Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-03-17
COOK IS GREATER THAN
DO-NOTH|NG MISTRESS
Dressmaker Also Has Better Claim
to Respect, Says Mrs. Anna
B. Sloane.
Criticises Schools for Failure to
Equip Children With knowledge
Aiding LIES Struggle.

by laying the foundations for worthy
ambitions in our young people and foster
ing honor for personal abilities we take
the surest road toward making the
American people a great people de-
clared Mrs. Anna s. Sloane in an address
yesterday before members of the Dis
trict Branch of the National Congress Of
Mothers at the Raleigh Hotel in connec-
ton with her plea for voca tional training
in the public schools
''Ihe COOK who can prepare good
breakfast is a greater woman than her
mistress who eats it, unless the mistress
can do something else equally weIl,' she
said. The speaker said also. 1.-The dress
maker who can make a perfect gown has
"a greater claim to her fellow womens re-
spect than the woman who wears it. IN
less the woman is equally proficient in
some other thing.
Criticises School System.
In opening her address. Mrs Sloane
said that after twelve years of schooling
the young people of New York city have
not learned single thing that can help
them in their first and last and most i'm
portant struggle In life, ''the struggle
fault is not with the schools. or school
officials, teachers
1.-THE fault she said. lis with the
school system. which We have come to
venerate SO much that we have not dared
look it in the face and SO We have not
noticed that it has become old and
wrinkled and out of sympathy with the
ever changing conditions about IT.
She said that after her twenty years
of teaching girls and women in handl-
crafts she found that after the age of
| student is the more difficult it is for
her to acquire the complete corre1a-
ton of brain and hand. when she has
been in possession of no previous
manual training.
Young Child Curious.
THE young child is curious she
said, wanting to see and touch in or
der to acquire ideas. But with the
new mind the influx that comes at
about the above mentioned age comes
the desire to give out ideas, to express
the budding creative powers by doing.
Therefore. this is the age at which
vocational instruction should begin
Mrs Sloane asked that the children
of the District of Columbia public
schools should be taught as early as
possible the difference between in
formation and education. She said
they should be taught that it is not
so much the nature, or quality, of In :
take information that determines their
usefulness in life. or their mental and
physical superiority. as it is the pow
ers developed by the exercise of con-
structive expression. That inforIna-
ton. though good to have, in itself
gives them no claim to education.
Laziness Great Fault.
The speaker pleaded that children be
taught to understand that mental, emo
tional and physical laziness are great
faults She also urged that the children
at early ages be taught the difference
between joy and plea sure-"that JOY is
the inward satisfaction of consciousness
in avns done, being able to do, or being
something worth while; that the inward
dissatisfaction Of consciousness at not
having done, being able to do or being
something worth while creates hunger for
pleasure: that pleasure is only sense
satisfaction. which, like candy, may be
agreeable for the moment. but worthless
as mental food
The meeting was presided over by Mrs.
Giles Rafter. Others who made addresses
were Mrs. Graham Powell of the Girls
Friendly Society, Mrs. Louise Fl. Earle,
who spoke on the use Of the Bible for
progression. and Mrs. Clara Neigh, who
told of the vocational work at the
Neighborhood House. Following the
meeting. tea was poured.