THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1553, 20 December 1866, Page 5

THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

[communicated.] The few remarks that follow were put together with the intention of being read over at a meeting oi ladies, which, it will be remembered, took place in November last year, in St. George's Hall, to consider the basis upon which a girls' school should be established in Dunedin. They were, however, not read ; but as the subject is revived, the paper,-as written, is submitted to the public as embodying a lew hints which, may be useful. i Those among us who have given even a ' little serious thought to the question, of a ! girl's education, cannot but have arrived ! at the conclusion, that we ought to be far from satisfied with the ordinary systems followed at nio9t girls' schools at Home, at some of which most of us, at one period or other, have been pupils. When a young lady leaves school, she can generally read and write nicely—knows so much history, geography, arithmetic, and various sorts of fancy work—can dance, sing, play, and speak a little French; and, moreover, has picked up from the many catechisms professing to show short roads to learning, certain stray scientific facts; and thus equipped, sallies forth into the world, under the impression, for the time being, that she is well educated. But this, we all know, is not education. .__ Fortunately for this young colony, /wg have no time- honored systems to uproot and overturn; our privilege, and a high privilege it is : is to found, to establish. Let us take advantage of our position, ami give serious thought and reflection before we determine the basis upon which tbis School or College, about which we have met to-day, shall be established. To arrive at a right conclusion, one ia first tempted to ask the question : Why is it that men, rather than women, generally speaking, have firmer characters, are betterreasoners, express themselves with greater exactness, and have a truer sense of the meaning and significance of words ? These, no doubt, are the results of the thorough mental training they undergo whilst they are boys at school; and this consists of years spent in classical study,?—exacting the closest attention to the choice of words,' much dictionary work and great exercise of the memory—to which there is nothing whatever analogous in the education given to a girl:_ French and German being taught to her, in such a manner as hot to reveal the principles of language, or demand attention to the structure aud derivation of words.'. Thus, this "training to think" is deliberately dispensed with as part of the education of a «- O man; for this defect it must be our endeavour to find a remedy. Under this conviction, then, it is for us to consider what best can be dons to effect a chance, and promote a better culture. And the first step, it appears to the writer; towards this end should-be, to make the curriculum of studies the most comprehensive aud liberal that can possibly be i offered. Hitherto it has been commonly I considered that the higher branches of' study belong to boys, and that their i rewards in pleasure and satisfaction were | theirs by a sort of Diving right; but, I happily, this assumption has already begun | to wane, and it is frankly owned by one of our best and wisest men,"" that there is no sort of right knowledge—no form of honest intellectual culture which is essentially unfeminine. Intellect is of no sex; and science, history, religion, poetry, truth, address themselves to the human being as such, whether man or woman." This j acknowledged, our next step would, be to procure the assistance of efficiently qualified and enlightened teachers, as in fact, the success of every well ordered scheme of \ education must depend entirely on the j character and attainments of the educators, whose services it commands; and upon i this, is is to be remarked, in the language : of another, " that the habit of employing , masters for all the. serious departments of instruction in good schools for girls, looks at first sight, like an admission that men are naturally better qualified than women to give systematic instruction. In effect, however, it is simply another proof that women are, as a rule," imperfectly taught. If they received the same training as men, they would, teach as well, nay, there is little doubt they would teach better." Seeing then that it would be idle to hope to procure thoroughly educated women exclusively as teachers in the proposed school, it will be well that in the plan to be made out, preference be given, to mea as better qualified to conduct the higher branches of study.