Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-01-21
WOMEN IN EDUCATION.
They Are Equal TO Men as Teachers and
School Officials.

1t Is no longer question for discussion
as to woman's competency to fill the posi-
ton of paid teacher in the schoolroom |
Neither are there any dlsputants against
her lawful or inherent right to occupy |
such place, nor yet as to the necessity
existing In the world which calls her so to
labor.
Tho era of brute force for the subsection
of mems lowest passions is in Its closing
years. The pillory and bastinado, the
stocks and whipping post are considered
relics of barbario civilization, and the
gallows and electric chair will be number
ed with them soon.
When force ruled only, man was on the
throne everywhere. The world is learning
that the dominant part of man is mind
and that men can be better governed, ron-
trolled and advanced by influencing mind
than by torturing the physical This new
thought or knowledge has made way for
woman with her patience, tenderness,
faith and responsiveness.
Men with the rod in the schoolroom are
out of demand. Teachers with tenderness.
appealing to the divinest instincts and the
noblest reason, are the schoolmassers called
for. The gentlewoman has found a place
beside the gentleman for the education of
the gentle child.
Along this line of advancement or
betterment or improvement woman's du-
ties, with her opportunities and possibili-
ties, are UNNECESSARILY increased. If wom-
en- can with men successfully educate our
youth upon the inside Of our schools, rs
they do, then women can with men, sue
cessfully provide for such education from
and upon the outside.
What is to hinder women from serving
upon boards of education? Nothing but
the mental or moral disabilities that
ought to debar men from such position,
say the justice and intelligence of this
present time. Women feed, clothe and
instruct the children in the home more
than men do Have they not the same in
terest and do they not know enough" to
have voice in the selection of teachers.
who are TO take their places for six hours
of the day to lead the children along the
way of the most approved development Of
the intellectual, moral and physical beingy
And by what modus operandi in the realm
of mentality or matter have men come out
of the same homes where women mainly
direct the reading OF the children and out
of the same schools from which women
now come in greater numbers and with
higher grades to be better qualified than
women for the selection of school text
books?
In the home women more than men die
tate the means and amount of heat light
and ventilation. Why shall they not help
to make provision for the same in the cree
ton of school buildings where their chill
dren live SO long time? Women usually
select furniture for their homes Why
cannot they with propriety and to good re-
suits help to furnish schoolrooms? 1t
does not take a mans brains exclusively to
discern that i'll shaped and i'll sized desks
and seats cramp, deform and Disease the
young bodies for life.
By what hocus pocus in the raalm Of
legislation has deficiency been ascribed
to woman by which she is deprived of a
vote in tie election of state superintendent
of public schools in Ohio or by which she
is found disqualified to superintend the
schools of the state herself?
In the dawning of the new day Of mind
in supremacy we are learning that penal
laws and penal institutions should exist
for rcformatory ends. This is especially
and emphatically true of those established
for the young. Hence woman's care, love,
methodical habits, cleaner life and mother
interest in the young fit her for the man
agcment or SUPPLEMENTARY of such insti-
tutions and for the offices of guardianship
and training.
In all public homes or houses of charity
for youth the influence of woman's spirit,
adaptation and natural ability to lead for
ward and lift upward should be, and even
tually must be, recognized
l do not say that every woman is quail
fed, even if at liberty to exercise her en-
dowments, for an educator. There are
women failures and women failures in the
home and throughout her narrowed world
at large. There will be less number,
however, when women are born and reared
to think and act in the great work of de
veloping Gods divinest creations instead
of devoting so much of life to senselcss
twaddlc, hurtful gossip and time killing
frivoity
Men and women are equally represented
In the ideal home. / do not believe that
either men or women should have q mo-
nopoly of duty, responsibility or labor in
any place of education. Let them stand
side by side in equality, ono in purpose,
ono in integrity, one in ballotation, ono in
office and ono in the education of their
children. Henrietta G. Moore in
Womankind.