Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1915-07-25
Facts, FadS and FdnCieS
Up 10 the Minute

the education committee of the First
District, Texas Federation of Wo'
mems Clubs, has appeared before the
federated clubs ana other bodies
number Of times on the subject oI
the rural woman and the problems
she must meet. An address on 'The
Rural Mother and the School ls re-
produced in part below:
First get the vision.
Eight thousand five hundred rural
schools scattered over a state equal
in area 20 eleven other states. SIX
thousand of them still have one roon
aud one teacher
"'rhese schools and their respec-
tive communities stnd for so per cent
Of the population Of Texas, when Is
next to the largest rural populau"n
I'm the United States and is scatteEnd
over far greater area than any
otner state These two facts make
the rural school problem OF Texas
the most veXng educational prom
lem in our nation today Ehrolleu
In our rural schools are tOO,OVV q"
the future citizens of this state, ann
less than G per cent OF them Will
ever go beyond the sixth and seventh
grade, 331-3 per cent Will drop out
fourth grade and 10 per cent OF our
Texas children are not in school at
all. As natural consequence OF
such educational conditions only one
man I'm every 1000 in the United
states enters any kind of college,
and ON that one man is centered most
of our educational ideals, most OF our
best instructors most Of our money
The other ,999 never reach the anu
tude Of higher education. Then from
this one-twentieth of / per cent of
our masculine population must come
a large majority of our ministers,
lawyers, doctors, college professors,
specialists Of every sort, many OF our
best business men, few politicians
and now and then a farmer.
These so-called educated men
naturally drift to the towns and cities
TO find an opening for their profession.
and who is left to direct the schools?
After the city has sapped teh last
drOp Of intellectual vitality from the
country there must then be selected
25500 men to act as trusteees TO
direct the work of our $500 rural
schools, and most Of these men must
necessarily be chosen from those who
have never gone to school at all, or
who have never gone beyond the
third fourth or fifth grade. Do you
not see tho first reason the rural
school has been at a standstill for the
last $50 years, while the city schools
have marched right up with the pro-
gress of the times?
"Personally l believe the rural
school is the most important institu-
ton in the state, because it is here
that the masses of our citizens re-
ceive all the training they ever get
for citizenship-and by these citizens
the laws are made, yet as a rule
these schools are presided over by
our least experienced men in educa-
tional affairs.
"Most of these men have little in
terest in their own children's educa-
ion and practically no interest in the
education of their neighbor's child
rem They have been trained all their
lives to think more of dollar than
the welfare Of the community or
state, consequently they are looking
for cheap teachers, and they find
them in the undeveloped, unframed
high school and college graduates OF
the city, who know nothing and care
nothing for rural life, while the hard
working, perseverng country girl
graduate soon finds a place in the
city schools.
"But the city girl does the very
best she can in her strange and
lonely environments and since more
than 80 per cent Of our rural teach,
ers are young girls or women, the
rural school owes all it is to the
poorlypaid patient women Of this
state,
"But the education of the great
majority Of our 100000 rural children
Is left entirely to our women. These
women give an average of four years
of their life to rural school work,
then, tired out, nerve-racked and dis
gusted with their profession and their
inability to develop it under existing
conditions, they seek release from
what should have been the most in
teresting work in the world and find
refuge-they think-in the home of
some young farmer TO become the
mothers of the next generation OF
rural children; and right here the
plot Is laid for the most pathetic
tragedy in rural life.
zone of the most cruel and contra
dlctory conditions in Texas today is
that peculiar combination of social
educational and political laws and
customs by which country-bred wo
men are lured from their country
uOllltS 10 TIE COlItStS anu ullNGISl-
ties of the city; and there they dc
the same work, at the same expense
stand the same tests, develop the
same ambitions, are awarded the
same diplomas from the same insti.
tutions Of learning as their brothers
and during their brief city and col.
lege life they catch glimpse OF
higher culture, or proAress and co.
operation, only to find" when they
return to their country homes as de.
veloped, capable women, that the
most inexperienced man in the
country is more to be desired ir
school affairs than they.
After spending the same numb5:
Of years and the same amount OF
money preparing herself for useful
ness in the community she call!
home, instead of being placed on 6
par with her brother of equal prep.
aration, she is barred from every
channel of usefulness that Is wild,
open to the most unGeveloped, mex
perienCed man In the community. L
freedom Of thought and action II
necessary to a mans development
why is II not necessary to a woman:
development? There is no outlet fol
the intellectual rural woman excep
the rural school. and this outlet /!
damed up tight by Indifference