IGNORANT MOTHERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 255, 21 October 1908, Page 4

IGNORANT MOTHERS.

■TUB IKJi'ANX JIOKXALITY QUESTION. It is generally recognised tint ilie teaching of mothers «nd prospective mothers is the simplest, mclnod of successfully dealing with infant mortality. Lady l'iimket has done much to encourage the recognition of the fact in . New Zealand and her elforts arc already hearing good iruit. irn Lngland creches and schools for mothers are doing excellent work- in instructing the ■women and girls of the poorer classes in child management, lint, according to Jlr.s Mizaibcth Sloan Ohcsser, M.8., very little effort has been mads to teach the "ignorant mothers" of the better cfasses of society. It is true that infant mortality is higher among the poorer classes, but it is also higher amongst all classes of society than it •night to be. .More children under one year die from mothers' and '.mrses' ignorance than from organic disease. Summer diarrhoea, which slays 200 children a week in London alone in the hot season, could be largely prevented if mothers were alive to the danger of food contamination by Hies, Incidently 1 Jlrs (Sloan (Jhesser has something to : say concerning "some of the defects'' of higher education, more particularly in relation to their cll'ccl on the birth rate. She -ays: ■'There are 'ignorant . moiners' in all classes, and the term . is not meant to be abusive. We cannot . expect girls to know by instinct bow to . manage an infant; everybody has to be taugnt Hie laws of health and hygiene or learn by sad ■ experience and'their -, own mistakes. Our modern methods of training young girls do -not siillieiently take into consideration the fact that the nation requires good mothers, healthy mothers, and wise mothers to copo with this high infant mortality rate .which is a blot upon our civilisation. Of recent years we have been more alive to the need of action with regard to saving the children of the poor, but so far have given less heed to the children of a higher social siunding, whose lives are at least as valuable to the State. Loss of infant life is a more serious matter amongst the better classes: lirst, because the children of parents who can provide a decent up-bringing and good education to their oll'-spring are more valuable to the nation. Secondly, big families are general amongst the very poorest; they are becoming rarer every year among the middle and upper classes. The ibirth-rate during 1007—2G.3 per 1000 —was Ui-e lowest 011 record. -With the exception of France, the birth-rate is lower than in any other European country, and the declining birth-rate is most marked amongst the well-to-do members of the coiiinumity. A disinclination for maternity and for the responsibilities of parenthood is said to be one of the main causes of the declining birth-rate. Young couples with four or live hundred a year "cannot alt'ord" to have more than one, or perhaps a couple of children. Young married women dislike the idea of a lar«e family if they have to be nurse and mother combined. .Modern methods of education have been blamed, and not without reason, tiirls arc trained in habits of luxury mil self-amusement and love of excitement, rather than in the spirit of self-sacriliee and service essential lo unselfish motherhood and the acceptance of those duties which life demands of natural women. We do not teach girls to be good citizens, to think at all of their duties to tile State. We give them ornamental accomplishments and advanced educations instead of instilling then with the arts J of home-making, the science of childrearing. The average girl is too busy with lessons and lectures and athletics to have any time to spare for learning the 'homely lessons of housekeeping ami home-making. It is ridiculous to 1 blame the girls, who are simpiy the product of a system of education. Hut there is something wrong with a system that does not produce healthy, wise mothers." It cannot be denied that in order to deal with infant mortality in any class, healthy molAerliood is the first essential, and it certainly is a dcbaitcaJble point whether universal higher education of «irls will make for healthy motherhood. The multiplicity of subject", the cramming and mental strain, which are inseparable from the educative methods existing in our high school* and women's colleges, are not conducive to preparing girls for the sphere of housewife and mother. A healthy, bright and naturally clever girl will pass through a still' school and college course without damaging her mental and physical health, liuv man; girls are neurotic and anaemic to start with, and higher education is a qucstionaible benefit in these cases. The energy which should be accumulating in early girlhood for the bearing and rearing of children is frittered away in acquiring facts and theories of very little practical importance. H is all very well for the girls who have to take up teaching or one of the other professions open to women, as their life's work, but what is the use of a smattering of llreek or nmtlieiualics or chemistry, if a girl knows nothing of the domestic subjects so essential in after life? Higher education is a good thing in moderation, especially if the term includes instruction of our girls in those things neees-nry if girls arc to attain the highest ideals of wives and mothers. Hut, as Mrs Sloan Chesser very liglrtiy says. too little attention is given to the domeslk- subjects in the elementary and high schools'alike, it seems futile to teach a girl languages or botany if she knows nothing of the chemistry of cooking, of the comparative method* of boiling, stewing, or Lasting in the preparation of food. Hy leaching elementary school girls child management, ''schools for mothers" would become unnecessary. At present State-Educated girls are fatally ignorant of the knowledge necessary for the rearing of a family. We want educated mothers certainly, but we want girls with a conmionscnse ■notion of the laws of health and hygiene rather than a scrappy acquaintance with classics and mathematics. We want cookery and cliild management introduced as compulsory subjects in every girls' school in the Kmpire. ' ■ '■ '..'"■;,:; i^'i