Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-29
ONCE TAUGHT IN SOUTH
AFRICA; TO TEACH HERE
Descendant of General Robert E.
Lee Joins Faculty of
Cumnock

"Co- education Is rapidly growing less
popular This opinion is shared by
parents and teachers alike, and the
private schools for either boys or girls
consequently are enjoying a rapid
gain in popularity" Miss Virginia Lee
Pride, a new member of the Cumnock
faculty, so expressed herself yester-
day afternoon. She added it Is her
conviction that within a few years
even the public schools of America will
have separate classrooms for each sex,
at least after the fifth or sixth grade.
Miss Pride Is a Virginian and de-
scendant of General Robert e. Lee.
She has taught in private schools in
South Africa, going there twenty years
ago to take charge Of school in The
Paarl, a city which was the center of
Boer influence at the time of the war.
TRIPS TO EUROPE
Although her work occupied her in
so remote a portion of the civilized
world, Miss Pride has kept up with
educational progress and has made
five trips to Europe and America to be
constantly in touch with the latest
plans for teaching and conducting
schools. Upon two of these trips she
made reports to the educational COM
mission of South Africa concerning the
best methods in use in girls schools,
which were printed and distributed
widely throughout the colony
'There are no co-educational schools
in Europe" she said, except the
board schools, and there the boys and
girls are kept in separate buildings,
meet in separate classes and have diff
ferent portions of the grounds for their
amusements and exercises. There is
Just now one such school in England
1t Is called Bedales' school and is sit
uated about twenty miles from Lon
don. 1t is very expensive and is pat
ronized only by the sons and daugh-
ters of the richest people there. 1t is
still considered an experiment, and the
mothers who send their daughters to
this school are regarded as most
daring"
IN DUTCH COLONY
While Miss Pride was first estab-
lished in the heart of the Dutch col
ony, she found when the war broke
out that politically she was not at all
in sympathy with the Beers, so re-
signed her school position and engaged
her passage for America. AS she was
about to embark, however, she was
arrested by a telegram from the COM
mittee in charge OF the girls school
in Port Elizabeth The directors Of
this school offered her such flattering
inducements that she relinquished her
homeward trip and remained in South
Africa for another decade.
Finally, upon returning to America,
she found the climate and social con-
ditions of her native Virginia not at
all to her liking, and has come to Los
Angeles to reside.
"This country is like a glorified bit
of South Africa" she exclaimed in de-
light yesterday "You have the same
fresh air, the same sunshine, and your
mountains over against the city are
like those about Cape~Town and Port
Elizabeth.
LIKE SOUTH AFRICA
"The foliage and grass are like ours
in Africa, too, but the colonists are
less enterprislng than the Angelenos
and have not secured such water as
YOU have here. There is much suffer-
ing in the summer time on account of
TIE scarcity OF water, and vegetation
naturally dries up, making the country
much less beautiful than this"
Asked concerning the relative stand
ing of girls schools here and in Eu-
rope, Miss Pride said
"The greatest difference I found in
the schools of the two countries is in
the restrictions imposed upon the
girls Girls in European schools have
no individuality and apparently no In
cllnation to develop such thing.
Every question of wardrobe, lessons
or amusements is referred either to
the parents or teachers of the foreign
bred girl, while the American girl is
quick to assert her own desire in these
matters"