EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13334, 28 January 1909, Page 6

EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

We do not think that the motion proposed by tho Rev. A. Cameron at yesterday's session of tho University Senate, in connection with tho education of girls, would have had quite the effect he desired. To givo fifteen additional Senior National Scholarships for girls only, the existing scholarships to bo restricted to boys, would not, in our opinion, have lessened tho strain upon tho pupils in girls' secondary schools, but, by increasing tho chances of reward, would have increased the number of competitors and thus have widened tho undoubted evil of which Mr Cameron spoke. Tho only way in which such a course would achieve the object ho had at heart would bo by allotting a proportion of scholarships to girls and lowering the standard of the examination set for these. But if this were done, there would, to bo consistent, have to be different university examinations for the sexes, and. n. different value would then attach to tho degrees obtained, respectively by young women and young men. The wholo matter rests upon the question whether boys and girls, are equally fitted by Nature to undergo the same strain in edncationi, with which must be considered tho question whether, unless in exceptional cases, the educational aim of both sexes should be the same. Professor F. D. Brown expressed tho opinion of majiy. people jvhen he said that educational equality between boys and girls is a mistake. It is not that girls are mentally inferior to boys—they have proved beyond doubt that in intellect, and application they aro tho equal of the other sex. But in proving that equality they often pay a far heavier price than is demanded from any boy. Every doctor must have had experience of oases in which the health, and whole future life of young women havo been -wrecked by the pressure of education exerted at an age wttien it was vitally important tohajt health should be tho first considers tion. Tne average boy or young man, if a student, can generally be trusted not to kill himself in preparing for examinations; the pambitious, pintelr lectuaJ girl often goes perilously near to it by submitting 'herself to mental overstrain which te-aots disastrously upon her constitution. Nothing defini.to resulted from the discussion by tihe Senate, but it is well that pubEc attention has once more been called to a ma.tter that affects very seriously the future we_l-ibeing of Now Zealand. We are glad to have Mr Hogben's recognition, of tihe fact that thero should be differentiation in the education of boys and girls. Wo would not withhold from women ono iota of the opportunities and benefits of education that they de- | sire, bat .©uoational authorities undertake a. heavier responsibility than tihey have always appeared to realise when they force tiho two sexes to undergo tlie I same strain in education. The weaker sex—and the phrase is used in no spirit of contempt—may sustain for a time -tho tax .ipon health, but it is too often at the subsequent .expense of an enfeebled constitution.