The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-30
WHO SHALL TEACH.

The School Board CT Valparaiso, Ind, has
decided that it will employ none but I'M
married teachers, unless, of course the
teachers are men, when the matrimonial
condition is not taken into account More
over, no unmarried woman is to be en-
gagged for the Valparaiso schools unless she
will sign a contract stipulating that she
will not marry during the school year.
Most school boards have reached that stage
of enlightenment where they recognize the
fact that schools are primarily intended
for the benefit of the pupils, not the teach
ers, and that it is their duty to provide the
best teachers possible 1t is the capabilities
not the family bonds of the teachers, that
ought to be considered. If a woman proves
herself to be competent for her place and
meets all the requirements as an instructor
it is no concern of the board, nor of the
public which the board represents, whether
she is married or unmarried. 1t is nonsense
to say that because she has a family her
mind must necessarily be so distracted
from her school duties that she cannot give
due attention to her pupils. This may or
may not be the case, but every one who is
acquainted with young unmarried teachers
knows that they have the distractions of
family, of society," of lovers, of a hundred
things that take their thoughts from their
schools. The fact that they unmar-
ried by no means insures undivided atten-
ton and singleness of purpose. 1t is i'm
pertinent to say that married women should
depend upon their husbands for support
and should not ask for schools. In an ideal
state of society all men would be success
full breadwinners with d margin of in
come for something besides bread, and their
wives would have no want that they could
not supply; but in an ideal state, also, the
fathers would provide for the daughters
and the latter could put forward no special
claim upon the public funds on the ground
that they had no husbands. 1t is time
women should free themselves from the
idea that special favors should be extended
to them when they enter the labor market
Their qualifications alone should govern in
the matter of employment and not their
personal deserts. In most lines of business
they have learned this truth, but teachers
are yet behind the times when such a rule
as that at Valparaiso, which was not made
without their urgency, can go into effect
Some comments on the shortcomings in
the education of women made by a college,
bred newspaper man to Miss Frances E.
Willard and by her sent to the New York
Critic have an incidental bearing on this
very question of employing married teach
ers. He believes that in the girls colleges
and advanced schools the failure to hold
up the ideal of wifehood and motherhood
is defect and that this work can best be
done by married teachers. Does not the
almost exclusive presence of unmarried
teachers unconsciously tend toward an ideal
which is not that of womankind?" he asks,
and then adds: "Of course, l am not is
suing diatribe against unmarried women
as teachers, for they find a noble aim there
but | am questioning the effect of the over
whelming proportion in women's colleges -
People are thinking about these things. as
such comments show, and their conclusions
do not favor narrowness and exclusion
Valparaiso and other places like it must
sooner or later do away with foolish re-
strictions that cannot help and may dam
age their schools.