EDUCATION OF GIRLS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 298, 10 September 1920, Page 10

EDUCATION OF GIRLS

TRAINING IN HOME DUTIES

WHAT THE STATE SHOULD DO

Speaking at the Technical Education Conferonco yesterday, Mrs. F. E. Baume (Auckland) urged that steps should bo taken for the better'education of girls, particularly with a view to tho improvement of home life nnd household -work.

Mrs. Baume said that the problem, of the education of girls was the most difficult problem they had at the present time. A little was done to train girls commercially as wage-earneis, but nothins for tho great profession of homeninking. The homo was the real business lifo of every true woman. Statistics had been given to show that in the Dominion out of 8000 girls attending school only 800 went on to secondary schools. So there were over 7000 girls unprovided for. For financial reasons connected with the cost of livjntr._ ninny I jfirls had perforce to go into "blind al-1 ley" occupations, as serious a matter for girls as for. boys, though it might bo said that most of the girls eventually married. It was estimated that from 80 to B5 per cent, of the girls married, but this did not alttjr the fact that tho problem was acute in the period between leaving school and marriage. There wero two sides to tho problem—vocational training for wage-earning and vocational training for home-making. The girl must be trained for a trade if she was going into industrial life, so that «ho might be a skilled nnd not an unskilled worker. But she must have other training. Tho art, of home-making was not the nrt of cooking. Cooking was nothing—mother could teach that—it was really the fundamental science of lipnie management that should be taught. A girl must be trained how to meet tho increased cost of living; ehe must know how to keep house economically; she must understand the chemistry of fond, how to provide children with adequate nourishment, so that they might be physically fit and become good, sound citizens. The time was due when _ tho State should undertake the training of the girl for the management of tho home. They should train the girl to become a home assistant or a domestic worker. The State should ewVivmir to ranks the parent realise the dignity of home assistance as a calling. It should be looked on as nnite as dignified and responsible iis the profession of nurse. The speaker said she would like to see the State establish a training college for domestic workers nnd home assistants, ana endeavour to raise the occupation to nio status of a profession, nnd eliminate the notion of domestic servant—she did not like to use that word. It should lie placed on a business footing, the hours of work should be fixed, and the I whole thing should be organised. it was the freedom of the shop, the office, and the factorv that drew the Rirlß there, and every mistress and. every mother ought to be educated to realise that in the treatment of the f»lrl' in the home. Tt was wrong that' the task of helping the overburdened mother should be left to private enterprise, to the Women's National Tieservo and other bodies, however good their work. Public men talked about the decline of the birthrate. but until they helped, the overtaxed women of the Dominion, they were not goinsr to ftltpr things. Help m the home was the crying need of tho clay, and rhev could never get it until they rami the status of the workers in the home to that of an honourable vocation. Domestic work must lie organised on a proper business footing, with proper hours. Child welfare should lie the main object of the education of the Dominion. and it must go back to the homo with Mie physical welfare of the mother. Women must have a sny in the administration of the schools. • Mr W, S. La Trobe. Director of Technicnl' Education, said he was entirely in sympntln- with'the proposal. Some special provision should be made for ensuring Mint at the least one member of lie board should be a woman. ; At the same time he could not promise that it would' be done, not being able to commit: tho Minister. . After further discussion, the conler. euce derided, on the motion of Mr. L. R: Partridge: "That, in the larger centres the technical school board ot mn.nnger~ should consist of not more than fifteen members, elected as far as possible on the following basis: three members representing education boards, three local bodies, three, parents of day school pupils, one of whom, at least must be a woman; three representing the employers, three employees.'