PUPILS COMPARED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 241, 25 July 1935, Page 10

PUPILS COMPARED

UNITED STATES AND NEW ZEALAND. COSMETICS AND COMPLEXIONS. (Special to the “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, July 23. Some engaging observations on school pupils of Wellington, and a frank comparison with scholars of the United States, were made by two American school teachers, who, after a characteristic hustle round the schools of the capital city, went on in the Makura for Sydney to-day. They were Miss M. N. of Newark, New Jersey, and Miss E. M. Waterman, of South Pasadena, California. Both are high school teachers. “I was deeply impressed with the ruggedness and glowing health of rypur schoolgirls,” said Miss O’Gonnor. “The complexions of your girls are just wonderful. Age for age your girls are very much better developed mentally. They seem alert and bright.” As for the' boys, she continued, they gave the impression, of being lean and wiry, and perhaps smaller in. stature than the average American of a similar age. This might be due, however, to the very strenuous sport in which she understood all New Zealand boys took part as soon as they had learned to run. If Wellington’s school children were typical of the rest of the Dominion’s, then she would say .that our' young people took life more seriously than high school scholars of the United States. “This is probably true of the eastern states,” interposed Miss Waterman. “But I think that the children of California do take their studies seriously, especially since the depression.” “Yes, I think ours, too, are getting hack to the idea of working in reeent years,” agreed her friend in modification. “Nature’s Beauty.” Returning to complexions, Miss O’Connor was emphatic that our school 'girls were better looking than those of her own country. She denied that she was being diplomatic. “Your girls have Nature’s beauty. Ours are all made up with cosmetics; yours don’t seem to use them. While at school, our girls look theatrical. They are all done up with red lipstick and rouge. The only way to tell if an American schoolgirl really has a complexion is to see her after her morning bath.” “That is not altogether true of California,” Miss Waterman protested. Miss O’Connor ivent into details. “American girls from 12 years upward,” she said, “tweeze their eyebrows, pencil their faces so as to alter their expressions, and tint their fingernails. They copy film stars, whose every foible they like to adopt.” Miss Waterman admitted that the proximity of her high school to Hollywood did not diminish the difficulties of the dean to stamp out the cosmetic hjibit. Her strongest ally was the depression, which tended to reduce expenditure by gills on cosmetics,! Before the slump it was hard to ' make American scholars get down to serious study. They used to have their own automobiles standing in the college precincts and spent a lot of money on dress. “And,” said this teacher, “that brings me to the uniform which I saw at your colleges. How nice your boys and girls look in their uniforms. In most of our high schools the young people wear ordinary dress, and the children of less well-to-do parents suffer by comparison with the richer ones,”

Benefits Seen in Depression. “The depression has cured, most of that,” said Miss Waterman. “The depression has done good to the American school child.” “Don’t tell him that,” counselled her companion. “They will give us the rest of the English debts to pay.’ Miss O’Connor teaches economics and sociology. Asked what the ordinary citizen of the United States thought of New Zealand, if he had. ever heard of it, Miss O’Connor replied that more was known of the Dominion in the last year or two than we might suppose. Communists weie telling the American public that New Zealand had a very good constitution, and was quite socialistic in its legislation. Miss O'Connor mentioned that she had' been informed that there had been a time in New Zealand’s political history when social legislation was a model for the world. “But,” she added, “since I have been here I am told that lately it has not been so good. Is that so?” She was assured that it was all a matter of opinion.