GAMES FOR GIRLS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 302, 22 December 1933, Page 2

GAMES FOR GIRLS

ARE THEY ALL GOOD? In these days of sport for women—sport in all its branches —it comes as a slight shock to hear a headmistress of a school doubt whether games are good for girls at school. In commenting on school games, Miss Sara Burstall, who for 26 years was headmistress of the Manchester School for Girls, says: “I have never been convinced that games were really good for girls—suitable physical training and exercise, yes, especially dancing and swimming; but to take over the boys’ games organisation, developed to meet their physical and psychical need has always seemed to be a mistake. “It over-excites girls and takes too much out of them. But these heterodox views have little support from women doctors, parents and general professional opinion, and 1 have had to yield to the majority.’’ Other Opinions Miss Burstall also dislikes “sports’ for girls, Saturday morning hockey, and the custom of Saturday matches. Sho has seen examinations do much harm to true education, she declares; and she says: “To keep boys and girls at school till 19 is a mistake. They ought to be living a life less sheltered at that ag e Wo want more vocational education in the secomlm. school, not less.’’ Bci’e are views showing Miss Burstall in lighter vein: g“lt is very difficult to enforce a 'school rule, easy enough in London, against superfluous jewellery. The wearing of strings of beads round the neck was defended as necessary to health in some cases, and wo even found a few mothers who clearly looked upon such an ornament as a kind of charm. Indeed, on P found the oddest examples of primitive superstition in Manchester.