IS SEWING EDUCATION.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 3, Issue 149, 9 October 1895, Page 4

IS SEWING EDUCATION.

Tl:e question of Bewing ia the public schools in England is a topic of considerable interest among women interested in educational matters. Sewing is obligatory amorjg the girls to the extent of three hours weekly, and, further than this, school inspectors are instructed to take a lower standard of arithmetic from girls on account of time spent in sewing. It is claimed by those seeking a discontinuance of the teaching of sewing that the training in the exact science would be of much more benefit to the girls than skill with the needle. A speaker on the subject recently pointed out that American teducationalists distinctly recognis that sewing is not educational and do not usually teach it. In the case of ihose who will work for a living, and t is from this class that English board schools are largely recruited, it is shown that they are obliged to unlearn what tbey have learned at school when they go into shops, as machine sewing is needed there. It is to be presumed that women are going to learn sewing less and less as the years go on. Many women now do not take a needle into their hands from January to December. Some do this on principle, that those who sew for a living may bo provided with work, and others because their time is fully occupied with work that cannot be done for them, their sewing can. It is Mrs Saogstor the most fominine of American women, who sees no more reason why a girl should learn to s;w than a boy. A boy should know how to sew on buttons quite as much, as a girl, she thinks, and any dexterity in the uae of the needle is as necessary to one as the other. "If a girl likes to sew, why very well," is Mrs Sangster's opinion, "but if she dislikes to use a neadle, as many do, I see no reason why, when garments are to be purchased so reasonably, ohe should not buy them and not worry over making them."