St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1907-08-17

number of schools opened due 70 i'm
migration; compulsory education laws.
public kindergarteas, etc. Not only
has there been a great increase in the
number of women teachers, but they
have increased in knowledge, in ablll'
ty, in power, until from having been
merely tolerated as teachers OF their
own sex alone, they to-day dominate
the teaching field both of girls and
boys and the generic term for teacher
has changed from "he"'to che" They
have risen from the place OF mere
teacher to positions requiring execu-
tive ability of the highest order. AS
organizers, principals, supervisors, SUI
Perintendents and in city, county and
state offices they are making a rec
ord of which they may well be proud
They have a deep sense of the
meaning of education and of the re-
sponsibility and dignity of their posi-.
ton as holders of the new woman OF
tomorrow. To-day teaching is not
merely an avocation chosen to gain
livelihood but the chosen vocation
of many who, seeking an outlet for
their energies, see in it the means OF
highest usefulness to race and state.
Women are in the vanguard of all ad-
vance movement, seeking to dignity
and perfect to the highest the mem
bers of their profession that they may
bring to those under their care the
best and wisest service.
Receptiveness and synthesIs are
not only the inheritance of women
through training but are her inherent
qualities, the value of which has
scarcely been fully understood until
the last decade.
These qualities may account for the
fact that she has been follower rather
than leader in the field of education,
her natural place that of cherishing
mother in the mental as in the spirit
ual and physical world, taking in and
fructifying in her bosom the ideals
sent forth by the great prophets in ed
ucation. It is fact worth bordering
that in these. men there has always
been largely developed the feminine
quality of cherishing tenderness
need we instance more than PestaloZ-
ri and Froebel, whose teachings wo-
men have done so much to put into
actual practice? These men saw with
the larger vision the happy land
where men and women could develop
the best that is in them to their own
perfection and the service of their fell
lows; they started up the trail lead
ing to it, stumbling over the rough
places which women, following with
deep faith and insight, moving surely
and steadily on, have trodden, often
with weary feet, into q path on which
others may walk with ease.
The introduction OF the kindergar-
ten and it's growth have bsen due al
most entirely to women, in which
teachers and mothers in fact and in
spirit have joined To the latter is
due the founding of some of the earli-
est and the best manual training
schools. Their greatest work, how
ever, is done through the women's
clubs, which have through organize
ton concentrated and converted into
power the forces formerly exerted
here and there by individuals.
In order to use this power intellfs
gently, women are studying the whole
subject of education, preparing them
selves to be proper guides, educating
themselves that they may carry out
Oliver Wendell Holmes injunction to
educate" the children 70 years before
they are born. They are giving them
selves to child study and mothers con-
ferences, in which there may be much
sentimentality and fad worship, but
out of which comes much Illuminating
thought They have been instrumental
in establishing libraries, vacation
schools and Fairgrounds, parental and
truant schools, and in securing com
puIsory education, truancy laws and
laws for the protection and education
of dependent, defective and delinquent
children; In connection with the last
of which mention must be made of the
Illinois Juvenile court law and similar
laws in other states, which, though af-
fecting education indirectly, yet affect
it in most important ways.
More-women know that education
does not cease with school days. and
they have established night classes
and clubs for boys and girls which.
with due regard for their needs, edu-
cate them to more complete living
than the cramping conditions for a
young working life permits. Recrea.
ton is a most important educative
force and understanding this has led
to the opening of day and evening play
grounds, and gymnasia, indoors and
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