The San Francisco call., 1895-05-21
arose, paper in hand, and bowed to the au-

arose, paper in hand, and bowed to the au-
dience.
''I want 10 say something she began, "in
reply to the statements of Miss Anthony. AS
spinster l am going to protest against mar
rlage being brought into the suffrage question.
No one is in position TO know more about the
disadvantages OF the lack OF the franchise than
| am, and / do not believe that you are
young women from marriage with all this talk
about the frightful lack OF freedom. You leave
out one tremendous element that every young
man and every young woman believe in, that
there is a law OF love that operates in these
things and is going TO fix all things.
disagree with Miss Anthony and state that
We must first have the marriage bondage be-
fore we can discuss the training OF children.
am always advocating marriage TO the young
women OF my acquaintance.
ITO the young men, too?" asked some
lady in the audience.
'sYes." answered Miss Kelso, 'the young
men, too. believe girl can marry any
man she chooses"
She then began the reading of her paper
as follows:
For two years past have been making care
fnl investigation OF the use of books by men,
women and children; have analyzed and
| classified the results. 1 find the readers
of the best books in literature, his
| tory, biography-books OF culture-to be
tion, of wealth, of leisure; that is
gratifying, but when looked into the records
heredity. ethics, hygiene, kindergarten, manual
training, ETC., such bsorbingly nteresting ma
| terial for thoughtful parents, men and women,
| found their only readers to be that over
worked brain-fagged cs1etaker OF other peo-
| pies children, the teacher, the public school
teacher; a sIpinster, ! Iil who after eight hours
| the library 10 get book on heredity
| and treatses on the education of
delinquent children, because she has two or
three pupils that cannot be made to fit the
universal scheme of education, and this poor
| overworked teacher sets herself seriously to
work TO devise some special plan suitable for
| this other woman's boy or girl, and this other
woman who is the mother of this boy girl
sits. by iudifferently and lets the family
skeleton be hauled out and analyzed and
guessed about by strangers. Why not-what do
we have public school teacher for?
What is the consequence: growing shift
ing of parental responsibility upon the teacher;
destruction of respect for home on the part OF
| children, and distinct lowering OF the teacher
standard. This tendency is the fatal spot in
our American free school system.
One OF the chief causes of the steadily grow
ing load OF responsibility for the moral and
! physical and mental welfare of children which
is put upon teachers is because so large pc
cent OF them are women-there is senti-
mental attitude of the public mind about the
woman schoolteacher that is decidedly harm
ful. The Indifferent mother says with great
unction: "A woman is the natural teacher;
woman has sympathy, love and all
the natural instincts of motherhood that
make her qualifications unique teacher of
the young"-and as indifferent mothers is one
OF the flowers OF our American civilization
there enough of them to make what may
be called a howl OF approval OF the woman
teacher, and the teacher has come TO accept il
| II she is good teacher, and if she is poor
teacher TO make it her "wail' in case she
| may be dismissed-and as matter of
fact the whole thing is sentimental and
not educational when subjected to the
tests OF pure qualifications: The child is to be
taught mentally. to be subjected TO authority,
iscipIine-attributes that in the family be-
long TO the father. Love and sympathy
/ M 20 mil and
not to woman generally, especially when
all else is to be made subordinate to that
sex qualification and no account taken of the
fact that womanly love and sympathy divided
among ffty-two children belonging to some
one else, distributed over five days in the
week. is apt to wear little thin.
| l should like to know how many women here
| to-day have seen and read a number of the
| magazine issued by G. Stanley Hall of Clark
America. 1t is called Pedagogical Seminary"
Here is an article by G. E. Johnson, Education
| by Plays and Games" You all know what
| games mean in house OF children-what
task it is TO keep active minds and busy fingers
| engaged in the evening. Well, Mr.. Johnson
has here analyzed and tabulated 440 games,
and, as he says. from this table a list of games
may be selected that will have a corrective or
| specific use. II is believed. for example, that
| child OF weak power of attention and memory
or observation, or child not strong in chest
| or legs, may be greatly benefited by judlcious
| choice and tact in the selection and guidance
! of his games. (Read baseballl
! 1t is pity the boys not here to hear all
| these scientific reasons why they should play
baseball instead of cutting the lawn and pull
| ing weeds.
You can see from this article on games that
many of the features of the science have
practical, everyday value TO you as mothers,
| but can give no adequate idea of the
| fascinating interest and possibilities that
| would be possible to an earnest group
! of women who were anxious to have and hold
high place in the education of their children.
| To them say, get together and read little
from the Seminary, from Tracy's. little book,
| from Preyer Perez (a). Ii you forget these
names write to the professors of Pedagogical
Psychology" and ask for reading list, and
best of all, induce Professor Barnes to come
and talk to you about some phase of child
study; you will not forgive yourself for having
missed beginning sooner the critical, intelli-
gent observation of your baby. 1t means new
view OF the responsibility and relation between
parent and child.