VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR GIRLS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21966, 15 December 1936, Page 15

VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR GIRLS

I 1 ! J Correspondents who do not comply with our rules set out in the last column of our Leader Page will excuse us from noticing their letters. Rock Garden.—Your letter is libellous. Watford street.—Your letter is being referred to the Chief Postmaster.

TO TSI iniTOB or TKI PBISS. Sir, —In regard to vocational training and employment of girls, I should like to make just a few observations that are the result of personal experiences as a mother and also as a teacher. Speaking generally, a mother aims to cherish the natural good health of her child, to maintain his mental stability, and to develop good qualities from babyhood. How often does a mother engage for her young children a ‘girl who teases them, spoils them, feeds them - on sweets, and tells them lies, to mention only a few things that make a self-respecting mother groan. A little practical training in the care of healthy babies would not be wasted on any girl. If it were thoroughly carried out in conjunction with the Education and Health Departments we should have happier babies, healthier mothers, better future mothers, and a firm base for a more or less top-heavy education system. What relief it would be to a sick mother to know that her children were literally in good hands! Of course we know that mothers who need help most are chiefly those who can afford it least. The more children she has to care for, the less room she has and the less money to provide good wages. We consequently find that some mothers are with their children and their work for years, while girls in large numbers are doing work that could be done by young men. With girls trained for putside jobs with strong inducements in the form of high wages, good working conditions, and short hours, the mother is left entirely out of it. This is certainly one reason for the severity of birth control, which may yet cost us our country.—Yours, etc., CONCERNED. Hokitika, December 12, 1936.