Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-09-16
WOMAN TEACHERS AND BOYS

 in Kansas. It has to do with the sub stitution--or proposed substitution-of men for a large number of the woman school teachers of the state. The advo- cates of this innovation claim that woman teachers result in effeminate male pupils, and that the boys of the state should be removed from the care of the same, lest they reach budding manhood's estate lacking that mascu- line vigor widely considered indispens- able to their welfare.
 To fix hard and fast rule for the training of children is without doubt one of the approximately impossible things of this world. They vary so in tempera- ment, home environment, intellect, phys ical makeup and whatnot, that it is well nigh beyond the scope of human understanding to know everything about them or apply any fixed set of principles to them indiscriminately. The best we can do is to control them and guide them in the light of experience--that greatest of all teachers-and provide them with such help to education as seems best for them according to the light as it is given us to see.
 If we are right in this view of it, we think Kansas may well pause and con sider with mature deliberation the change now being demanded of it. From their Kindergarten days to their high school days, boys are probably better of in the care of woman teachers than they would be in the care of male teachers. There comes time, to be sure, when the boy develops into the youth; then he becomes another proposition, and is to be considered from a very different standpoint from that from which he is to be viewed before that interesting period of his life is reached. The groundwork of all true manliness, we imagine, is founded in gentleness cour- tesy, refinement, and consideration of the feelings of others. The foundation of this sort of life is, We verify believe, more sure of lasting construction in the hands of woman than in the hands of man. Few men, we take it, would dream of assuming direction of their young boys to the exclusion of the moth CTS, however much they might feel in- clined to take them in hand after the youngsters had put their boyhood days well behind them.
 Dr. G. StanleysHall says:
 "Nothing in the world so shapes q boy very soul and character as quiet confidential talks with grown men about the things they live for and amidst. By such talks he is flattered, stimulated, aroused to do, be, think, feel his very best. '
 We think that is true, but we think, nevertheless, it is largely incidental. It may give finish and grace to the foun- dation of which we have heretofore made mention, and in its proper place does serve to indicate correct concep- tion of the superstructure desirable on the foundation properly knit together. But this is an afterthought-a logical and noble afterthought, albeit. In their boyhood days Young America may be safely entrusted to the woman teach CTS. It has proved to be fine plan in the past, and we see no reason why it should not prove equally as satisfactory in the future. And we have no doubt that Dr. Hall means youths when he says "boys," or, at least, had the em- bryonic young man in mind more spe- officially, so to speak, than the school boy!