EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 December 1924, Page 8

EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

THE CHOICE OF CAREERS,

PREPARATION IN THE SCHOOLS, ACADEMIC SUBJECTS REQUIRED. The ambitions of girls and the lines on which they should be educated formed the subject of an interesting address by Dr, E. Marsden, Assistant Director of Education, at the breaking-up ceremony of th® New’ Plymouth Girls’ High School last night. Dr. Marsden first referred to the intelligence tests which were carried out at the beginning of the year. Some 60 per cent, of the girls who had, answered the test papers had intimated their intention of entering the teaching profession. New Zealand needed a lot of teachers, about a 1000 annually, and of that number about* 600 or 700 would be women, but the count try would not absorb the 60 per cent. Ho urged those girls who contemplated entering, on a teaching career to realise th® seriousness of what they were doing. He did not want them to look upon teaching ’ as a trade. It was a vocation.

About 25 per cent, of the girls had decided on a commercial career. He agreed that there were many positions girls could fill, but it was well that they should not< at the outset what quality it was apar( from personality that made for success* It was, as Miss Kershaw (the principal)' had said, a knowledge of English. That was why he sometimes thought that th« best training for a commercial careen would be two years’ training in cultural English, followed by one year of intensified commercial training. Dr. Marsden strongly advised the girls to insist on good working rooms if they entered commercing life, and not endure the dingy offices thaC obtained in some of the cities. CHANGE IN IDEAS. About 8 per cent, of the girls, Dr. Man® den said, wished to become nurses, success in which profession would require hard work and intelligence, and others desired to become shop owners, while about 4 peri cent, had no other ambition than to engage in domestic duties. Dr. Marsden urged, however, the fact that the majority of these girls would have to enter some profession in the meantime. He theof went on to refer to the necessity of educa* tion being so adapted that it would pre-t pare the girls for the careers they desired to take up, and also for housekeeping and mothercraft. A knowledge of dietetics, and hygiene was as equally important as any branch of knowledge. Referring to the great change in ideas regarding the education of girls, Dr. 'Marsden commented on the frill-like academic education given girls in the early part of the last century, and the gradual growth of the demand jfpr an education equal to that given to boys. Unfortunately the movement had turned into a demand for an education no.t merely equal to that given to boys, but for the same education. Woman had proved that academically she was equal to man, but she had discovered that fact at gieat cost to herself. The question now arose as to whether it would not be better to educate girls on t higher level than that on which boy« c uld be educated but along those line! best suited to their capabilities, Chat wai to give them equality of education without identity. It was mutually recognised that there were subjects and branches oj knowledge in which men could excel iovef women, and that there were others in which women did better than men. ' Ho would not advocate a different curriculum for boys and girls. They could not dogmatise, although that had been done in New Zealand. STUDY OF THE ARTS. Dr. Marsden commented on the evft results on girls of forced study for the matriculation examination, an examination which in a few hours decided a girl’s fate without any proper reference to her own capabilities or to her teacher. Jf she failed in one subject she was not credited with the good work sh e had done in other subjects, but was put back for a whole year. Sometimes when he thought of it, he wondered why they did not have women on the University Senate. Dr. Marsden said he would advocate a much wider choice of subjects in the schools and the devotion of much more time than was given at present to the study of art, music and the drama. Boys and men had perforce to hurry in making a competence for themselves in the w r orld, but there was not th e need of this in the case of girls. Why not, he asked, let the girls take mere time over their education and do the thing properly? It was about tame they faced the facts in these things.