The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-10-26
LAY BLAME ON MOTHERS
Club Women Talking on School
Problems Find That Parents
Are Not Doing Their Duty.


public school system % was the ques-
ton asked and discussed at a Joint
meeting of the Woman's and the
Twentieth Century clubs last week
and the answers seemed to mark out
Tor large part of the responsibility
one person, the mother. There are
scores of mothers, apparently, who
do not realize that their duty to-
wards the children and the schools
does not cease when they have
washed their faces of the former.
combed their hair and sent them off
with their books in the morning.
over dress, unhealthful lunches or
no lunches at all, Indifference to
what the boys and girls do out Of
school hours, and too many parties
were among the matters mentioned
at the club meeting as initiating
against the efficiency of the public
schools.
No Suggestions Made.
Mrs. j. L. Hughes and Mrs. SEQ
boria had papers for the Twentieth
Century club and Mrs. A. H. Henry
and Mrs. w. M. Nelson for the
Woman's club and there was after
wards an informal discussion. EN-
phasis on the elementary and essen
tial parts of the school course was
insisted on, but no suggestions made
as to what should be retained and
what done away with. AS an accred-
tied school, it was agreed, with the
normal and the state university and
the other colleges and universities
making certain requirements, al
smattering Of many things was OBJ
tanned, but while there was much
talk of an overcrowed course. no.
body descended to practical details
or frank and definite discussion of
the local school problem. Mrs. Sco-
boria spoke in favor Of manual
training and domestic science and of
the great value of Fairgrounds. She
mentioned also the greatly over
crowed condition of the grade
schools and said that a teacher could
not be expected to do her best work
with too many children. IN an ideal
school, which she knew of in New
York, twenty was the favored num-
Der for a teacher. and no one was
expected to have over thirty, while
in North Yakima teachers, especial
ly in the primary grades, have be-
tween forty and fifty.
UnWhOlesOme Lunches
Mrs. j. M. Perry said that per-
haps her viewpoint on many
questions was colored by her work |.
as a trained nurse, but that the
sanitary and hygienic side appealed
to her and that she knew positively
that many children in the public |
schools had insufficient nourishment
in their noon lunches. Children
who live within a certain number of
blocks of the school are required to
go home, but there are many who
live too far away. Instead of pre-
pairing a wholesome lunch for the
boy or girl, too many parents, said
Mrs. Perry. give the child ten cents
and tell him to buy something at the
store. This simply means that the
child will buy bun or some cook
les for a few pennies and spend the
rest on impure candy.
The failure of the mothers meet
ings and patrons days at the school
to be a success simply because only
a small percentage of the mothers
show any interest in them was
brought up. At the patrons days a
week ago, only the merest fraction
of parents attended, 1t was reported.
Yet the teachers are required to
prepare for these days an exhibit Of
the work of the room, a task in
volving time and labor, or If it is
mothers meeting, a program is to
be planned and it means after hours
sol or al q
club woman that after making the
incest exhibit that she could at the
recent patrons day, only one single
lone visitor came to her room, ana
that was not a mother of any of her
pupils.
Internal Discussion.
The time was too short for the
saying of much that the club women
wanted to say, and many of them
went away feeling that nothing had
been accomplished; no solution sug-
gested. They were talking as they
broke up into little groups prepara-
tory to leaving the room. The mat
ter of over dress on the part of high
school and even grade school girls
was brought up, the following of
the latest fads in hairdressing. the
wearing of expensive gowns for every
day and the use of powder and
rouge being condemned. One wo-
man told of a high school girl who
had boosted of the fact that this
was the second 800 dress she had
owned; also that three girls had |
been sent home from one of the |
grade schools the other day to wash
the paint off their faces. Meeting !
with no cooperation from the moth
ers, 1t was said, some of the princi-
pals felt themselves powerless to
cope with the girls started on the
downward path.