THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
pro THE EDITOR ON THE " SPECTATOR:] SIR,—The letter in your issue of February 18th from "A Boarding-House Mistress" seems to call for a reply. To those who have opportunity of seeing much of what is being done for girls' education, it is truly surprising to read some of the asser- tions, often the direct opposite of the fact, that are made by many persons who write on this subject. Miss Sewell's article in the Nineteenth Century of this month is a case in point; but as she deprecates criticism by the plea that she is imperfectly informed, it seems scarcely worth while to refute her statements.
Your correspondent makes two charges against High Schools, and especially against those of the Girls' Day-School Company. The first accusation is that the "need of physical education is ignored." Now, so far as the above-named Company is con- cerned, it is not more true that it "has done the lion's share of the work" in the cause of the higher education of girls, than that it has taken the lead in their physical education. Its pro-
spectus has always named calisthenics as a part of the regular course. In the early years of the Company's existence it was a very difficult thing to get good teachers for this subject, but at the present time excellent calisthenic lessons are given in most, if not all, of their schools. Playgrounds are attached to their schools wherever it has been possible to obtain the land, and provision made for lawn-tennis, and often fives, to say nothing of rounders. To my knowledge, one of the schools of the Com- pany last season played lawn-tennis matches against four others of their schools.
If "expeditions for primroses and blackberries" are not often organised by the mistresses, botanical and geological excursions are, even in the case of schools in the heart of London. The second count in the indictment refers to the local examinations. Your correspondent may not know that some High Schools do not send any pupils in for the "Locals," and this in spite of pressure from parents in favour of those examinations. As long ago as 1877, at a conference held at Cambridge to consider the whole question of examinations for girls, a head-mistress raised a protest against the existence of the Junior examination, and some schools have always refused to send in for it. I may correct, in passing, a misconception on which your correspon- dent's argument partly rests : only a pass in the Senior examina- tions, and not honours, is required in order to count towards the Higher; and even the pass is in no way a necessary preliminary.
In conclusion, I should like to submit for consideration the question whether it may not be, after all, the duty of the parent (or of the boarding-house mistress) to see that the girls get proper exercise after school-hours, especially as in moat High Schools at least five-sixths of the girls spend only the morning at school ; and whether the efforts which are constantly made by High-School mistresses to organise afternoon play are not a work of mercy on their part, and even of supererogation.—I am,
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