AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 60, 12 March 1926, Page 15

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WXEKLY BUDGET.

(By CONSTANCE CLYDE.)

CO-EDUCATION—IS IT DESIRABLE?

Co-education is scarcely a burning subject in New Zealand, but perhaps it is as well that -we should, know what it j really means. The "Women's Leader" allows one writer, through its columns, to counteract certain mistaken impressions that there are concerning this ideal. She points out that it takes two forms, one which is co-instruction only, and the other which is the true co-education. "In the former the boys and girls have lessons, and are lectured to in the same room by the same instructor, man or woman, but are separated for meals and all unorganised recreation. In the latter, boys and girls live together naturally for meals, lessons, lectures, walks, j handicrafts; and no distinction (on sex] lines) exists between prefects in their jurisdiction over boys and girls. The writer thinks the lacter the best for > adoption, but has no good word what-'j ever to say for the" "separate" school. I "It is because a perfectly normal, healthy \ stimulus is either lacking or else j supplied in & twisted form that the |. 'separate' school goes wrong. In the j lower type of boy or girl this results in depravity; in the far more common! decent one, in suppression and starva-1 tion of one part of their nature. The! latter results, when they grow up, is unnecessary shyness, in antagonism, or in misguided love affairs, or in the unhappy choice of a marriage partner." YOUTH—ITS CHANGING SENTIMENTS. The same writer describee the changing sentiments of young people according to! age, in a manner that may be helpful. to some parents and teachers. "The I youngster of about twelve usually j possesses a whole-hearted scorn of, and distaste for, the other sex; boys are' always together for choice, and so are' girls; they are in rival camps, and are . sometimes rather unfriendly to one another in a mild way. At about 13 or 14 they begin to see excellent points in : one another, and are friendly and free and easy, with much, teasing, but absolutely no sentimentality. From about 15 or 16 they are very conscious of one another; there is much partiality for special pals, and some shyness and some chivalrousness on each side. At about 18 they have almost passed through this awkward, sometimes embarrassing stage, to delightful comradeship —not in two and fours (the previous stage), but in big groups; and a most delightful, -wholesome and sympathetic spirit prevails among the beads of the schools; both boys and girls are ready to go out into a world where the sexes must mingle in business, in professions, or in social life. Such a preparation for life i 3 truly valuable." Such is co-educa-tion as its upholders see it, but some of us perhaps still agree with that parent who said that "he would like it for his eon, but not for his daughter." UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN ENGLAND. Our own New Zealand Univereity women are drawing closer together both nationally and internationally, and are certainly taking a great interest in public affairs. Our women, however, have had no need to voice the protest made recently by their sisters in London, who pointed out recently the absurdity of refusing the vote to graduate women until they were thirty years of ago. At a meeting of the London women gradu-1 ates in January, a resolution was moved: "That the Senate be asked to j call the attention of His Majesty's Gov- j ernment to the anomaly whereby in ' this Univereity Constituency, graduates! who are women are debarred from exercising the franchise until the age of thirty." Naturally, the fact that women of superior ability are refused this elementary right is more striking to the imagination than the refusal to women in general. London University i women have done much in training their sex for social service, and also much to eliminate the old-fashioned idea that no particular training was neceeeary. In Nelson Square, London, they have , long had a Women's Settlement for this j purpose, Miss Helen Gladstone having i been formerly one of those who directed its activities. Many University women, j again, during the preceding year, have : gained honours not connected with their i profession. Among them is one lady j doctor who was made a J.P., two elected to serve on the L.C.C. Board, while Dr. J Ethel Bentiham, J.P., was appointed to! the Metropolitan Asylums Board. The \ value of university training in practical life ie perceived in other ways; thus a conference was held lately, in England, in which the social study departments! of the Universities were to be asked to j co-operate with the Central A6ebciaJ;ion' of Mental Welfare to discuss a systema- : tic scheme of training in the sense I already mentioned. WHERE FRANCE LEADS. It cannot be denied that the French are slow in enfranchising women in j general, and there is no modern country so backward as this in the way in which, theoretically, it Telesate-s our'sex to the children and idiot class. Equally, however, there can be no doubt that it i grants extraordinary privileges to exceptional women, dating from the period; when it was the first to admit women j to the law, and also when it gave Rosa j Bonheur, the painter, at a most con- j ventional period, the right to appear in ] masculine attire. Something of this I breadth of mind is shown, may be, t>v the ' recent honours it has given to a woman j Madame Marrant, aged 75, who has re-' ceived a medal for war services. Ofi this Madame Marrant it is stated that! she began pipe smoking as a girl and j has worn men's clothes always. She I has also, all her life, done manual labour pertaining to the other sex, having worked as coal porter and dustman, in I comparison with which, her other toil | as dock labourer and gardener eeem i almost feminine. I