The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1912. CO-EDUCATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1500, 24 July 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1912. CO-EDUCATION.

In reviewing the, evidence which was given by various witnesses b?fore the lloyal Commission appointed b,y the Mackenzie Government to inquire into various aspects of primary, secondary, and technical education in New Zealand, we notice a, frequent reference to the principle of "co-education." Dictated, no doubt, by reasons of economy in administration, in an earlier period of the country's development, sanctioned partly by custom and partly iiy official opinion, the primary schools of the Dominion, with a few excepare built and staffed on tho principle that there is no need for the separation of the sexes. Hence the "mixed school," which evoked expressions of opinion from several witnesses of wide experience in teaching. In the secondary school of our national education, it seems to be generally recognised that the separation of the sexes is desirabb, but, speaking generally, this recognition is only extended to what may be termed the "grammar school section" of the secondary stage of our education. The principle of co-cdu cation seems to find favour in the technical schools, but the preference, we should imagine, is largely dictated by the necessity for economy in administration. The question is an important one, although the Inspec-tor-Gcncral of Schools (Mil. G. Hogbe.v) does not seem to think so., if we may define his attitude from stra,, remarks uttered during the sittings of the Commission. Among teachers, however, there seems to oo quite a large body of opinion in favour of separate schools or departments, and , tailing a line through the testimony

of these, the opinion seems to lie that while it is a better thing for the boys that they should lie associated with girls in the same school, it would, educationally, be a better thing for the girls if they were not. i'he most that seems to have been said in favour of "co-cducation" in our primary schools is that the presence of the girls exercises a refining influence over the boys; that a healthy rivalry is promoted in the and that economy in idministration is effected. We do not think that there is much in anv of these arguments on a question affecting the education of girls as girl.-,. Miss Heia'eh, headmistress of the Mount Cook Girls' School—the Mount Cook department schools ire the only "separate" schools in the Wellington education district—is a stVong dissentient from the principle of "co-education," and in the course of her evidence before the Education Commission said that one of the .advantages of a girls' department, staffed by _ women teachers—we should think it the chief advantage— wa3 that the teachers were free to work towards certain ideals in the training of girls. In a recent lecture at the Lower Hutt, Dk. Thuby King remarked that had women originated a system of education specially adapted to their own natures, needs, and tastes,'and special aptitudes, it could scarcely be conceived that men would have consented to the same scheme enforced on boys, and he felt that the time had come when something should be arrived at in the way of education more suited to the highest interests of women. Miss M'Lean, Principal of the Wellington Girls' College, gave it as ler opinion, when before the Education Commission, that "co-education"' cease at tho age of ten, and for children over that age separate departments should be provided for the sexes. Some people make th: mistake of supposing that this question of co-education is solely one of morality, to be settled in the interests of the morals' of the community. This is not so. Of course, anv question concerned with the education of the young must be considered in its relationship to morality as I .well as to other _ things, but our chief anxiety in this particular case should be to decide whether tho application of the principle of_ co-ordination in primary education is, educationally, in the best interests of girls, as pirh, involving as _it does a course of Instruction 'which gives greater regard to the efficiency of boys, as boys. A general survey of the position leads us to the conclusion that it is not. It may be going too far to say thjit co-education is responsible for :he estrangement of women from the domestic_ side of their natures, and th 3 direction of their interests to pursuits which bring them, into professional competition with men, but jur system of "ducation, which, in effect, takes no account of sex, certainly points that way, and we hope that the Education Commission, when it presents its report, will show that it has carefully considered this matter.