OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 15, 12 October 1918, Page 5

OUR BABIES

I'Br Htghu.t Piyi«hod under the auspices of tho goyat New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." THE BRINGING. UP OF.GIIILB. A fow weeks ago wo published an articio on tho bringing up of girls. It is a subject of perennial interest, and I am ,suro that tho following remarks by a correspondent, who has written on tho matter many times, will bo road with appreciation by those who have tho future of oar great race at heart. : \ CORRESPONDENT'S LETTER. Only after my last'letter was posted did I, remember a newspaper cutting I had kept a fow months ago, because it bore so directly on tho question of the bringing up of girls. I. bo often turn over in my mind the problems conncotod with this question—how the naturally domestio girls don't marry and have to cam their living in uncongenial ways, and how the least suitable ones seem to be so often picked out for matrimony, with nothing but an arid office-life bohind them. There is so much to be said on this Bubjcct that it is hard to condense it sufficiently. I cannot resist putting my thoughts on paper, and I am enclosing the cutting with Lloyd Georgo's excellent remarks in' the hope that you may be able to use it. I feel very strongly on tho subject of girls taking up men's work and leaving the women's work of the world undone; and it always strikes mo as curious that thoso women who aro the loudest in asserting woman's equality with man; if not her superiority over him, aro at tho same time tho most actively ongaged in trying to livo as liko men as possible!. If that is not a tacit admission that,after all.'they themselves think men superior I should liko to know what is. Whereas ono wishes they would • realise that neither sex is superior to the other, but that they aro utterly different from one another and equally neeesßary in the world, if only they keep within their natural sphere as far as' possible—and after all woman's sphere is pretty wido. I feel Bur.e that the war will havo burnt' away a, great deal of tho clap-trap that was so prevalent just before it, if only the feminist (so-called) seotion has been sufficiently reached by it.

LLOYD GEORGE'S REMARKS. Mr. Lloyd George in a letter to "Tho Times" appeals to parents to devote moro attention to tho teaching of domestio science. '.'Among the many br»nchcs of educational work, nono has deserved bettor of the public at large than that of domestio soionce. It is helping in this time of crisis in every conceivable way, arid has penetrated into every Btratum of society. On tho women of this country, no less than on the men. is laid'the necessity of fighting enemios of stern stuff—in tho case of women, want and hunger for themselves, and their children, unleßs scientific knowledgo is brought to- bear on tho question. . The' various food campaigns organised all over the country, havo dono muoh. to open tho eyes of the people to shortago of food and the national defect of ignorance in cooking; but the trained people who aro wantod to present the truth in a convincing and incontrovertible way are comparatively few in, number, and many have been lent by education authorities to other departments requiring help' in practical food questions. I would ask parents who are woighing the future of their daughters to consider whether they could not usefully be trained for such work. Work in offices and banks, labour of all sorts (most of it of a transitory,nature) aro deflecting into •blind alley occupations the girls 'on whom tho educational future of the chlldron depend. There is no one to sound tho alarm. The terrible mortality of infants and children duo to improper feeding iH a' scandal to our civilisation, and could bo minimiecd if knowledgo of this important branch .of education were more widespread "

THE INTETtEKTTXG OP SCHOOLGIRLS IN H.OME LIFE AND. HYGIENE. Tho following eitraot from tho 1916 annual report of tho Dunedin branch, of the society bears on this important subject. The Dunedin branch had tried to bring about some instruction on infant care and hygieno for the older girls in the primary schools. The education authorities, while expressing sympathy, said that the syllabus was alroady so full that there waß no time for .'such instruction. . So in tho meantime tho matter had to be shelved. But wo cannot bring ourselves to believe that in tho long run our girls will be denied what tho society could so easily provide, 'wherever thero happens to be a Plunkot nurse specially qualified ' for this particular work. We are 'strongly'impressed-with.tho fact that in a few years, the schoolgirjs of to-day will bo women; and wo feel very deeply that the attainment of capable, perfect womanhood and lovo of litflo children should bo included among the first aims of every girls' Bchool. ' Why should wo remain chained and fettered by what Ilerbert Spencer denounced ii« iin education system which Boomed to him to have' been founded only with a view to celibacy—a syßtcin in which he could dificern practically nothing that could bo of anr use in the caro of a home or in tho rearing of a family? Surely tho present crisis iB a specially opportune for waking up to what has been receiving such serious attention af late years among tho French and 'other Continental peoples; there imißt bo somo means of escape from the thraldom of modern educational exactions —especially where. aB in Dunedin. wo find the very Education Board of tho samo way of thinking as oursolvcn. It is interesting to record tho} e. local schoolmaster, who was hlmßelf deeply imbued with the feeling that girls ought not to lcavo sohool ignorant of. the simple practical requirements i for the health of womon and children, assured us that in justice to his school it would be many months before he could possibly sparo v a single hour for the Plunltct nurse to bring a baby to the school and havo a talk with his pupils. This master was in hearty sympathy with the society and its work, and would have welcomed tho visits of tho nurse had there been any time available; yet ho wns reluctantly obliged to declino 'until the educational authorities had ina'do suitable provision.