The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-12-14
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
SCHOOL TEACHING.
A Calling in Which Girls FIND Pleasant
IA DrnHAn hIo Il r,I1rI,ant- :. =,

The French educational commission
to the centennial exhibition at Phila-
delphia, in its report on primary ednca-
ton in the United States, attributed
the condition of affairs which the
writer in the Arena deplores to the eff
feet of the war with the south. The
superiority of the female element
of the teaching body over the male in
point of number" says the report,
dates from the war of secession, the
original cause being the voluntary en-
rollmcnt of all the young men who
We're teaching, as soldiers"
A very little investigation suffices to
show that the cause assigned by the
French commission offers by no means
an adequate explanation of this feature
of the public school question. The
majority of teachers were young
women as far back as 1874. Between
1S4S and 1850 the proportion of female
teachers in Massachusetts, rose from
sixty to seventy per cent of the whole
number. This increase was doubtless
owing in large measure to the in
fiuence of Horace Mann, who was at
that time secretary of the first state
board of education in Massachusetts,
and who was most determined advo-
cate for the employment of female teach
ers. The war had the effect of still
further diminishing the number of men
listed from Ohio alone; but the war can
not be regarded as the original cause
of the withdrawal of men from the
teaching service.
The employment of large numbers of
women was made possible in the first
place by the fundamental idea of the
American educational system.
In European countries the state con-
cerned itself mainly, in times past, with
higher educational institutions, which
were frequented by students from the
upper classes of society. 1t was not
until the horrors of the French revolu-
ton revealed the dangers looking in the
social depths that the idea of the edu-
cation of the masses began to take prac-
teal shape in Europe. Primary educa-
ton has been gratuitous in France only
| since 1881.
The New England settlers recognized
from the first that it was the duty of
| the state to provide the means for Sc
curing intelligent citizenship. TWEEN
| ty-two years after the landing of the
Pilgrim Fathers their representatives
| enjoined the local authorities to "lleep
| watchful eye on their brothers and
| neighbors, and above all things to see
that there be no family in which so
barbarous a state of things exist as
| that the head thereof do not endeavor
to impart sufficient instruction to his
children and to his servants to enable
them to read fluently the English Ian
| guage, and to acquire a knowledge OF
the penal laws under a penalty of TWEEN
ty shillings for such neglect"
| New England held fast to the idea OF
elementary instruction for all the peo-
pie as the basis of the American public
school system. AS the nation developed
the existence of a great system of
schools which might be taught by per-
sons of comparatively small mental
attainments, opened the way for the
employment of women as teachers
Long before there was any gpn-
eral movement for the higher education
of women they constituted a majority
of the teachers in the primary
and grammar schools. The fact
that they received much less
compensation for the same service than
men was an argument for employing
them which could not but have much
weight in communities which We're di.
rectly taxed for the maintenance of the
schools.
School teaching was the first outlet
for American girls beyond the old con
dition of absolute dependence, ant
naturally they proved docile in regarC
to salaries as they afterwards PROVED
teachable when the ideas of the new
education" began to penetrate t.
America. Young men had the whole
new world before them where from t.
| choose.
Room teaching in strictly graded
schools was too monotonous an occupa
ton for the young American to whom
so many more stirring ways of gaining
livelihood we've open, and this depart
ment of school work was rapidly aban
doncd to the other sex.
But Il the low educational standard
Was the opening wedge for the employ
ncat of women, thoy owe their presen
standing largely to qualities which
mark tlcir peculiar fitness for education
al wotk. "Hwenty-fve years ago, Say
an accOunt of the Indiana schools pub
ishcd in the centennial year, 1.-THE Hoo
sier schoolmaster was a nan. He was sc
lectcd quite as much for his physica
prowess as for his intellectual attain
mcnts If he was able to read, write
and cipher, and to whip the largest boys
he was considered well qualified for hi
worK.
1t was gradually discovered tina
women could not only teach well tn
requisite subjects, but that they wer
generally able to secure order by gentle
means than those generally employee,
by men. In this they were doubles
aided by the high respect in which thei
sex was held in the community. Silie
strom, a Swede, who inspected tn
American schools in 1878, noted tina
''the spirit of freedom which reigns il
America gives even to women there
superior degree of independence and dc
cision, and greater power of action
and the respect, bordering on submis
siveness, with which she is treated b