superintendent OF tn,
public school for nineteen years, anS
Mrs l. T. Morrow principal Of tn
high school for thirteen years.
The subiect Of th. schools Il ~