The Star. Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa. Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna. Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, and Waverley. SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1911. CO-EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 6 May 1911, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa. Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna. Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, and Waverley. SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1911. CO-EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS.

: + — The opportunity afforded by the gathering together in London of large numbers of oversea visitors s primarily visiting England to witness the forthcoming Coronation, has been eagerly seized by numerous scientific, literary, and social and other societies as a golden one for the purpose of holding international conferences on all sorts of subjects. Of all the conferences which are being held this year in the world's metropolis scarcely any is pregnant with more vital potentialities for the race than that which is now sitting to deal with the different aspects of primary and secondary education. There has scarcely been any branch involving the social welfare of the race which has made such enormous strides during the past forty years as the recognition mi all countries of the responsibility of the State in the matter of the teaching of the children of its nationals. Almost every civilised country in the world has copied or improved upon the English Education Act of 1870, an Act the principles of which were themselves

mainly borrowed from a Dutch statute dated a few years previously. In all countries primary education is now looked upon as an absolute necessity, and in most it is not only free, but compulsory; and as far as the colonies, and this Dominion in particular, are concerned, we have long prided ourselves upon being not only up-to-date, but in many respects far in advance of older lands in this matter. Amongst the important matters which have so far engaged the attention of the conference there is one well-known sub-' ject on which the most divergent views have been expressed by eminent educationalists, namely, that which deals with mixed schools! It is a subject i which can be viewed from many sides, though hitherto most of the arguments have been directed to its" moral inluence, and to the necessities put forward by expediency in country districts where there are only limited numbers of pupils and where consequently expense has to be considered. Quite a fresh avenue of enquiry has been opened up by the tentative suggestions of Dr Story, the well-known rector of the Montrose Academy, who, in expressing his doubts as to the value, from a teaching point of view, of co-education, at all events in secondary schools, stated that scientific opinion went to prove that girls matured more rapidly than boys, and that in consequence mixed classes tended either to keep the former back to the boys' level, or was unfair to the latter by compelling their attention to learning in advance of their standard. It was incidentally mentioned in the course of the debate that the New South Wales Government, which, after sending an Educational Commission on a world tour to study the different systems in vogue, had adopted many features, of the Scottish syllabus, did not intend to make high schools co-educational. v There is no doubt that in large cities, and in towns of sufficient size to provide an adequate number of pupils of both sexes, totally separate schools are much to be preferred, not only as regards higher education but also in the primary standards; for, apart from the physiological development of the minds and bodies of the two sexes at different ages, the whole course of education, to be ideal, would have to widely differ. There are many things which boys have to learn, as a foundation to the acquisition of knowledge to enable them to later earn their livings, which are not only unnecessary to girls, but, in most cases, almost useless to them when they have acquired them. So there are many purely feminine branches of knowledge which co-educational systems afford no facilities for studying, and the lack of which places our girls at a grea^ disadvantage in their subsequent careers. In this matter we have only to watch the Continental systems, where, except for infants, mixed schools are almost obsolete; and where scientific education is applied to girls and boys alike by the latest methods, and with special regard to their sex and what they are to become in after life. Our own system, good as it is, is nothing like as strenuous as any of those which mould the future of the European child, and many capable observers consider thai? we do not treat the teaching of young people with half the seriousness which it deserves. Of course, until this country is much more largely settled than is at present the case, it will be impossible to avoid mixed schools, except in a very few of the more important centres; bnt, as the future welfare of the race depends so largely upon an adequate guidance of those who will form the next generation, it is to be hoped that our own- visiting representatives will be able to profit by the exceptional opportunity now offered of hearing the views of the most eminent educationalists in Europe on this and other topics affecting the future conduct and control of State primary and secondary schools.