Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife | Page 6

Employer--Securing an
Increase of Salary--The Woman of Independent Means--Her Civic and
Social Duties.
Teaching is a profession that is particularly the province of the
unmarried woman. The best teachers are those who have chosen it as
their life-work, and have therefore thoroughly prepared themselves for
it. A girl who takes a school position merely for the money that there is
in it, expecting to give it up in a year or so, when she hopes to marry, is
inflicting a grievous wrong on the children under her charge. There are
other remunerative employments where her lack of serious intention
will not be productive of lasting injury. Lack of preparation for
teaching generally goes with this lack of intention, doubling the injury.
Against this the examination for the school certificate is not always a
sufficient safeguard, since many girls are clever enough to "cram up"
sufficiently to pass the examination who have not had the perseverance
necessary to master the subjects they are to teach, not to speak of that
interest in the broad subject of pedagogy, without which the application
of its principles in teaching the various branches is certain to be
neglected. Enthusiasm in her profession, a whole-hearted interest in

each pupil as an individual personality should characterize every
teacher, for next to the mother, she plays the most important part in the
development of the coming generation.
There is a general complaint that the salaries of school-teachers are too
low, measured by the rewards of persons of corresponding ability in
other professions. When, however, the certainty of pay and the virtual
assurance that the employment is for life if good service is rendered,
are considered, together with the respect accorded the teacher by the
community and the fact that her work necessarily tends to the
cultivation of her mind, the lot of the school-teacher must be reckoned
as one of the most favored. Americans are more prone than any other
people to spend money on education, and this spirit is ever increasing,
so that the school-teacher is more certain than the member of any other
profession that she will be rewarded worthily in the future. The
establishment of the Carnegie pension fund for retired college
professors is an indication of this growing spirit, as well as the recent
advance of the salaries of public school teachers in New York City and
elsewhere, in recognition of the increase in the cost of living.
To the bright woman who is interested in the study of civics, political
economy, and sociology, there is opportunity to earn a living at home
by organizing classes in these subjects among the club-women of her
town. Teachers of parliamentary law are in especial demand. The
organization of a mock congress for parliamentary practise is the most
entertaining as well as the most improving play in which women can
join. There is also a demand among women who seek an intellectual
element in their recreation for instruction in the games of bridge-whist,
whist, and chess. Bridge-whist is the most popular, largely because of
the desire to win money and valuable prizes at the game. Then, too, a
greater amount of time is spent at it than is legitimate for recreation.
For moral reasons, therefore, the teaching of it cannot be recommended.
Straight whist is also played occasionally for money, but this practise,
happily, is rapidly becoming obsolete. Chess, except among
professionals, is played purely for sport, and is therefore the best of
games to study. Unfortunately there is very little demand for instruction
in it by women; nevertheless, it is the best of all games for cultivating

the analytical power of the mind, a faculty in which women, as a rule,
are weak.
This power may, with equal pleasure and greater profit, be gained by
paying special attention, in the reading of books and magazines, to
literary style and construction. The average reader assimilates only a
small percentage of what he reads. The careful thought which the
author puts into his manner of presentation, no less than into the matter,
is appreciated by very few of his readers, and by these only to a limited
extent. Especially is this true of fiction. If one wishes to become an
author, he should first cultivate this power of criticism, always
accompanying the study by exercises in reconstruction of faults in the
author read. Thus, wherever a sentence appears awkward in expression,
the reader should revise it; wherever there is a seeming error in the
logical development of a subject, or the psychological development of
a fictitious character, he should reconstruct it. Nothing is so helpful to a
writer as self-criticism. Thus Mrs. Humphrey Ward has recently
confessed that the happy ending of her "Lady Rose's Daughter" was an
artistic error, false to psychology, her heroine being doomed to
unhappiness by