The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-11-22
WORK OF A
| MOTHERS CLUB
OUTLINED YESTERDAY BY MRS.
A. r. RAMSEY.
She Spoke Before the Household
Economics Section of the Green
Ridge Woman's Club-Said That a
Mothers Club Can Raise the
Standards Of Home Life and Bring
Into Closer Relations the Home and
school-Paid Her Respects to
School Boards.


sylvania Congress of Mothers. an or
ganization allied with the National
Congress of Mothers. were most inter-
estingly and ably presented yesterday
afternoon to a large number OF the
members of the Household Economic $
section of the Green Ridge Womans
club by Mrs. A. r. Ramsey, of Phila-
delphia.
Mrs. Ramsey spoke in the pretty
little auditorium of the Green Ridge
library and her remarks were listened
to by a very large number of women.
She is in charge of the woman's de-
partment of the Philadelphia Public
Ledger, and is bright, brainy and bril-
liant. She Is the mother of several
children herself, and when she speaks
regarding the cares and duties of
motherhood, she speaks not as fancl-
full theorist, but as one whose knowl-
edge comes from experience.
She presented especially the advant-
ages accruing to all mothers who form
mothers clubs and ally themselves
with the Pennsylvania Congress of
Mothers. One of the principal objects
of the Mothers club, she said, Is to
raise the standards of home life and
thus develop a wiser and a better
trained parenthood.
THE UNWHOLESOME HOME.
DO you not know homes" said she,
"where gossip, dress, frivolous amuse-
ments. love of money and social am
bition have eaten away the very sub
sistence OF good taste and character
and destroyed all taste for the good IN
fa nd fn, art, nd
The bringing of the home and school
into a closer relationship, so that par
ent and teacher may cooperate intel
ligently in the education of the child.
was something else Mothers club
can accomplish, she said.
"On this subject" said she, "a vol
ume might be written. The teachers
and the mothers view of the same
child may be radically different and
yet both may be true. What is easier
than to put these two views together
and try to find the real child. How
can this be done If the mother and
teacher are kept apart?"
The work of lending hand in the
efforts being put forth to surround the
childhood of the whole state with that
loving, wise care in the impressionable
years of life, so that good citizens in
stead of law-breakers and criminals
may be developed. is another one of
the aims which the state congress is
seeking to accomplish through Moth
ers' clubs, Mrs. Ramsey stated.
"The officers of the Pennsylvania
congress, she said, "are examining
and compiling the laws of all the other
states which relate to the care and
government of children and will try
to secure such legislation as may be
needed to give every child in Pennsyl-
vania chance to be good citizen
and to lessen his temptations to be a
law-breaker or a criminal.
Mrs. Ramsey took up at some
length the necessity of securing a diff
ferent administration of the public
school system of the state than at
present exists in many cities.
POWER OF THE SCHOOLS.
"Of course, we are not blind" said
she, ito the great power of our public
school system. We want to get moth
ers to go into the schools as visitors.
not as teachers with the intention of
teaching the teacher how to teach, but
simply as interested friends of both
teacher and children.
Il need only remind you that women
who complain of school exactions
should make some study of our public
school system. 1t will prove an inter-
esting subject for a woman's work.
but ! warn you that it will bring the
conviction that woman should serve
! on local school boards. They did so
| long ago and then dropped it.
\ ,Dt 1,H .;al,
busy, too indolent, too timid, too femi-
nine, too anything, for this task. Your
presence is as valuable on the school
board as in the home. Don't let peda-
gogical theorists and unskilled men do
all alone the special expert work of
feeding the minds and Strengthening
the bodies of our little children.
'That is what we do at present, and
even worse. We elect men for the po-
sition Of school controller who have
not the first qualifications of expert
ence or capability; men who have
nothing merely beyond the fact that
they have a political pull, which puts
them in their place and keeps them
! there.
'There are often very good and con-
servative men who are serving on
school boards but quite as often there
are not The good men are often
times so immersed in their private
business or in the interests of a thous-
and and one charities and what not
| that their presence at board meetings
! is merely prefunctory.
THEY MAKE THE LAWS.
| "Yet these men represent you. They
| make the laws which control your