Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-05-14

Excellent
Career
Why Be Disappointed
in Daughter With No
Other Ambition?
BY ANGELO PATRI,

r GOODNESS, / wish Jane had a
little of her sisters ambition. I
asked her last night what she intended
to be when she grew up-she's IA now
and really ought to be thinking about
it-and she said, as calm as Summer
| day: I'm going to marry nice man,
maybe Charley Curtis if he stays as
nice as he is now, and raise six chill
! dren, three girls and three boys
when I asked her if she had no
| other ambition than that. and told her
she said, III have enough to do to
raise six kids and keep their father
neat and tidy and feed him right.
That's what grandma thinks, too. Dor
othy can be the doctor and look after
the rest of us, if she likes
I'm so disappointed. She's such
an intelligent child if she would
only want to be somebody"
can't worry about girl who is in
telligent and healthy and pretty as
Jane is, and who wants to marry and
rear family. think that is heal
thy and laudable ambition. I believe
it is the ambition of most of the pretty
and healthy and intelligent girls of her
generation. Jane happens to be frank
err about it. I'm not distressed by the
fact that she is not eager to learn
profession as a sideline. If she wanted
it, all right-let her have it. A mother
needs all the training and all the ex-
perience she can get Here is an all
embracing profession. But If she
doesn't want it, let her train for her
own choice That field is certainly
broad enough.
But I do think that Jane needs edu-
cation and training for her chosen
profession. I think she ought to study
personal hygiene; the art of house.
child-bearing and child-rearing; cook
ing; cleaning; heating and plumbing;
care of machines used in the house.
hold Of today; care and use Of the car:
gardening or some other hobby; music
and art; sports to her liking; politics
and religion. In short. all and any
interests that life offers her fall
within her field. The profession Of
motherhood is the oldest and the most
important that womanhood can
achieve
Somebody says that. Everybody
bows to motherhood. But when it
comes to making straight the way of
the mother, educating her, providing
for her training in school and society,
taking care of her when she needs
care, reWarding her in any way for
service rendered, society is generally
looking the other way. Jane rarely
will achieve headlines. That is why
her mother wished she had some am
bition beyond motherhood. We can
understand that while we deplore it.
Girls want to be married, and moth
erhood is usually the Towering Of
marriage What the girls need, what
they would ask for if they knew
enough to do so, is the just recogni-
ton of their needs for training, their
social and legal rights as mothers. I
hope the girls themselves will soon be
more articulate about this. A few
more like Jane might help.
Mr.. Patri has prepared leaf1et en-
titled Trouble With Number Tables"
in which he explains an easy way to
help children improve in arithmetic.
Send for it, addressing your request
to Mr.. Angelo Patri, Child Psychology
Department of this paper. 1nclose a
self addressed, stamped (3-cent) en-
velope.
| Copyright, 1879