n.
Though the syllabus drawn up is practically the same as those used
in the different colleges, most of the colleges still grant their own
diplomas at the end of the course.

It is hardly possible at present, to specify the usual age of
retirement for gymnastic teachers, but when a woman becomes too old
for regular school teaching she can organise, supervise, and inspect,
or continue to practise remedial work which includes massage.

Most of the gymnastic teachers who come within the scope of the
Insurance Act have joined the University, Secondary and Technical
Teachers' Provident Society.

VII

THE TEACHING OF DOMESTIC SUBJECTS

There are several reasons why instruction in the domestic arts and in
the management of a house has not until quite recently formed part of
the curriculum in girls' secondary schools. In the first years of
the existence of these schools, no handicraft was encouraged except
needlework, and this was soon almost crowded out of the time-table. It
was assumed that household management was taught by the mother. There
was a second assumption made even more confidently than the first,
that a well-informed young woman with an active brain would find no
difficulty in arranging her domestic affairs. This theory was founded
on still another assumption--that there would always be on hire a
sufficiency of servants already well trained for their work.

It is obvious nowadays that the mistresses of the first two decades
of high-school teaching, being the first college-bred women, were
suffering from a reaction against domestic interests, and the manner
in which these had absorbed the old-fashioned woman. Their best pupils
were at once destined for college; they were considered too good
for mere domestic life, and were prepared for careers, mostly for
teaching. This tendency was naturally accentuated by the fact that
all mistresses were single women, with little prospect of any but a
celibate life.

In the earlier stages of girls' education, then, it was the teacher
who urged the promising girl to have a career; but the more recent
development is that the parents, harassed by increasing economic
pressure, and encouraged by the instances they meet of successful
professional women, press more and more strongly for their girls to
be educated for professions, whether they are exceptionally gifted or
not. It is recognised in almost all grades of the middle class that
the chance of a daughter marry