GIRLS AND EDUCATION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1957, 14 January 1914, Page 6

GIRLS AND EDUCATION.

■'. The education, of the modern girl has been the subject of much adverse criticism during recent years. It seems to be generally admitted that there is something radically wrong with the kind of instruction whicn girls receive,at school and college, But there is much difference of opinion as to what ought to be done to remedy _ existing defects... Destructive criticism is always'a simpler matter than the work of reconstruction. In a cablegram which we publish in another column it is stated that in a speech at the National Conference for liace Betterment which is at present being held in the United States, Dn. Deesei, declared that girls were being turned out of the colleges nervous wrecks and unfitted "to achieve'cither, livelihood or motherhood." He suggests that there should be an endowed. Chair of Health in every college in the United States, and that special instruction should be given in such subjects as diet and exercise. This would probably help to improve matters, but it is not only the college girl who requires a more thorough preparation for tha duties of domestic life. The great majority of girls have no opportunity of going to college, and they must be taught home science in the primary schools if they are .to ,be .taught, it at p alL Something has already been attempted in New Zealand and other conntries to.' meet this need, but much more will have to ba done before it can be claimed that the education of girls has been placed on a rational and common-sense basis. Both in Britain and America many critics contend that the college- girl is, generally speaking, neither a success in business nor fitted for domestic, life, and the whole question is receiving a good deal of attention, In an article in the Nineteenth Century, W. L. Courtney espressos the •opinion that the- university girl -is trained for college rather than trained for life. Looking back over her 'own experience, nothing strikes her more forcibly than the fact that almost all the ablest women she has known have been homo educated. They had often taken a university course, but they did not go to it from the big secondary schools. She advises educated girls to seek careers in the- public service. There arc, she says, the well-paid'and interesting inspectorships of factories and workshops, elementary schools, boardetlout children, and similar posts. But for these a woman would not be chosen until she was towards thirty, and she would certainly need to have served, an apprenticeship in some cognate field of labour. She cannot step into them straight from the university. Mns. Courtney urges educated girls to enter business life for & spell and make the most of their special gjtti, and they will meanwhile be fitting themselves for public positions. In view f o_f the great changes that are taking place in t'he position of women in the world, far-reaching reforms in our education methods are urgently required. The main object, of course, should be to fit girls for the. responsibilities of motherhood •and homo management, but it would be a , great mistake to ignore the fact that a very considerable number of women have to go out into the world j and. earn their own living, It is.'l moreover, essential that all girls should receive a sound general education, both for their own sake and for the Bake of the community as a whole.;: ".:. ■ -H