MIXED CLASSES

Southland Times, Issue 18963, 9 June 1923, Page 5

MIXED CLASSES

CO-EDUCATION SUPPORTED MANIFESTO B'S TECHNICAL COLLEGE DIRECTORS (Special to the Times.) WELLINGTON, June 8. Twelve directors of the New Zealand Technical High Schools, have issued a manifesto in favour of the co-education of the sexes in secondary schools. They claim that in English-speaking countries, the the opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of co-education and that the system, far from being dangerous, is altogether beneficial In one passage they say: “It is true that the mixed school which would provide courses differentiated 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 moral standards are on the whole good, as 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 consciousness, but experience shows that where the relationship between the sexes is natural, the opposite is the case, and the attitude of the schoolmates to one another approximates to the frankly critical attitude of brothers and sisters. They do not regard one another in Western) arck’s phrase as “real” boys and girls, for the atmosphere of the class room, is not favourable to romance. It is between the unfamiliar that the sentimental relationships are apt to spring up and when troubles arise, though during adolescence, it is generally between pupils of different schools.” The signatories are; —Messrs W. G. Aldridge (Invercargill), A. E. Brcckett (Westport), A. Gray (Hawera), D. E. Hansen (Christchurch), John H. Howell (Wellington), James Hutton (Greymouth), Angus Marshall (Dunedin), A. L. More (New Plymouth), W. F. J. Munro (Pukekohe), J. E. Newton (Wanganui), G. J. Park (Auckland), L. J. Wild (Feilding). They control schools in which some 3000 boys and girls are educated.