Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-18

Newspaper opinion does not agree at
all with the theory of Prof. Robert E.
Rogers of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology that America has been
feminized through woman school teach
ers. The professor advanced the idea
in a recent address on some general
shortcoming of the times.
"If the Americans Of today are the
product Of so years of feminine teach
ing. the honest prayer should be for
many centuries more of such guidance"
declares the Buffalo Evening News. The
Chicago Daily News holds that the pro-
fessor "offers no proof whatever of the
assertion that the American public is
incapable of political and philosophlc
thought" and that 1.-The history of the
United States is not a history of
people incapable of thought" The
Daily News adds: THE fruits of fem
mime thinking are not at all bad. Ger
tainly such thinking is preferable to
no thinking at all"
"Of course" says the Albany Eve
ming News, I'VE have mostly women as
teachers in schools, and We may. as
children, have come somewhat to fem
mime ways of thinking. But surely 1t
has done us no harm as a people. We
have had the same influence from our
mothers. No doubt We have had that
influence and the feminine influence
has not been to our disadvantage. Nor
are we feminine If feminine
teaching has produced the men who
are still making America, then 1t would
best go on"
1.-THE impressive point" according to
the Indianapolis News, "iS that boys
may be benefiting less under the pres
ent system than girls. In q system
employing an overwhelming preponder-
ance of man teachers, girls would run
the same risk. But the final test is
in the product, and 1t does not appear
that American men are conspicuously
inferior to the men of other countries
la distinctly masculine fields of EN-
deavor. or that American women fail
In any world measurement of women
In their great spheres Of activity,
motherhood and homemaking."
Having spent much pains in Skillful
analysis Of many changing conditions
of the world today-proving conclu-
Slvely, II he proves anything, that many
OF the fundamental philosophical and
ethical traditions of our society are in
stage of transition" remarks the BoS-
ton Transcript, Prof Rogers turns
suddenly upon woman teachers, and
would have one believe that in the
pedagogic field the female half of So
ciety is alone to blame. Even as an
drgumentaClVe matter, this Will never
do. 1t seems to us quite preposterouS,
In the course of case which runs, if
1t runs at all, against society as whole
suddenly to single out one par of
the whole ard FIX all guilt upon It,"
Taking stand more favorable To the
logic of the Massachusetts, speaker, the
Brooklyn Daily Eagle observes: 1T is
just possible that II equal pay were to
be gotten out of the way and men en-
ployed for all teaching OF boys from tie
beginning Of adolescence at salaries to
attract men, the 'feminizing of Amer
| lea might be gradually checked Not
merely schools, but churches, music, art
literature, have felt the feminizlng
trend. But that our boys have lost
either courage or stamina FROM it is
| a proposition that intelligent students
of the World War will be inclined to
| deny without qualification"
Replying to the statement that "cur
thinking Is feminine thinking" the
Little Rock Arkansas Democrat asks:
IF that be true, how comes it that 80
per cent of our text books are written
| by males? Wasn't our educational sys-
tenn born in certain master minds which
functioned behind glorious crops of
| sideburns adjoining the countenances
| of our masculine progenitors? Aren't
our school boards predominantly he?
Is the political thinking of the country
inspired by the leadership of women?