EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20316, 26 January 1928, Page 5

EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

“AGE OF FLAPPERDOM.” SIR JAMES PARR’S VIEWS. (From Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 14. Sir James and Lady Parr paid a visit to Downs School, Seaford, on a recent Saturday, the occasion being the opening of a new hall. The High Commissioner’s two young daughters have been attending this school since their arrival in this country. Miss Cameron (the principal of the school), after introducing Sir James Parr, referred to the subject of the franchise. Civilisation was on trial, she said. If the work of reconstructing our national life was to be carried through by girls, they must take their education from the beginning seriously and think of them as they did of boys, as future citizens. That was what the Downs School was trying in a modest way to do. If the franchise was to be given to girls of 21, they must see that those girls were not what was known as “flappers.” In the course of his speech, the High Commissioner said the schools were the nursery of our great Empire. “As your schools are, and as is the teaching today,” he said, “ so, largely, to-morrow will your Empire be. Whether w e shall fail crav-enly in holding, and keeping developed, as Almighty God intended wo shduld, our heritage of Empire, covering a quarter the space of the globe, and with a quarter of the people of the globe, or whether we shall be worthy of that prize, believe me, depends largely upon the tone and attitude of, and the instruction given in, the schools of the Empire to-day.” It was a wonderful thing that throughout the Empire, scattered all over the world in various countries, they were all pursuing the same ideals of British education. The schools were the most important factor in binding this great Commonwealth of Nations together. By contributing to the ideals of public service, and by doing something for their King and Empire, their school was contributing to the great work of Empire building. Sir James remarked on the great change which had come about in the last 50 years in regard to the education of girls. THE GENERAL FRANCHISE. ' Our schools to-day were giving women as liberal an education as was given to boys, and rightly so. It was of as much importance to the nation and to the individual that Jane should have as good an education ns Jack. Referring to the “ flapper ” vote. Sir James said he noticed that in this country the age of flapperdom was carried rather later than in New Zealand. In his country it finished at 17 or 18, but he understood that in this country it was carried up to 21 or 23. “ I have little fear,” he said, “ if women are given the vote at 21, My experience is that the average girl oj 21 or 25 is a much steadier being than the average boy of that age. I think the average girl, particularly the girl in employment, dislikes, more than men do, the ideas of rough, unjustified, revolutionary change. I don’t know that Mr Baldwin is so far astray in giving these girls the vote.” —(Applause.) A GIRL NOT YET “OUT.” Sir James Parr’s remarks about “flappers ” were quoted in most newspapers in the country and a certain amount of comment has been the result. Here is a paragraph from the Sporting Times: — “ But here comes Sir James Parr, High Commissioner, who ups and says: ‘ While the age of flapperdom in this country goes on until about 2l or 23, it finishes in New Zealand at 18.’ With respect, I think Sir James is mistaken. I do not think that an Englishwoman of 25 would either wish or expect h o' known as a flapper. My dictionary •, this definition: ‘ A partridge or .. ii dick before it is able to fly; a young gin. a girl not yet ‘ out ’ ! So that seems to be that.”