CAROLINE GOLDBERG MD,
Sir, - Kevin Myers writes (An Irishman's Diary, August 27th): "One does not have to ponder long about the outcry there'd be if the results were reversed - if boys were achieving up to 12 per cent better results across the board. . ." No need to ponder: I remember how it was. There was no outcry.
Collective shoulders were shrugged. That was entirely consistent with expectations. Girls were directed towards a secretarial course to fill the typing pools and the time till marriage. The really bright could do an arts degree, but did you really want to be written off as a blue stocking? Anyway, what was the point? Education was wasted on girls.
This was not in Victorian times, but well after the second World War. Girls achieved less because of low expectations and inferior education provisions. Now that these have been equalised, the situation is reversed. Whether or not this should be addressed is not my concern, but the truth is that when girls were achieving poorly, nobody cared!
Well, we girls cared, but we were nobody, weren't we? - Yours, etc.,
CAROLINE GOLDBERG MD, Kimmage Road West, Dublin 12.