CELIBATE EDUCATION TO-DAY 425 



all upon universal attitudes and firmly crystallized expressions, her 

 married sister, her parents and her brothers, even the children in the 

 seats before her, all look on her as a failure in life, and, worst of all, 

 she feels the same in her heart. Such disappointment would acidulate 

 the sweetest spirit. Besides, she is leading an unnatural existence, 

 dealing with children of the same age twenty, thirty or forty years, 

 while the vast bulk of women have the care of one brood only from 

 marriage to death. The constant strain on her temper within the 

 school and without it makes her either querulous and harsh or flabby 

 and indifferent — both states disastrous for discipline. 



For the interests of the student, and consequently of all the race, 

 is it a good model to set before maturing minds that the unmarried 

 woman is the best type of all ? Still more, is it wise to have examples 

 of mannish women, as so many of them inevitably tend to the paths 

 that men tread, after admitting to themselves that they are practically 

 excluded from the chosen sphere of women, the home ? Many of them 

 turn to money making with all the avidity of their brothers. We have 

 seen such exhibitions of greed and contentiousness among the women 

 teachers in two of our largest cities when they have banded together for 

 an increase in their salaries, going to much greater lengths than men 

 would dare to do under such circumstances. The influence of all this 

 will be felt in time upon the characters of the young. 



All these weaknesses in the woman teacher have brought them- 

 selves to the surface; they are inherent, and therefore incurable by any 

 method of selection or supervision. If we add the fundamental argu- 

 ment that we have derived from the test with men it seems a foregone 

 conclusion that the celibate female teacher will fall just as far short 

 as her celibate brother ; she will fail in the schoolroom just as he did. 



Failure is the lot of each because each is abnormal. " The normal 

 citizen is a father or mother," thus tersely and truly does the president 

 of the United States express the sentiment. If this is so and it has to 

 be, who can properly guide young persons into that realm except nor- 

 mal men and women as teachers? 



Another deduction from this premise is that we must have both 

 sexes instructing the young. The difficulty with the male has been 

 settled, we no longer require him to be unmated. On the other hand, 

 it is almost an unfailing query on the part of appointing officers 

 whether a male applicant is married or not. In numerous instances 

 the preference is unhesitatingly given to the one with the wife. 



This solution, however, should be impossible with women. It is 

 abhorrent and disgusting to the average person to think that men should 

 allow their wives to be breadwinners unless for special reasons. Again 

 has Mr. Eoosevelt summed up the case when he spoke of men as the home 

 providers and women as the home keepers. This is the result of aeons 



