CO-EDUCATION IS RIGHT

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 224, 9 June 1923, Page 6

CO-EDUCATION IS RIGHT

SAY TECHNICAL SCHOOL DIRECTORS LITTLE DANGER OF CLASSROOM ROMANCES _______ I 1 Twelve directors of New Zealand technical high schools have issued a manifesto in favour of the coeducation of the sexes in secondary schools. They claim that in English-speaking countries opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of co " education, and that the system, far t from being dangerous, is altogether beneficial.

The following statement from directors’ of Technical High Schools on the subject of co-education has been made available for publication: — “Criticism has recently been direct-, ed against the mixed secondary schools of New Zealand where boys and girls are educated together —not following inded thg same curriculum or the samp out-of-class activities, but sharing equally in the responsibilities and amenties of school life, and co-operating in building up worthy traditions. Such criticism is offered with the avowed object of preventing the formation of new schools of . this type, and has come almost invariably from those who have, had no adequate experience of mixed secondary education. As the matter is of great importance to the country, we believe that the views of those who have been intimately concerned with the "development of such schools will be of value; and therefore as directors in charge of technical high schools numbering over 3000 pupils about equally divided between .the sexgs we submit the following statement. “In England itself all the older secondary schools were founded in days when the education of girls was never considered as a matter for public concern, and therefore such schools are by their charters exclusively boys’ schools. When attention -was given to the education of girls it was natural and necessary that schools exclusively for girls should be established. Further, the conditions of life in the large towns and- tho English caste system alike furthered the separation of the sexes, bat, with the spread of democratic ideas and the extension of the privileges of education outside the largest towns there has sprung up a large number of mixed schools. In Scotland, where for some generations education has -never been regarded as the monopoly of class, mixed schools have been the rule, and separated schools the rare exception, and these only in the largest cities.. In Wales, save a few schools, of ancient foundation, all public, secondary .schools have been established, within the last thirty-five years, and nearly all these are mixed schools. In America, outsidp the old large cities of the eastern seaboard, it will be safe to say thaf, apart from trade schools., not one public secondary school in a hundred is for boys or girls only, and the proportion is probably far smaller. In Australia, where ■ public secondary schools are of very 'recent date, all, we believe, are mixed schools. “It is clear, therefore, that in Eng-lish-speaking countries opinion is overwhelming in favour of co-education. “Fifty years ago, when our secondary schools were for the most part founded, the practice then followed in England was naturally adopted, and provision made for separate, schools. But the schools established, within the last twenty years have. with, few expeptions, been mixed. We believe that from the point of view of. the pupil this now policy is wholly right. “It is true that the mixed school, which would provide courses differen tiated to suit the requirements of boys and girls, presents greater difficulties of administration than the separated school; but disciplinary difficulties are lessened by the restraint which the presence of one sex exercises upon the .other. Where the manners and the ihoral standards are on the whole good, a-s they are in New Zealand, the interaction of the sexes under the ordered influences of school life, is altogether beneficial. It is sometimes assumed that co-education must result in unduly . stimulating sex-conscious-ness ; but experience shows that where the relationship between the sexes is natural, the' opposite is the case, and the attitude of schoolmates to one another approximates to the frankly critical attitude of brothers and sis-ters.'-They do not regard one in Westermai’eks phrase, as ‘real’ boys and girls, for the atmosphere of the classroom is not favourable to romance. It is between the unfamiliar that sentimental relationships are apt to spring tip, and when troubles arise during adolescence through such it is generally between pupils of different schools. , ~ “A disadvantage of the establishment of mixed schools has been emphasised; it is that the, number of headships open to women teachers might be very small, and that therefore a great stimulus to mistresses to put forth their best will be removed. We believe that such assumption does our women' teachers a great injustice; nor does it follow that in a large mixed school the duties and responsibilities* of a senior mistress would be less, or less rewarded, than those of a headmistress of a girls’ school of half the size. It is true that in the past the Department has not recognised what is due to senior mistresses, but such recognition which is granted in England cannot be long delayed The statement is signed by W. G. Aldridge (Invercargill), A. E. Brockett (Westport). A. Gray (Hawera), D. F„ Hansen* (Christchurch), John H. Howell (Wellington), James Hutton (Greymouth), Angus Marshall (Bun* edin). A. L. Moore (New Plymouth), W F. J. Munro (Pukekohe), I. E. Newton (Wanganui). G. .L Park-(Auck-land), and L. J. M ild (Feilding).