Women as Teachers of Safety

NZ Truth, Issue 1018, 30 May 1925, Page 16

Women as Teachers of Safety

Back m the stone age, the %cave women taught tha cave children all there was to know m that day of the simple life; the cave men were too busy dodging glaciers ancl^mammoths to devote much of their time to educating their young. Th 2 duty of teaching, before civilisation dawned (writes an advocate of ."Safety First") fell oh the mother, and up to a certain stage women are to-day almost wholly m charge of the education ofour children, whether at home or in.tlfe school. It is only the "higher educa-' tion" that calls for teaching by- men. In all ages, only the fittest survived and they are best fitted who are fitted by education. Natural handicaps are largely overcome by proper knowledge and practice of h3 r giene, and dangers can be guarded against by a knowledge of them and how to avoid them. LEARN 'ALERTNESS. The child bred m the heart of the city early learns alertness, on pavement and on sidewalk, for upon his quickness his soundness of limb and his very life depend. There :.are few districts m America to-day so remote as not to be r/ached by the automobile — and few highways that are not traversed at speed by automobiles. The country child has been taught to be on the watch for those couriers of the road that come so swiftly .and so silently; and it is saf.^ to predict that ingrained knqwlodgo will, m another ten years, be playing its most important part m the lessening of highway accident. Instinctive knowledge, that comas from long continued and practiced acceptance of teaching, will make those who are the children of to-day; still learning the lessons of public, safety, the well instructed men and women of to-morrow, awheel and afoot.