THE CULT OF WOMAN’S LIFE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 313, 10 December 1912, Page 4

THE CULT OF WOMAN’S LIFE.

I The annual report of Aliss Grieg. "Lady Principal of the Napier High School, is well worth the study of lour educationalists, and it would, be worthy of their office if lhev woulo | endeavour to bring into realisation Gome of the excellent advice she i gives. In the first place she says. j~! >l.ould like to state, that some people make a fetish of exaniina lions. Girls come to school to be educated, and 1 fear the present system of examinations is somewhat ■ overdone and often tends to ciieour iage 'cram. A child does not coiisidec I what culture or general good she ; may get from such and such a study, pjut asks. 'ls it e.f any use for m; iexamination !' Now whose fault i> ih that this state of affairs exists . Certainly the gravest fault lies witr ’those who undertaking the scheme o: I modern education for our girls h.iv < ’.but little studied the desiderata, o: i-ire incapable of appreciating th« ’magnitude of their task. The cult o: ! woman’s life is the key-stone of the greatness. It is the mother v ho plants in her young sons m i their earliest days the principles of i love and truth—or ought we not

rather to say should plant the seeds of all man! yvirtues. To enoble the life of the mother that she may be fitted for such tasks is not to prepare her for harsh examinations in subjects that have little or no bearing on the character necessary for her sphere in home hfe. The cultivation of personal and mental development should be fundamentally -jursued. for beauty of mind and jody has powerful influence even over the youngest, and to exercise these great gifts for the good of others is individually woman's mission, and not to flaunt her knowledge in the eyes of the professorial world. A girl’s education should be compatible with her position in life, her ability, and future mode of livelihood, but unless a girl intentionally desires to abandon home life for an academic one. the acute studies boys have to undertake should not be taken up by them. The ambition of parents too frequently drives (heir girls into the development of a neurotic temperament, as almost ?very thing is sacrificed to the lust for learning. Whether the girl is sufficiently developed or no ; whether she has the "capacity” or rto, she is urged on to ".pass her examination,” and for the sake of "cram” the proper cultivation of her bodily and mental powers is almost entirely overlooked. It is too true that girls themselves nowadays shun domestic work as they did not in _ the olden davs. but the conditions of home life have been gradually growing more and more arduous and distasteful. The girl who cultivated home life formerly could cultivate some of the elegancies and testheticism of home life? but nowadays the kitchen seems to be the "ultima thule.” Naturally a cultivated girl avoids it, if she ran. and an educated girl on modern lines gets as far off it as her exams, will take her. AVhen will the "powers that be” recognise that public examinations tuAong nine-tenths of om girls are unfitting our young women for their obvious duties m the wn kl !