In passing from this problem of the influence of women upon the content and systems of education, it is worthy of note that one of the first names in the field of education today is that of Maria Montessori. Her ideals have spread rapidly in the United States. Speaking of her recent visit to this country, _The Survey_ said:
Most people in the United States had to wait until Maria Montessori came to this country to learn that her educational ideas are being applied in scores of schools here and that Rhode Island has officially indorsed her methods. Experimentation with Montessori practices is being conducted in the Rhode Island Normal School. It is declared that out of a class of eighty-odd teachers who took the Montessori four months’ course at Rome last year, over sixty were Americans.
Madame Montessori’s brief visit is giving rise to a more active discussion of her educational “system” than usual. Those who think it is destined to revolutionize child-training and those who see in it no advance beyond the ideas of Froebel are giving their reasons over again. How much new light will be thrown on the real content of her methods remains to be seen.
Madame Montessori’s way of spreading her gospel during her visit has been by public lectures in large cities. At these she has talked through an interpreter and has illustrated her work with children by motion-picture films. Her visit has been under the auspices of the newly formed American Montessori Association, in whose leadership are Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell, Margaret Wilson, Frederick Knowles Cooper, Anne George (Dr. Montessori’s first American pupil), William Morrow, S. S. McClure and others.
Although we talk of equal educational opportunities for men and women, as a matter of fact in many states, particularly in the East and South, there is nothing approaching equal facilities. There are many “opportunities” for education in most states, it is true, but until the _best_ opportunities are open to women, there is nothing like equality. In states where adequate facilities are not open, we find women awaking to the obligation to see that they are soon provided through public or private funds.
New Jersey club women have been pushing the work for the establishment of a state college for women “to fit our girls to render the best service to New Jersey in many lines as well as to fill teaching positions better, 80 per cent. of which are now filled by women.” The population of New Jersey is over 2,537,167, of whom 1,250,704 are women, yet no provision is made for their higher education. Only in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, besides New Jersey, is that now true. A state college with free tuition is demanded. New Jersey has Princeton, Rutgers, Stevens, for men, but only normal schools for women.