The weekly Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1911-1922, 1911-10-19
CH|LDREH'S TEACHING BID
We Make Criminals of TIE Youngsters
By Our Wrong Methods
Women Could Be More
Beautiful.

shtt AiN lieu guests " tie t1Nlc clGL
net las. right a. tie elegant re-
home of Mr.. and Mrs. ". c. Curtis
on north Michigan street and listen
ed to one of the most thought pro-
roking lectures ever heard in the
city Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gil
man of New York City, on her an
nual lecturing tour to the West.
had been engaged to stop here and
talk to the club. She chose as her
subject "'Our Brains and What Ais
Than.
Mrs. Gilman announced that Ter
lecture was merely the outline of a
book which she will write next year
on the subject The art;cles will run
the coming year in her magazine.
The Forerunner. and later be put
into book form.
Think for yourself. was the bur
den of the lecture. Mrs. Gilman did
not attempt to give remedies for
things that existed in our brains. in
our teaching of our childien. or in tn
way we lived. Her effort was re
make us think for our elves. make
us see where we could make i'm
provements which would 90 toward
the happiness of ourselves and also
of. others.
After a short statement about our
brains. their relation to oar lives
and their development by slow evolu
ton. the lecturer showed how lop-
sided our brains are. They will be
corspicuouslv bright in one regard
and woefully stupid in others. She
gave as examples the college pro-
fessor who could solve the hardest
problems. vet could not remember
where he left his hat. We lack con-
sistency In our thinking. While
women want to be beautiful they do
not apply their minds to the meth
DDS of how they may me beautiful
The ancient Greeks knew how: they
had solved the problem and it Is
very easy to know how-yet we do
not do it. The women of today do
not know the proper proportions the
perfect body should have. Women
are too long wasted and too short
legged, she said. They have pretty
faces. and thew stop at that. think
ING that is all of beauty.
Neither do they apply their minds
to the matter of dress. We know that
il Is foolish to wear high heeled
shoes, vet women continue to weaf
them. and if YOU ask them why. the
answer is that s'thev are wearing
them. We do not do what we know
Is best for us. There is not the
proper connection between the brain
and our lives.
So with the men. she said. They
do not know how to eat or drink.
All know that alcohol is bad for the
BODY and brain. Yet men continue
to drink it just as though 1t was
good for them.
The brains of children. she said.
are perfect at birth. They begin
learning at once-but there is scanty
help given them. All our houses are
huiIt for our comfort and convent
ence and never a thing for the chill
dren. They are not considered, ex-
cept. perhaps for the high chair to
enable them to get their heads above
the table to eat. The whole way OF
the child is crossed with don It's
They are told that they will bt
spanked if they do this or that. They
are spanked. They do it again ant
are spanked. But some time they d.
it and are not seen-and so are mo-
spanked. The child brain swift,
catches the point-if you can do {;
thing and not be seen, you dom
get spanked. This, said Mrs. Gil
man is the beginning Of criminality
We teach it in our homes
We talk much about the evils O
child labor, yet do not stop to thinl
that the labor of study in on
schools is just as hard and tiresom
for the child as work in the factory
The sudden jumping from one stud.
to another is very hard on the brail
energy of the child. Yet they ar
crowded through the whole cours
that way. Not only are they com
PEELED to study this way in tn
school room, but we have them stud
lat home after they have done enoug
| at school to tire them out
Mrs. Gilman did not sugges
remedies. She wants people t
|1think for themselves If all get
thinking they will soon work out th