New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-11-25
MEET TO DEFEND
TEACHER MOTHERS
Men and Women in Cooper
Union DenOunce Ruling
of the Board.
CALLED A PREMIUM
FOR UNHAPPY HOMES
Mrs. Hale, Norman Hapgood and
Others Declare Children
Increase Efficiency.

\ protest meeting against the attitude
of the Board Of Education in the teacher
mother cases was held last night at Cooper
Union. in the course Of which the board
was compared to everything from dodo
bird to the capable young college graduate
who. when asked what she knew about
babies replied ooh, everything: Nv, dis
seCted them"
THE board by its policy Of dismissing
teachers who become mothers puts a pre-
MUM on domestic unhuppiness.' said Ed
ward SlosSon. IF the husband is so
miserable that ne runs away. the wife is
permitted TO teach in the public schools.
If the wife is SO efficient that the home
is happy ana the man stays there, she is
punished. If she is SO cross that she
drives her husband to drink or insanity
or suicide. she is supposed to make
good teacher Any woman may secure
position i'm the New York public schools
if her husband is incapacitated to earn
living for her. or has abandoned her for
one year That is a bylaw of the Board
of Education"
The chief business accomplished by the
meeting was the passage of resolutions
urging the Board of Education to change
it's bylaws so that 4 woman teacher VIII
rot he required to notify the board of her
marriage. that leave of absence for the
purpose of bearing children shall he
granted TO women teachers. and that the
possession of a husband shall not inter
fere with woman's right to teach school
if she so chooses.
Mrs. Beatrice Forbes Robertson Hale.
president If the League for the civil Ser
vice of Women. under whose auspices the
meeting was held. answered several OBJ
jections which Mr. Churchill had made to
the employment of teaCher-mothers.
"A young child" ne said, needs all Of
its mothers time
II say" answered Mrs. Hale. that the
mother knows better than any board Of
education how much of her time her baby
needs. Is il likely that the intelligent,
educated woman Of to-day is going TO
neglect her baby when every instinct of
motherhood that exists In the untutored
savage and i'm the beasts Of the field is
against such neglect
The other objection she continued.
that married women who wish to teach
are actuated by greed lis answered in the
same way. The woman and her husband
know more about their income than the
Board Of Education does. II is quite pos
sible that the two agree that they will
not allow these same children about
whose neglect such a fuss is being made
TO sleep in tiny dark rooms opening on
filthy airshafts; that the best W. that
the mother can care for her children is
10 increase the family income so that
they can have healthy. happy homes. and
bring up intelligent, useful members Of
society. instead Of puny vicious little
ones who will be a burden on the COM
munity."
The meeting was presided over 10y Mag
istrate John J. Frcschi who said In his
opening address that he believed that the
woman who had children was a better
teacher because Of them
other speakers were Norman Hapgood.
DR. Ira s VILE. Edwin Slosson. Mrs.
James Lees Laidlaw. Or. j. +. Warbasse,
The Rev Waldo Amos. Frederick G.
Howe, Rabbi Wise and Professor Ray