THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] 8.0,—In reply to "A Constant Reader," I was, of course, aware that the " Girls' Public Day-School Company " encouraged a certain amount of calisthenics in their schools, which are, of course, good as far as they go, but provide a somewhat restricted amount of exercise for the whole day of a growing girL (In one large day-school, the amount of time given to calisthenics does not exceed half-an-hour in a week.) The grounds on which I plead that the schools should undertake to provide healthy out- door afternoon exercise, are these. Though the girls only attend school in the morning, their afternoons are practically filled up with school preparation, so that the ordinary afternoon exercise of a home-educated girl is rendered impossible. I mean that a two-hour's walk, for a High-School girl, is out of the question ; but an hour's active game, if such could be organised near at hand, is possible for her. It is, of course, not difficult for a boarding-house mistress to organise such games in her own household ; but boarders are only a small minority, and it is very hard for parents of small means and narrow gardens to know how to provide a suitable playground for their children, besides settling when, where, and with whom they are to play. This work, it seems to me, ought to be undertaken by the mistresses ; for if the preparation is insisted upon, and the exercise left to look after itself, it is easy to see how naturally girls drift into their present hours of overwork. At present it is not considered to be overwork if a girl, besides an hour before school in the morning, and four hours at school, works from 2 till 5, and from 6 till 9, in the upper forms of the school. If this abuse, which I am sure the mistresses would object to if they realised it, is ever to be checked, it must be by putting exercise on its proper footing in girls' education, which can only be done by the school authorities.
If your correspondent will refer to the syllabus of the local examinations, published by the Cambridge Syndicate, she will see that the error is on her side, and not on mine, with regard to the fact that third-class honours, not a pass, are necessary to excuse a group in the Higher.—I am, Sir, &c., A BOARDING-HOUSE MISTRESS.
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