THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

White Ribbon, Volume 22, Issue 258, 18 December 1916, Page 1

THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

(Kxtracts from a Paper read at the Secondary Schools Conference, Wellington, by Miss Nancy Jobson, M.A.) (Concluded.) The scientific inheritance is evidently the first upon which the child can enter, because she immediately comes into contact with the scientific facts in the world around her. Therefore the scientific is the first form her education most readily takes, but therewith should go some part of the aesthetic inheritance which so many fail to receive. In childhood at least the child learns science from the wservation of Nature, and therein lies beauty. Surely the marvel and the glory of the universe, the wonder of the heavens, the lovelin ss and the perfection of a flower, the splendour of a sunset, the unfolding of green leaves in Spring, the >ound of many waters, the music of the wind in the trees are all parts of her aesthetic as well as of her scientific inheritance. Let us keep about the girl the heaven w hich lies about her in her infancy; let us prevent the shades of the prison house from too soon closing in upon her; let us teach her from her earliest days to see the beauty of Nature around her, so that in the years to come she may, like Antaeus of old, find new strength and unfailing refreshment in her contact with Mother Earth. Therewith she will find some of her moral and religious inheritance, for the hand of God will be in everything, and some part of her literary and artistic inheritance

will also come to her: in the nature myths of Greece; in poetry, story and legend; in the reproduction of the statues of the Greeks; in good pictures drawn from various sources—and thus simply these elements are interwoven, and thus begins the hild’s education. As the child advances, the various branches of Science are to be gradually taken up. Of these, Botany, Astronomy (studied, of course, with a telescope), Physiology, and Geology are more adapted to girls’ requirements than Physics and Chemistry, save Household Chemistry, but some know ledge of all is desirable. The work in all these subjects must be as j ractical as possible, and not encumbered with too many technical terms or other stumbling blocks. Home Science should be part of the work of every Secondary School, and should be taken by the majority of the pupils, though Commercial and other Technical Courses may be rclegatec. to the Technical Colleges.Though the Domestic Course should not be begun till the third year, First Aid and Health lessons should be given in both Primary and Secondary S< hools. These should consist first of all of simple instruction in the primary laws of health, especially those engendering love of fresh air and personal cleanliness, with the hatred of dirt in any shape or form. Ir the Secondary School these Health lessons should be specially adapted to the requirements of the adolescent gfl, and should not be given by any m-mber of the school staff, but by some wise and capable mother or

woman doctor who well understands girlhood nature and girlhood needs. W ith the Domestic Course should be continued at least English and History, and to the ordinary branches of Domestic instruction should be added training in the care of children and in home furnishing, with special attention to choice and harmony of colours. Emphasis should be laid upon thrift and the principles of true economy—upon everything, indeed, that will make the home beautiful and a joy for ever to its inmates —the best and the most attractive spot on earth. The chief part of the literary inheritance must certainly be English, and one of the chief aims of every teacher should be to instil into her pupils the love of good literature as of the highest in all the other arts. In the Primary School a satisfactory mastery of simple grammatical principles and technicalities of composition should be gained, together with some knowledge of English literature. In the higher forms of the Secondary Sc hools I would suggest the inclusion among our text-books of some of the excellent translations of Greek plays, both tragedy and comedy. This branch of literature would open up fresh avenues of thought and cultuie, and produce a less blurred mental picture of the wonderful civilisation and litet -y a< hievements of the Greeks, bringing home to us in these latter self-satisfied days the greatness of the debt we owe to that enlightened and cultured people whose language is now cast into the outer darkness, where none the less its beauty can never pass iafto nothingness,

In the development ot the aesthetic side of a chila’s nature Music and Singing play an important part, and must therefore be given a place in the regular work of every school. Singing in unison and in harmony and reading at sight must be thoroughly taught: the ear must be train ed and the taste cultivated to some appreciation at least of the highest in the wonderful world of sweet sounds. Closely allied with Singing is Elocution—by which must be understood the art of speaking, of producing and modulating the voice, an art which should be taught by an expert in every school. To speak English is not (as too many people seem to think) merely to utter it more or less grammatically in a careless, slovenly fashion, but to enunciate it clearly with varying and appropriate tone and expression. No school girl is too young to be trained to do this; on the contrary, the training should be begun at the beginning of her school life‘(such practises as that of shouting tables, etc., being banished for ever from the Primary Schools), and should be continued until satisfactory resuhs have been achieved. Particular attention must be paid to Reading. Intelligent and well-modulated reading is an eminently desirable and. indeed, essential accomplishment, adding greatly to the beauty and the appreciation of good literature. Instead of being, as it is at present, a very rare accomplishment among our g rls, it .should be the natural resu't of their training and education. As the chief part of the child’s institutional inheritance. History must take an important place in any system of liberal education. It should be taught to the very young in the form of interesting stories of heroes of tli nations of past and present days, but in some chronological order. Our own times should then be considered more particularly, and the past gradually unfolded with increasing detail. Certain dates must be learnt accurately, if only as footmarks in the halls of time, and it is most important that the child should receive a vivid impression of the social conditions and realities of every period. Lessons should be illustrated from contemporary literature by picture, song and story. In the Secondary Schools a general survey of Ancient History should be possible, though not necessarily with much detail. Translations

of ancient writers and historians should be read in part and referred to, and some knowledge of ancient art and craft should be received from pictures or photographs of relics of antiquity. At the same time English History should be continued with more research into historical by-ways, and with some attention to contemporary European History. Civics should be included and stress laid upon the meaning and the history of manhood and womanhood suffrage and upon the use of the vote. History should certainly be taught by specialists, and thereby become to the youngest girl the fascinating and educative study it should be.

We now pass to the last but by no means least important aspect of Edu cation —the Religious and Moral. Without this element no system can be complete, and if a girl be deprived of it she cannot hope to reac h the ideal of womanhood. All that can ennoble and uplift the moral nature of the child and enable her to stand upon a higher plane is hers by inheritance, and no man, polit cian or otherwise, has the right to deny it to her. Let all sectarian dogma be bap;shed from school teaching and let the illuminating and ennobling influence of the fundamental Bible truths and of the example of the Divine Man vitalise our whole educational system. 1 o hold up as examples to school children other great men of the past, yet to deny them the greatest and noblest of all, the only divine and ideal example, to bid then, study Literature, yet withhold the Books of Books, is simply ludicrously illogical and fatally foolish. The religious element must be given its proper place in Education. In conclusion, I would again urge that the aim and the ideal of the Education of girls shou'd always be the ennoblement of womanhood and the restoration of the home to its proper sphere of influence. Whither a girl is to be a doctor, a teacher, a typist, a factory worker, she must primarily be trained to become a pure and noble woman, possessed of a high sense of honour and justice, and a fine sense of courtesy and reverence, exercising the refining and purifying influence which lies in her power alone. In short, we must train our girls so lhat whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things

are lovely, whatsoever things are ol good report, if there be any virtue and any praise, they may think on these things.