The New York herald., 1922-06-11
Welded new HAVEN
TEACHERS Hold JOBS
Board of Education Decides
81 Women Will Remain
a Year at Least.
DEBATE OF SIX HOURS
Unmarried Normal School
Graduates Will Have to
Wait for Positions.
CITY SPLIT ON QUESTION
Two Women Are Members of
4 Board of Eight That De-
! cided Matter.
CITY SPLIT ON QUESTION

NEW HAVEN, June 10.--Vigorous ef-
forts to oust fifty-ope married women
teachers in the New Haven public
school system and replace them with
new and unmarried Normal School
graduates were brought to an un-
successful conclusion at 2 o'clock this
morning, when the Board of Educa-
ton, after six hours of deliberation,
decided that the question of marriage
should not be a factor in selecting
pedagogues.
( AS a result, contracts for the coming
year were mailed to-day to the fifty
one wives and mothers. What may
happen to the married teachers next
year, however was not definitely known
tonight. Members Of the board pointed
out that the retention of the fifty-one
women for the coming year is not
necessarily a commitment to the policy
of giving married teachers the same
status as their unmarried sisters. but
that it had been decided to reengage
them merely to dispose of the problem
for the present.
Heated arguments both for and
against retention of the married teach
sion. Seven members compose the Board
of Education, with Mayor David T. Fitz-
gerald serving ex officio, making eight.
Two members are women.
The principal argument against con-
tinuing the wives in their positions was
that of this years crop of graduates at
the State Normal School here only a
comparatively few of New Haven girls
have been appointed to positions because
OF the scarcity of vacancies. The teach
ers, it is said, continue to serve in their
posts after acquiring husbands. Friends
Of the new Normal graduates insist that in
the majority of instances these husbands
are earning good salaries and are we'll
able to support their wives, who should
resign and create vacancies for the Nor
NAL girls.
On the other hand, the married teach
ers and their friends argued that in
no other work in which women are en-
gagged is marriage allowed to enter as
factor in determining their capability
and that the teaching profession should
likewise be kept clear Of it. Further
more, they insisted that all Of the fifty
one married teachers had several years
experience and are consequently of more
value.to the city's school system than
are the new normal graduates, who have
had very little experience and that
gained only In the practical class room
work of the normal school. They con-
tend also, that married teachers are less
likely to lose patience with children, and
that they take a deeper interest in their
young charges than the average single
woman teacher.
With many influential business and
professional women back of them, the
married teachers, 1t is admitted WELD
great strength, and as large number of
fathers and mothers Of the city are
deeply in sympathy with the new normal
school graduates and believe that a
woman cannot care for home eff
ciently and teach at the same time. 1t
was the opinion here tonight that the
boards decision avoided a citywide con-
troversy that appeared ominous.