The Washington times., 1914-07-10
TOO MANY SISSIES7

Prof. Edward A. Ross, of the Uni
versity of Wisconsin, who is given to
much viewing with alarm, but who
nevertheless has an uncomfortably
accurate vision in a good many d.
rections, has been telling the Ma
tional Educational Association some
of his impressions about our public
schools.
For one thing, the professor thinks
We have too many women teachers,
and that their influence OH the boys
is not altogether good. He guesses
that there ought to be more men
teaching, and on the whole he is
doubtless right. But how is it to
be brought to pass? To pay salaries
that would fill the public schools
with properly equipped men would
be an utter impossibility. To keep
in the schools the young men who
prove themselves especially adapted
to the profession is just as impos-
sible. They get out, to enter bust
ness, or some other profession, or
just simply for the sake Of getting
out of an occupation that is reccg-
nized as offering attractive rewards
to only a small proportion of the
people in it.
But Prof. Ross worries bit need
lessly, we suspect, about the danger
that the boys Of the future, being
taught by women, will all grow up to
be sissies; that they will have no
fighting quality, no real pugnacity;
that they will be spiritless and
nollycoddlish lot. |
Well, we don't worry. If the pro-
fessor ever went to school to an
old-fashioned country teacher that
thrashed couple of boys every day
with hickory thong, thereby ham,
mering all the spirit out of some
boys, and hammering hatred, sullen-
ness, and vengefulness into others,
he will recall that the boys who
were bullied largely grew up. to be
DULLES.
Certainly" continues the profess
sor, "a woman-taught generation is
showing an alarming willingness to
take oppression and robbery lying
down. The good-government move
ment, I notice, attracts many mild
hammered gentlemen citizens, quite
'bluffed' by the ward heeler's invita-
ton to use natural weapons. l de-
plore ladylike citizens. Education
for social service ought not to dam
pen the primal impulses of moral
Indignation"
That is fine generalization, but it
doesn't stand the test of examina-
ton. 1t isn't true that this woman
taught generation" is alarmingly
willing to have political bosses rob
them. On the contrary, this WON
an-taught generation" is doing more
toward effectively fighting the
crooks and the ward heelers than the
man-taught generations that preced.
ed it. Probably the question of
whether one generation was man.
taught and the other woman-taught
has nothing to do with it, or mighty
little; but the fact remains, and it is
so obvious that it needs only to have
attention directed to it, that Prof.
Ross is wrong in his observation.
1t might be suspected, from the
virile professors comments, that he
is in favor of a system of rule by
riot and force. The community,
however, has got past that. The
good-government movement doubt
less does attract many mild-manner-
ed gentlemen who don't want to
crack heads; but most of the folks
in the world are rather nild-man-
nered anyhow, with little zest for
oloodletting as an incident to demon
strating their good citizenship.
Moreover, the mild-mannered people
are pretty well divided between the
camps of good government and bad
government. The following of the
undesirable bosses is largely made
up of mildly disposed folks who
think boss government is inevitable,
and that the way to get on is to
acquiesce in it.