most infinite number and variety of positions to be filled, it seems that there is also a wonderful woman ready and qualified to step into any one of these places. In Idaho she is given every opportunity to do so.
Women trustees elect women teachers in most of the rural districts, while brave and self sacrificing superintendents, also women, travel and toil to keep the torch of learning alight in the most isolated corners of the big and lonely counties they patrol. The task is arduous and the reward light from a financial viewpoint, and the great work is accomplished with so much efficiency and so little ostentation that the average citizen never realizes the bigness and power of these earnest emissaries of education.
In larger communities, women principals head faculties of women teachers. In all the elementary schools, men teachers are the exceptions to the rule, and in the higher schools, the women outnumber the men in astonishing proportion. Supervisors in the grade schools, specialists in art, music, physical education, home economics and, of course, all domestic science and sewing teachers, are women. Heads of departments are more often women than men, because the man teacher is very apt to leave the schools after a few years of service to prepare himself for a more lucrative profession, teaching to him being merely a means to an end.
Business colleges employ a large percentage of women, and public libraries, which are true centers of education, are almost entirely managed by women. Americanization schools for the foreign born are conducted by women, although the classes are largely made up of men. This work is one of the finest accomplishments of our women educators. Supervised playgrounds, those mighty allies of the schools, are also directed by women, and often they are created and sponsored by some organization of women.
In fact, we find the club women occupy a place very near the summit of our Parnassus. They raise funds especially for the purpose of putting needy girls through high school, or giving scholarships to the university, or making loans to struggling students at other institutions of learning, or helping to develop unusual talent that would otherwise never have a chance to expand. Rating high in intelligence and ideals themselves, these women never lose an opportunity to further the cause of higher education for the rising generation.
The highest elective school office in the state, that of State Superintendent, has been held for years by women of exceptional ability, and they have been such capable officers,
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