New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-01-13
ON RACE SUICIDE.
System IN Public Schools RESPONSE
Bile, Says Mrs. Judge.

The question Of race suicide was discussed from
a mothers point OF view by the Society for
Political Study its regular meeting IN the Genoa
logical Hall yesterday afternoon.
Heretofore" said Mrs. John II. Judge. who was
the essayist of the day. the subject has been
viewed entirely from the fathers standpoint. the
masculine opinion having been best expressed by the
Great Father at Washington. the Indians call
him. The Rooseveltian theory OF race suicide
makes it all question OF quantity. The more boys
who are born the more men there will be to fight
end vote. But who mothers think more
Of quality than of quantity.
The question of race suicide is not question of
how many children are being born, but OF how
caring for those that born. More boys
are born than girls. but so many boys die that it
is generally supposed that the contrary is the case
Because child is boy 1t is thought that nothing
will hurt him, and therefore the boy often dies
where the girl would have grown up TO woman
hood.
The critical ages for children are between one
and five years and ten and sixteen. The response
bility for the first period rests with the mother
The responsibility for the second is shared with
the school. and here is where the real problem Of
suicide is to be found. Our children are being
overworked and the burdens of our educational
system crushing their existence. If they
be saved, il is time that the mothers took a
hand in education.
"A mans idea of education TO be to cram
a child's brain. 1t is time that the mothers idea
beginning to make itself felt Women have
been kept of the Board OF Education, but we
find a way of getting into that sacred sane
tum. Up to the present time We have only been
allowed to hang the fringe. and even there We
have accomplished good in improving the
physical conditions of the schools. But OF what
use are improved physical conditions when brains
are being overtaXed?"
Mrs. Judge read extracts from the school curric-
ulUm, and criticised it in detail. The children
worked five hours in school, she said. and from two
TO four home, longer than expected of the
lahp ri ma Of tha war a
to give good common education, and were I'M
prepared to teach the many new subjects that
have since been introduced. They were expected
TO- get the nursery knowledge by listening to a
hfteen minute talk by a supervisor every week.
and even textbooks were not provided
The teachers are obliged" she concluded, Ito
spend so much time in preparation that they come
before their classes out and in the end the
The three RS lost. Business men complain
that boys who come 10 them from the public
dt heard "a a professor IN The CITY college say the
pers or the sub-freshInan class would begin their
sentences with a capital and finish them with a
ease and ii is time We let our children rest and
rust. Then they will be better prepared thus for
race suicide will be solved
The paper provoked warm discussion. in which
most OF the members agreed. and few disagreed
with the speaker or the day. Mrs Phyllis Lev
systems OF their children were being outraged they
would rise in their wrath and demand a change;
Under this system she said, the children be-
come Incapable Of learning, anything. The schools
the masters To come from"
=, think IT Is the parents who are overworking
their children, and not the Schools" said Mrs
Thomas Slack. There are music lessons dancing
Lessons, parties and theatres out Of school hours.
This Is what is breaking the children down"
1t is the interlarding of two systems the old
and the new. that makes all the trouble" said
Mrs. John Trow. But because thing is not
rightly done II does not follow that it should not
my children we're taught nothing in the public
schools that has not been OF great advantage to
them"
The discussion closed with the assertion from
the Rev Antonette Brown Blackwell that the
nerves OF the children are destroying the American
race"