SCHOOLGIRLS’ SUCCESS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 December 1926, Page 11

SCHOOLGIRLS’ SUCCESS

HOW CAN IT BE ESTIMATED? TRUE EDUCATION FOR LIFE’S WORK •CHARACTER ALL THAT MATTERS.” Some thoughtful observations-on what constitutes the true education of girlhood, were made by the headmistress of the New Plymouth Girls’ High School (Miss D. N. Allan) in her annual report presented at the school breaking-up ceremony last night. Miss Allan brought her remarks on this subject to a conclusion by indicating to the assembled parents what she considered were the objects they should aim at in guiding their girls. "It is difficult to estimate whether a school year has been a success or a failure,” said Miss Allan. "It seems to me that its value could be decided only in twenty years’ time when the girls, whose making has been to-day in our hands, might come back to us and tell us what demands life had made upon them and ask how far we fitted them to meet those demands. The future of a girl is a very uncertain matter. By no thought can we foretell what is in store. Twenty years on one might say: ‘I married a poor man and needed above all things to know how to manage, to make every sixpence do the work of a shilling, to waste no crumb of bread, to turn old garments into new) to bring my children up healthy and happy on small means. How did you train me?’ “Yet a second might say: ‘My great gift in life was my brain. I wanted a professional career. Had you shown me the way I could have gone to the top in medicine,, in science, in law. Did you give me the best chance that I could have for winning scholarships?’ A third story might run: 'A wealthy marriage took all material care from my shoulders. I could have built beauty and encouraged art. I had leisure to do that I wanted to do. Did you teach me the joys of sharing prosperity with the less fortunate, and that leisure and ample means bring with them added responsibility?’ Yet others might tell: ‘I had to work in factory, in shop, in office. What did you give me to fit me to be economically independent and of real value to my employer?’

WHERE RESPONSIBILITY LIES. “And in 20 years’ time it will be you parents and we teachers who must share the responsibility of having prepared, or of having failed to prepare, our girls for whatever life may have in store. We cannot tell what the lot of each will be, but we ean find a certain common denominator which will carry them all safely through the future. Whatever the are, the one thing that will matter is their character, whether we and you are making them realise that honesty in thought and in word and in deed lies at the root of all life, that a taking up of one’s burden, whether it be of home lessons, of correction of exercise books, of scrubbing a house, or of filling one’s leisure time with service, is the only way to happiness. That is what we, as a staff, are trying to do for your children; to insist on a high standard of preparation at home and of work in school; in sport to build up strong and healthy bodies, to give them joy in movement; in their corporate games, something of the spirit of fellowship; above all we are trying to instil into them the necessity for thinking clearly, for facing issues and for carrying gallantly whatever duty may be laid upon them. In order to avoid wastage there should be close unity between parents and teachers. No constructive work would be done if you were pulling one way and we the other.

"It seems to me time that we formed here in New Plymouth a parent-teacher association. Regular monthly or semestral meetings could be held, by means of which we could learn each other’s opinions, aims, ideals and points of view. It is only just that you should have some opportunity of expressing your views on what we do with your children, how much homework we give them, and what progress they are making. We can iearn from you and perhaps you might learn what the staff are trying to do. for it is the staff who do whatever is done in school.”