The place of girls in N.Z. schools

Press, 12 October 1985, Page 20

The place of girls in N.Z. schools

It’s Different for Daughters. By Ruth Fry. New Zealand Council for Educational Research, 1985. 216 pp. $29.50 (hardback), $24 (paperback). (Reviewed by J. F. Mann) This history of the curriculum for girls in New Zealand schools between 1900 and 1975 was commissioned by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research to mark the end of the United Nations Decade for Women, an important milestone in our history. Very little has been written about curriculum development in New Zealand, and it was not until the Educational Development Conference in the seventies that there was any endeavour to produce an agreed statement of aims of education for this country. As with many other aspects of our life there has been very little discrimination in law, and a stated commitment to equality for all in education in New Zealand; but practice has often fallen well short of precept in many respects, and particularly in opportunities for rural and urban students, Maori and pakeha, and not least for girls as compared with boys. In the first part of her book Ruth Fry deals with the main political, cultural, and social factors that influenced education of the day, the impact of traditional school beliefs, the

expectation of parents, employers, and the society of the time. She brings out clearly, too, the intimate relationship between the status of women and the school curriculum, one difficult to understand without the other. In the second part she has selected a number of key issues related to the curriculum, and traced them from the turn of the century to the seventies. It must be difficult to write about what is happening at any given time without getting sidetracked into discussing in detail the predisposing causes for inertia or change, or becoming caugi't up with the personalities of the interesting characters who helped to shape our histoiy, the many fine women school principals, school inspectors and university lecturers, ana the larger than life characters such as Sir Truby King, who battled it out publicly to make their mark. Mrs Fry has given sufficient taste of these personalities to whet the appetite and encourage further study, and skilfully woven into the main theme the general and personal influence of past leaders, this without any major digression. Ruth Fry has researched the available material very thoroughly indeed and, in the absence of major works, has had to comb unpublished theses, reports of commissions, committees and Ministers of education,

manuscripts, newspapers, school histories, and so on. Because of this one would expect a strong local or South Island input, but examples relating to particular topics have focused on a widely diverse range of centres throughout the country, both urban and rural, Maori and pakeha. References are unobtrusive but easily accessible, the selected bibliography is well tabulated, and for the studious there is a sizeable index. For general reading, books on curriculum development do not normally rate highly on the interest scale. This book is something of an exception. It will have real value as a text for students of history, education, and social development, but it will also have a more general appeal, particularly for women who will, from their own life experience, be able to project themselves into and empathise with the themes so delicately drawn by the writer. The story or, as Ann Hercus has noted in the foreword, this comment on “herstory,” has been written in an eminently readable, natural, unaffected, and moderate style. Ruth Fry’s penetrating insights and quiet humour shine through and the serious intent of her work is clearly stated. The factual material on which the commentary is based could easily have generated a more extreme feminist treatment.