SEX OF TEACHERS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 194, 30 May 1934, Page 3

SEX OF TEACHERS

MEN FOR BOYS OVER EIGHT.

HEADMASTER’S OPINION.

'(Special to the “ Guardian.”) AUCKLAND, May 29

“To say that men and women are interchangeable in our teaching service, or tiiat we can do without either is to talk nonsense. Women can no more do the weak among hoys than men can do the work among girls or infants,” said Air G. K. Hamilton (president of the Auckland branch of tiie Educational Institute, and headmaster of the Auckland Normal School). “Just the other day,” he added, “some space was given in the New Zealand papers to the presidential address given to the National Association of Schoolmasters, London, by Mr H. Gordon, who claims that all boys above the infant stage should be taught by tneu. On the other side, Miss E. Andrews (president of the New Zealand Women Teachers’ Association) denies emphatically that there are certain wonderful masculine virtues which can be planted in the hearts of boys ay male teachers.” This statement, of course, contains an exaggeration which might easily side-track the whole issue. “As a parent and a schoolmaster of over 30 years’ experience, I hold the view that men must play an important part in the education of the fioy—even a greater part than is being played by them in many of our New Zealand schools to-day. Although men teachers teach infants in sole teacher schools, and do the woi’k admirably, no one would seriously suggest that in our infant departments, men can -take the place of women. It is the considered opinion of many of our leading teachers that, in all mixed schools where there is more than one teacher, there must be on the staff a 'sufficient number of men and women to ensure that the boys .above the infant stage come under the preponderating influence of men, and the girls unclei the influence of women. “From babyhood the sex division becomes more marked every year,, both in the boy and in the girl, and by the eight year hoys need quite different handling from girls. It is readily conceded that this is so during adolescence, but it must be pointed out that the great change then becoming evident is not a sudden one. In his book, ‘The New Psychology and the Parent,’ Dr. Crighton-Millcr emphasises the vital importance of the stages of boyish development. He makes a division as follows :—O-8, first feminine phase (mother period) ; 8-12, first masculine phase (father period) ; 12-18, second masculine phase (school period); 18 onward, second feminine phase‘(mating period). “Dr Meyriek Booth, while commenting on this plan, remarks that any marked variation from this order will be dangerous to normal development, and he goes on to say that at about the age of eight the impingement of definitely masculine _ psychic forces upon the growing mind is essential to the liberation of the latent male faculties. - , “In no countries of the world do women play such a. predominating pait in education as in England since the war, and in the United States. In 1931, #4 per cent, of the teachers in the elementary schools of England were women. In New York £tate only 61- per cent, are men. The ‘Sunday Express’ of April 17, 1932, said, ‘The American “school-marm” has enfeebled the American. He is a tame victim of had laws. He lias no lack against graft and corruption Miss Charlotte Cowdroy, headmistress ot the Church End High School for Girls, traces the large amount of crime by the male population of these countries not to unemployment, hut to the lack of masculine influence in the schools. Whether this is the true solution to the problem or not is difficult to say; but it is common knowledge that the system of leaving the education ol boys in the hands of women is arousing very hostile criticism.