Now Froebel was not contending for woman’s rights, but for the race. He speaks of woman, because he saw that her element in the cause of civilization was in need of accentuation. He was seeking in the race that balance which is imperative in the promotion of perfect conditions.... Froebel spoke of women because men have held the reins of education in the past. Even in the matter of bringing children into the world....
Above all things do not encourage the child to occupy his time with trivialities, to the neglect of the grand phenomena of nature—the beauty and poetry everywhere, along the dewy borders of the country road, the hedges and fields, the rocks and imbedded fossils, insects and plants. To study botany, geology, physiology and even psychology in youth, is excellent occupation.
Parental Duty
By Ellen Key
(Swedish contemporary. From “Love and Marriage.”)
Children begotten under a sense of duty would ... be deprived of a number of essential conditions of life; among others that of finding in their parents beings full of life and radiating happiness which constitutes the chief spiritual nourishment of children—and it may be added that parents who live entirely for their children are seldom good company for them.
My Little Son
By Pauline Florence Brower
(American contemporary poet. From “Century Magazine.”)