If You Ask Me
by Eleanor Roosevelt

I am afraid that Miss Hurst has exaggerated slightly. I did, and still do, exercises every morning, but I did not know they were called yoga exercises. Certainly not for a long time have I attempted to stand on my head, though there was a time in my life when I could accomplish this feat!

I would oppose it.

I am very happy that sixty-one million dollars is going to be spent on the teaching of foreign languages. The teacher shortage itself should be taken care of, I feel, by a much better reorganization of our whole school program, with more emphasis on well-paid and well-respected teachers and possibly less emphasis on the magnificence of school buildings.

There is no reason that you should not be curious. My rent was raised $150 a month and I did not think the apartment was worth it. I am temporarily in the Park Sheraton Hotel, where I stayed once before, and I hope that in a short time I will find a permanent place to live.

I have found that very few people who say they are atheists really are, in the last analysis. I doubt very much, however, that I ever will have to make a decision about voting for an atheist; and I will wait until I come to that bridge before making a decision!

I have not the remotest idea. What we ourselves believe in this matter is not important; but I suppose the greatest contribution any woman makes is her children.

I think you are mistaken. I can remember in my husband's administration an F.E.P.C. law which was passed requiring fair-employment practices for people of all races. Also, under President Truman a commission was appointed to look into the whole situation of equality, and it made valuable recommendations for improving the conditions of minority groups. The matter of school segregation had not, of course, at that point reached the stage where the Supreme Court had been asked to hand down a decision.

I think my boys in their last two years of boarding school had dates over the holidays. My daughter Anna was allowed to make dates from sixteen years on, but I believe that her dates were rather more carefully supervised than are those made by sixteen-year-old girls today.