The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-05-03

/ sketch Are you at the university"
l asked Yes she replied. Il have
not seen you before" continued. No"
she answered i am just taking special
work here in drawing. 1 am a dress
maker 1 wish TO learn to draw and
design. I Jay by enough money to
give me three months holiday every
year. which l spend in this way"
think this young woman has the right
spirit.
With regard to the 50 boy who gets
a $1,000 education, he will be a better
| So boy, perhaps, when he gets an inn
partial shaking up in the jolting wagon
of life; if he be a little potato he will
go to the bottom with the rest of the
little potatoes, university education and
all
The great mass of men and women
of America does not come in direct con-
tact with our universities. Bat there
are very few American men and WON
en- who cannot read and write. This
fact shows us that the great mass does
comes in direct contact with our public
schools. l think this one fact alone
should make it imperative that these
| people who pay the taxes, who support
| the Government and its Institutions
who make our greatness as a Nation,
should demand that our common
schools lay excellent foundations of
substantial stone, which will determine
the character, if not the size or the
magnificence, Of what is built upon it
later.
| EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT.
| And if ever there was a demand for
anything there is a crying demand for
| good teachers in our primary and
grammar schools, where the greatest
and best strength should be expended
| We all recognize the influence of en-
vironment. A child who goes through
the primary and grammar schools
spends eight years in being trained. If
he comes under the influence of eight
| wise, good women he gets the right
notion of things without knowing how
| or why. Children imbibe knowledge
of this kind. They soon learn to know
their teachers well, their Weaknesses
as well as their virtues. After ALL the
benefit we derive is not so much from
what we study as from how we study
and with whom we study
! Now, as the kindergarten is but the
broadening out of the home part-of-
| the-day homes for active little people
so the primary and grammar schools
stand linked with the home They are
the nests from which our young people
| are taught to fly into world where
the fittest alone survive. They need
the warmth and care and training that
it is woman's instinct to give. And
right here I would say that this is en-
| tirelV the nd hot q
man has no business to teach school
School-teaching is unseXing for a man.
1t is effeminate, womanish. The childs
training belongs to the woman until the
child passes through the gates of girl
hood or boyhood into the open field of
young womanhood or young manhood.
Men claim a sort of divine right" to all
the professions. They say they are
mannish, unsexing for a woman. Per-
haps, but / never could see anything in
medicine that woman should not
know. Since the advent of woman as
teacher the days of f1ogging are at an
end. Arithmetic and geometry are not
hammered into the heads with rulers,
rattans or convenient books A woman
uses different methods, for it is her ma
ture to be more patient with the young
| HOW TO DISCOURAGE VICIOUS
LITERATURE.
| The schools owe a great deal to the
children. They owe them a good start
| on the right road in the race of life
Above all they owe the commonplace
girls and boys a training that will make
them intelligent enough to see and en-
brace opportunities until, guided by the
gospel of work preached by the teachers
they will work out their own salvations,
aided by the sweetness and light that
has been given them. There will be
check on the foolishness, the vice, the
love of vulgar amusements of ordinary
| commonplace men and women Like
| the woman who measures all men by
the man she loves, children who have
been forced to commit to memory pas
sages from the masterpieces of English
| poetry, who have been told the stories
OF Shakespeare's dramas, of mythology,
| of the Niebelungen Lied and of the
| celebrated characters in history will
| judge what they don't know by what
| they do know, for they will understand
! the value of simplicity and thorough
| ness. They will not fear a healthy I
| don't know when they understand how
| TO go about to inform themselves cor
| rectly on whatever subject they wish to
| know. Work like this will do a great
| deal to abolish taste for such books
as Fourteen Buckets of Blood or the
Butchers Midnight Orgie"; Comics
/ sionS of a Homme de Siecle"; The Poi
| soned Gumdrop, or the Candy Girls
| Terrible Revenge" and some of our
| daily newspapers.
LET THE WOMEN RUN THE
| SCHOOLS.
| Let the women run our common
schools. Let the mothers go hand in
| hand with the teachers, wrench the
| schools from politics and from every
thing that savors of politics and bid
! farewell to the Boards of Education.
| In this field women can do an everlast-
ing good. Put the common schools in
| the hands of a responsible Educational
| Commission whose qualifications are
above all question and let the voices of
the mothers be heard in the land.
There are plenty of capable women
who need only the opportunity of devel-
oping into just the right person in the
| right place." who will not countenance
unfairness or unfitness, who will be will
ing to pay good and qualified teachers
We'll, who will make life worth living
and teaching worth teaching Then will
| the position of teacher be an honorable
one--one which will give her the social
| pOSitiOn and consequence cba dacarvec