School books sexist, dated—Canadian lecturer

Press, 14 February 1986, Page 5

School books sexist, dated—Canadian lecturer

Priscilla Galloway’s book, “What’s Wrong With High School English?” caused a stir when it was published in Canada five years ago. The second part of the title gives an indication why. “It’s Sexist, Un-Cana-dian, Outdated.” Dr Galloway, a language consultant with the North York School Board in Toronto, wrote the book using figures collected for her doctorate study. She found that most of the literature in the school programme was written by non-Canadian men before 1960. The figures, she says, speak for themselves. 89 per cent of the literature was written by men, and 14 per cent was written by Canadians; 77 per cent feature a male as the main character, 85 per cent was written before 1960, and 3 per cent was written after 1970.

“What that means is if the women's move-

ment has had any influence on writing — and I believe it probably has — it' is not reflected in the writing chosen for young people to study,” Dr Galloway said. She had made no similar study of New Zealand’s choice of high school texts while she was an exchange lecturer at Christchurch Teachers’ College, “but it would be interesting.” “I have noticed that books in schools here are not new, not recent publications. They are obviously much loved and looked after, but not new,” she said. “But with the price of new books in New Zealand, I can see why books are used and reused.” Dr Galloway tried to strike the balance missing in Canadian school literature in her own anthology of writing, written for use in schools. The book contains writing which is “half Canadian, half not, half by men, half by women, mainly recant.

but with some earlier writings.” Dr Galloway said that recent Canadian writings were available for adolescents but were not chosen for the school programmes. She has written three books for young children dealing with family relationships. The first is about the child of a solo mother, the second about a fantasy role reversal between a girl and her mother, and the third about a child with a natural father and a stepfather. She has plans for another book about the loss of a toy, an experience similar for children to losing someone through death. Dr Galloway has been in New Zealand since September, and will remain until August She has long wanted to visit Christchurch, the home town of her mother. She has exchanged positions with Pam Woolf, a college lecturer, for a year.