The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-10-14
A School For. Mothers
Suggestion That No Systematic Effort Is Now
Made Along This Line of Education.

mothers or future mothers in the
care of their babies, either physical
. or moral, which work occupies women
for the greater part OF their working
life, writes Edith Howe, In the New
York Evening Post.
New York City, whose organized
charity gives advantages to the poor
often unavailable to people in moder-
ate circumstances, is, this summer,
through its Department Of Health
and charitable societies, sending
nurses to instruct the poor mothers
of young babies how to keep them
we'll. New York's high death rate Is
not limited to the babies Of the poor.
Ignorance in the care of babies Is not
limited to the mothers Of the poor.
Mothers who can afford to pay for
instruction, lose their babies for lack
of the instruction. Mothers who are
hungry for kindergarten methods of
bringing up children, for the elements
of Froebel's Mother Play" for
methods of punishment and moral
treatment, based on child psychology,
can at present get that practical n
important education nowhere.
A school for mothers should be es-
tablished, whose teachers should be
Cd trained nurses who have special
lied in infant work, GU k~indergart-
ners who have specialized in child
: and mother psychology. The whole
should be under the combined super
vision of ONE baby specialist, as
DR.. jacob, DR.. Holt or DR.. Chaplin,
and Of a child psychologist such as
Miss Susan Blow or Mrs. Langzettel.
The hundreds Of mothers clubs now
formed will welcome a course of lee
lures from such a school.
To ome who cannot be members
! of such a class private tutor lessons
could be given, and correspondence
courses arranged for those out OF
reach. Teachers and students would
do we'll to take such a course, but 1t
is primarily intended to give practi-
cal information, based on scientific
principles and the experience of au-
thorities, in place Of the unsatisfac-
tory and desultory advice now given
in mothers magazines, to mothers
who want to apply 1t directly to their
own babies. Books and syllabi should
be agreed upon In conference with
agencies caring for babies, such as
baby and maternity hospitals, the
Board of Health, charitable associa-
tons doing practical work with moth
ers. The tuition for the course
should be high enough to more than
cover the cost, but not high enough
TO exclude those for whom 1t Is In
tended-women in moderate circum-
stances.
The school should be started In
such a city as New York, which is
wide awake to the need Of such work,
and has the machinery for putting 1t
into operation quickly and we'll. The
work could be inagurated with a
committee consisting of a baby spe-
cialist, an expert Kindergarten, such
az Mrs. Langzettel, who lectures at
Teachers College, for the Froebel
League, and representatives from
baby hospitals and the Board of Ed
ucation. The committee should have
an active paid secretary, whose bust
ness it should be to interest women's
clubs, parent-teacher clubs, mothers
clubs in the churches, settlements and
mothers congresses to take up such
a practical systematic course OF
study.
Elmer Ellsworth Brown, Commits
sioner of Education, said at the re-
cent International Congress of Moth
ers at Washington, that the term ed
ucation must be interpreted by the
United States Board of Education to
include the education of mothers In
the care of their babies. If the work
were successfully started in New
York, the National Board Of Educa-
ton might be encouraged to start
such education in the public, high
and normal schools. The Congress
of Mothers might be encouraged to
carry such instruction into every
State, city and town in the Union
where it's mothers clubs are at work.
Mothers magazines might be en-
Outraged to apply to headquarters
for the advice and instruction in the
care of babies circulated through
their pages.
The endowment for such a school
should net be heavy, as the tuition
should make it self-supporting, and
the interest on the original fund and
the surplus could be used in scholar
ships for poor women, in engaging
specialists to write the required text
books, in founding the work in other
centres.
A trained nurse, on a salary OF
SIS a month; a kindergarten, on a
salary of 500 a month, could deliver
two lectures each a day for five days
in the week, instruct twenty mothers
clubs, having one lecture a week al
t%ernating with the nurse and kinder
gartner. If there were thirty women
in each club, and the tuition charged
were $40 a year for each member,
exclusive of the cost Of the oom in
which such clubs were held, this
would bring in $4,000 a year, or, after
the teachers salaries were paid,
$4,000 a year profit. Were there
three nurses and three kindergart-
ners, that sum would be trebled and
would, after paying $4,000 a year to
the secretary; $4,000 a year apiece
fees to the baby specialist and child