SEX EDUCATION.

Shannon News, 9 April 1926, Page 4

SEX EDUCATION.

AMERICAN VIEWS. METHOD OF DETERMINING VOCATION. (Received Wednesday 1 p.m) LONDON, April 7 Mr Stanton Sharman, the educationalist and winner of the Victoria Government's travelling scholarship, has completed his investigations in America on the subject of education. He says America and England take entirely opposite views of sex education. America, regards it as a subject tlie schools -must teach, whereas England does'not touch it. chiefly for tlie reason that English homes and the Church still, powerfully influence children. These influences are apparently losing ground in America, with the result that the schools feel they are responsible for teaching it. Mr Sharman expresses the opinion that in the hands of the right type of teachers, little harm is likely to result, but it is not what is taught, but the tone of the school which counts. In commenting on the efforts of Dr. Cyril Burt, psychologist to the .London County Council's Education Department, to devise a method of finding the vocation for which the pupil is best suited, Mr Sharman says final judgment must still rest with the parent. Regarding the Dalton method of individual time-tables, the object of which is that the quicker pupils'shall not be held back by the slower, 3V'r Sharman thinks there is better promise in the Howard plan of combining teaching with the idea of individual effect. He regretted that Victoria's lack of sympathy with the training of teachers at the University and High Schools prevented that State from retaining vits lead over other Universities. He found this branch of work making headway in America, England and Scotland. •