New-York tribune., 1908-03-01
By Alice Stone Blackwell: Boston
RebHes from


WDR G. STANLEY HALL asserts that boys
mD who are taught mainly by must
Il be fennized' But they We can
E& all observe American schoolbOys, the
EEN streets swarm with them. Have they
HLAN acquired meekness, good manners and
EhJPM gentlemanlness' to a degree 50 eXoes-
MSHN siVe as to endanger their manhness' The
Nm suggestion is laughable. Whatever may
HkTpS be the faults of the average American
HC4 schoolbov he certainly is not etfem1nate
DIEG If it is important as DR.. Hall thinks, that
XIV he should be sometimes rude, even uI3,
~ qentlemanly or in shoCkingly bad taste.
he can fill the bill Indeed, he is more apt TO be q
holy terror than 6 Sissy
Dr, Han saws Boys il their teens need at least
as nany men as women teachers Ideally II
would be desirable that boys and girls too should
come under the educational influence OF frst class
men as well as of first class women But, unless
the country is willing to increase enormously the
amount of money it spends for education, It can
not get large number of first class men as teac1le9
Practically the question is whether our boys shail
be taught BY first or by third and 1ourt
rate men In such an alternative the quanty ol
the teacher is more important than the sex.
DR. Hall saws that education carried on largely
by women does not make men OF our boys mar mar
depends on the woman The late Miss Mary Rpey
was for twenty years at the head OF the boys de
partment of the Buffalo high school Wherever
enthusiasm and one of their most frequent sayings
is She made man of me. The pupils OF MISS
lane Brcwnlee and of many another born teacher
would bear similar testimony
DR. Hall overlooks The fact that women like TIE
manly qualities not only in men but IN boys lheN
do not trv to make mollycoddes of their boy pupils
"A coward and a milksop, instead OF being popu-
lar with the sex is cordially despised by them
DR. Hall says Women feel deeply the virtues OF
peace; but did anyone of them appreciate
those of war; The tendency of women to admire
the military is notorious 1t of the recog
rized obstacles in the way OF the peace propaganda
Dr. Hall SAYS With world 50 full OF evils. II
IS every mans duty to take up arms against some
Of them and he intimates that women cannot tram
bows 10 be fighters. Jane Addams in her address
before the National Woman Suffrage Convention al
Baltimore replying the argument that women
should not vote because they do not fight, pointed
cut that the fighting most needed in America to-day
vas not against armed enemies but against moral
women bore a distinguished part
Dr. Hall makes an onslaught on his pet bugbear
coeducation. The present identical education,
ne saws is weighed and found wanting 1t Is
found wanting in the eyes of DR.. Hall, but not II
hose of the great American public report or
coeducation published by the United States Bureau
Of Education II 1900, says page, 2'455l, that' OF
the 628 leading cities in this country only II have
separate high schools for girls and boys and OF the
go OIL pupils in high schools IN 1902, 525344 were
il coeducational schools 1t adds mat i5 IN 1889
5I2 per cent OF American colleges had coeduCa-
tion IL 1900 o5.o per cent, and IN 1900. 10 per
cent The report also speaks OF the spread Of the
American system cf coeducatlon IN Europe
Dr.. Hall owns that most OF our experienced edu-
Gators do not agree with him Nearly all the
veteran educators above fifty. who have been
through the thirty wears war of sex against sex for
equal OPPORTUNITIES are content with things they
are and think that the end has been reached. In
other words, they do the dire results Of
education that he imagine 1t may be SAID IN pass
!ng that The fight for equal opportunities TOY girls
has never been a war Of sex against sex but f
progressive men and women on the side against
Conservative men and women the other. and
the victory has been for the common good Of both
Dr. Hall argues that girls differ mentally from
boys ard therefore must need different mental
diet Colonel T. ". Higgnson says one might as
well argue that girls differ physically from bows and