“Motherhood and teaching”[4] was an issue in Minneapolis not long ago,
and the school board decided against the employment of married women.
The board was influenced according to report, by the fact that there
were poor teachers who married and this was a comfortable way to dispose
of them, regardless of the injustice to the good ones. I understand that
in Kansas there is a state law prohibiting the employment of married
women. Were this policy applied to men teachers it would be ridiculed.
Marriage is a strong factor in developing permanence of interest in the
vocation and in blending vocational interest with community interest.
Footnote 4:
See THE SURVEY, April 19, page 101.
The ability to teach is dependent upon qualities which are mental and
temperamental. The hours and the character of the work of a teacher are
such as are peculiarly adapted to the woman who may marry and who may
have children; and her fuller experience in life should make possible a
fuller understanding of the needs of childhood.
It is generally recognized that our schools have deteriorated. Would not
a very simple remedy be the employment of mothers as well as fathers?
Would not they understand better than others what the children need?
When education was in the home it was proper that mothers should be
teachers. With the socialization of education as of industry, a celibate
class has arisen to take the place of mothers. Mothers have become the
parasites of society, while constructive work in social service has
devolved upon a celibate class. We have reached the stage now when
society needs every possible constructive factor and the latent
possibilities for social work in the married woman should be encouraged
rather than discarded.