The Washington herald., 1913-10-21
MOTHER HEART SAME
THE WORLD OVER
Insistent Call of Home and Children
Reaching Out to Mother Must
Be Needed First Of ALI.
BY FRANCES sHAFFER.


Three items of news in a daily paper
awhile ago challenged rather more than
ordinary interest, because, while they
were quite distinct, representing women
in walks OF life far enough apart, the
thread running through all was the same
motherhood.
And while a distinct line of thought
followed the reading Of each little story.
they were not SO far apart after all.
The first told how Mrs. Anthony ].
Drexel. jr.. had hurried back from her
trip oversee because of her fast-grow-
ing impatience TO see her two little chill
dren again. She said she had tried 10
finish her summer tour, but while travel
ing about in Scotland, something far
stronger than the charm of that fasci-
mating land kept calling and calling her
home and she simply had to return.
And she promised herself that once
back home with her little ones, she never
would leave them again.
The next touched a woman who has
had a very tempestuous life, with all
sorts OF lurid mixtures. But as Evelyn
Thaw went to the pier in New York &c
meet her young son as he landed-from
oyer the sea again-she declared that the
continued absence and the longing to see
him had made her know that 1t was the
last time she would let water or land
roll between them.
And so. from away up in the social
world and from a far different corner
came the same urgent heart-call that Is
known the world over, and the same kind
of response. For just as the one mother
said, never again." SO did the other.
Ousted Because of Motherhood.
And as the pages were turned. there
was the oft-told story Of Mrs. Bridget
PeiXotto, the New York school-teacher
recently removed by the board Of educa-
ton because she had become a mother
and because the board deemed her use
fulness to the school impaired by the
newly acquired duty to her child.
Mrs. Peixotto has refused to accept
the finality of the dismissal and has car
ried her case to the Supreme Court, be-
lieving that the Jurisdiction of the board
ought TO begin and end with the one
question of the quality of her service
is she a good teacher or is she not? Be
cause she can see no Justice in making a
woman choose between her profession
and her home. She declares that by
very reason of motherhood. which has
come to be an intimate reality to her.
she Is the better equipped TO take a more
human and personal point OF view with
the children she meets in her work at
school, the better prepared to under
stand and love them and help start them
right in life.
But reading along. one comes to her
statement that she has a pleasant home
and good friends TO help her take care
OF her baby-and there comes the pause
Because. with the others in mind who
hurried to respond to an instructive call,
there comes the unbidden thought that
when the times come, as they mus al
most to a certainty i'm the life OF little
one, that the mothers presence is need
ed for n long stretch OF days, there must
be choice-her child or her school?
And that. to the minds Of some OF us,
is the only strong point that the board
can make. Because IL is scarcely its
province to decide upon a woman's meth
cd of regulating her own life, whether
she happens to teach in the public schools
or not. II she serves we'll and without
any greater breaks in the way OF absence
from duty than are granted to the aver
age teacher. mothers or not, then why
should the board interfere?
Seems n Bit Hard.
That of itself is a big enough question,
because il is a hit hard to reconcile the
thought of a good mother with that Of a
good teacher at one and the same time;
that from the standpoint Of the school,
1t may be quite possible. But when the
thought of the board, the teacher. and
the school are dropped and the mother
and wee child slip in, then comes the
suspicion that in the very nature of
things there is bound to come many 4
call from the home that will be supreme
over all others. For while the good
teacher is in loving sympathy with her
work, heart and mind, the good mother
must all the while turn an expectant and
a listening ear to the strongest call of
all. And IL she must make a choice
there's where the weakness comes in,
One is nightly in sympathy with the
rights of a woman to follow any work.
light that beckons, and believes that II