The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-20
The Home and the Scho oil.

One of the speakers at the Congress
of Mothers-NIrs. w. f. Crafts of Wash
ington-started train of thought
which should not be permitted to come
to a standstill Her subject was
Mothers and Schools" and after point
ing out how with the development of
our cities these have steadily drifted
apart. the school teacher no longer, as
in primitive times, "boarding around"
among the parents of his pupils, there
by necessarily keeping the latter in
touch with his work, she continued:
parents, particularly mothers, should
put in the list of their solemn obliga-
tions: % Frequent visitation of the
schools attended by their children; (2)
thorough acquaintance with the teach
ers of their children; so cooperation
with the school plans"
How many of the mothers of Scran-
ton, we wonder, keep informed as to the
training which their children receive in
the public or private schools? How
many of them know what the teachers
in those schools are doing, and are pre-
pared to supplement their efforts by
iudicious home instruction? 1t has been
said and not unjustly, that many faith
ers exhibit greater concern in the breed
ing of horses and dogs, and certainly
many mothers are more Interested in
the problem of dressmalIing, than in the
school life and work of their children
at the age which is usually decisive of
the children's whole future. This
shameful neglect of parental RESPONSE
bility is, we concede, rarely intention
al, but the consequences befall without
regard to that fact and the neglectful
parent who is unconscious of any dere-
liction of duty is as liable TO be visited
with the retributive justice of a way
ward daughter or a dissipated, worth
less son as is the parent who deliber-
ately consigns his offspring to the
DEVILS care.
In this connection we indorse most
emphatically the proposition of MIS-.
Crafts that mothers should seek places
on school boards. At the recent munich
pal election in West Pittston this sub
ject was agitated and we regret to say
that two very capable and earnest
women who aspired to position on the
! school board of that borough We're de-
| feated. on a number of occasions the
same misfortune has occurred in this
city, also, and it should arouse the in
| telligent portion of the community to
emphatic protest. Surely if there is one
| position in connection with our political
| government that women are pre-emi-
nently qualified to hold, with credit
| to themselves and with benefit to the
community, it is that of school con-
troller. Where a father has one min
| ute and one chance to aCquaint him.
| self with the inner workings of the
| public schools, the mother has three
score; and where, among 100 fathers
on school boards, SO will permit politics
| to sway their votes, not one woman
in a hundred, such as are now active
in educational enterprises would know
any other rule of official conduct thar
the rule of conscience. We can con
ceive of no considerable argumen
against the granting to women of {
voice and vote in the government o
our free schools, and the fact that sucl
a grant should be anywhere opposed il
in our opinion an arraignment Of tn
voters common sense.
This general problem of the rela
tion of the home to the school deepen
upon study into one of the most mo
mentous that society is called upon t
deal with. 1t in truth is fundamental
How else than by parental co-operatiol
with public instruction; how else thar
by maternal supervision of school work
from lowest grades to highest, ca,
the community escape from its growing
, perils of criminalness, from the need o
multiplied reformatories, asylums an
iails, from increasing court and polio
: costs, from the whole noXious brood 0
disorders that have their origin direct
, ly in lax moral guidance of the young
: Well may our leaders in religion an
morals lay stress upon this theme.