The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1890-08-15
INTHE SCHOOLS.
MISS WILLARD AT THE EDUcA-
TIONAL ASSOCIATION.

Build the Child's Education Up from q
Physical FOundation-Fublic Schools Not
Goddess When the Scientific Truths Per-
tanning to Mans Nature Are Taught.
There are four great movements which
in the largest way will lift the white
cross OF purity to its rightful place in the
lives of u young people. They are az
co-education--the training with each
other Of those formed for each other,
that their intellectual sympathy may be
increased and their mutual estimate
based on a more thorough knowledge
tina society affords; (2) the financial
independence of women, that they NAV
not be tempted to marry in order to Sc
cure support; (3) a reform in dress, that
women may have better health, greater
vigor, and thus enter upon home life
under more hopeful conditions; and az
equal suffrage, that woman's influence
ana character may react upon govern
ment so as to secure more just laws for
home protection and heavier penalties
against those who assail the physically
weaker.
All these reforms should be in%culcated
In the public schools and wrought into
the thinking of the young people. l do
not mean that this should be done in any
formal way, but as the outcome of that
"public opinion" in a public school that
Is largely developed from the teachers
influence, record, and, most of all, his or
her character.
Recent statistics in Massachusetts
prove that sin the e~mployments in which
the very lowest wages are paid women
constitute over 70 per cent. of the work.
ers, while in the e~mployments that pay
$2O per week women constitute hardly
over 8 per cent. Women standing
side by side with men are also paid less
wages for the same work, the proportion
being that a twenty years of age
and upwards is made to work for the
same wages as a boy of ten" Public
school children should know these facts
and their indignation should be aroused
against such a state of things.
The word of God has been largely dis
placed from u public schools to the
sorrow OF Christians, but the God of the
word vas never more vitality present than
In the voice OF science with its "Thus
saith Nature" "Thus saith Reason"
"Thus saith the law"
Build the child's education I'D from O.
physical foundation. Bodily habits that
are healthful and pure mean more to the
republics future than intellectual acu-
men or requirements. The man wonder
full lives in a house beautiful, but science
teaches even as the Bible does, that
"Whoso defileth this temple him shall
God destroy, for the temple of God is
holy, which temple we are" The child
should learn that this destruction is not
wrought in vengeance, but as the inev-
liable seqnel of violating natural laws so
beneticent that obedience to them would
insure q happy life.
The public schools are not Goddess"
in which these truths are taught. The
whole curriculum alpitates with divini-
ty. Catholics have eXcellcd PrOtestants
in teaching to the young the basis and
enforcing precepts Of a pure life. Ire
land has the most v%irtuous peasantry in
the world, confessedly as the outcome of
early education. Before their first COM
munion boys and girls are specifically
taught the duty and the r~easonableness
of personal purity.
From the point of view of science, they
should thus be taught in our schools.
This cannot be done in the direct manner
that we teach them to let alcoholic drinks
and tobacco alone, but by abolishing the
recess and using time for physical train
ing according to the systems of Delsarte
and other masters; circulating the White
Cross pledge and literature, and per-
sonally teaching the pupils one by one or
in small groups of boys by themselves,
and girls by themselves, the facts OF
physiology and hygiene in reference to a
life of personal purity. Fewer pupils
should be assigned to each teacher, and
physical culture should be the basis oil
all education.
Teach girls the gospel of dress that
imposes no ligature; the vulgarity o.
that "death line" made in the waist thai
reminds II of an h%our-glass or a "yel.
low Jacket" and the danger of tilted
heels that throw all the vital organ out
of their natural place. Let the teacher
Of physical culture, whom 1 like to call a
"moral horticulturist," train the chill
dren not to permit the insignia of i'm
purity upon the walls, and not to accept
dehasing literature upon the playground.
Put women on school boards that they
may help the teacher to guard the little
ones against these dangers.