DIRECTED WRITING Read the article on the following page. Write a l...

DIRECTED WRITING
Read the article on the following page. Write a letter to the journalist, Jenny Cornish, in which you comment on the ideas expressed in the article, and argue for your own views about educating girls and careers for women.

In your letter you should:
Address the writer's arguments, and those of the other people quoted in the article.
Give your views on educating girls and careers for women.
Base your letter on what you have read in the article.
Be careful to use your own words.

Begin your letter:
'Dear Ms Cornish, I have read your article and would like to comment on your point of view. You should write between 600 and 700 words.

How will a 'Government info pack' boost girls' ambitions?
According to Maria Miller, the Women's Minister, we need special help to guide our daughters through subject and career choices. Presumably in case we direct them towards needlework and cookery, forbid them from attending university and tell them science is for boys. Oops - I've already told my four-year-old daughter and her 18-month-old sister that they shouldn't worry their pretty little heads about finding a career at all. They'd be better off concentrating on finding a rich handsome man to look after them. This information pack is clearly going to be too late for me.
But seriously, though. Let's drop the sarcasm. There is a problem here that needs tackling. Something is going wrong. Girls outperform boys in the classroom. But there are only three female chief executives in the FTSE 100. There's only one female national newspaper editor in England. Only 147 MPs out of 650 are women. So what advice should we be giving our daughters? Cathy, 32, a writer from south London, has one 18-month-old daughter and another due in August. She says: "I sincerely hope that both of my daughters are aspirational, however to what they aspire is entirely up to them. I have no intention of guiding them towards, say, academia, science, maths and technology if they genuinely would prefer to learn about fashion or makeup. "As long as they are aware they have a choice and nothing is off limits - if they want to be professional footballers, astronauts or any other typically 'male' profession I will back them, if they want to be ballerinas, hairdressers or beauticians, I will support them in that too. "I would advise them to play to their strengths, pursue interests and activities that absorb them and make them happy, and we will find a way together to incorporate these strengths and interests into their studies and future careers. "Ultimately I want my daughters to be happy in their choices and therefore they have to be their choices, not mine."

Colleges mustn't pigeon-hole girls.
Another mother, Catherine, 41, from Yorkshire, a teaching assistant, has a seven-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy. She says colleges should offer more of a range of courses to inspire girls. "Too many colleges focus on hairdressing, motor vehicles, beauty therapy and so on as it brings in bums on seats and ultimately the funding," she says. "How many beauticians does the country need? They should have more open-minded courses so that females can feel inspired in their career choices but it' S a funding issue. "I left school and had an apprenticeship as an electrician and became fully qualified four years later. I felt I had to push though with my careers adviser. "I will support my kids in whatever they want to do. It's good to think outside the box and I will encourage my kids to as well. That includes my son, so he doesn't get automatically pushed down the traditional or popular routes for boys."

Do girls need more support than boys?
While Debbie, a mum from North Yorkshire, who has a five-year-old daughter and a 21-month-old son, believes supporting girls to achieve is more complicated than simply showing them the opportunities available - it's about giving them the right attitude and confidence. "I can't see parents setting out to hold back their daughters from excelling and having aspirations to be in a boardroom," she says. "I agree it starts when they are younger, but surely it is all about instilling a desire to achieve in whatever they do, as opposed to mapping their career and courses from early on." Debbie is also not convinced that girls need more help than boys. "I will look to encourage both my kids to want the best for themselves and to choose a path that makes them happy, even if it does not have them in an office," she says. There's the rub - we want them to be happy, but we also want them to achieve their potential, whatever that might be. We'd prefer that what made them happy was being a brain surgeon, an electrician or a teacher, rather than lying in a bedsit watching television. This is where the Government wants to help - giving parents the tools to boost girls' ambitions. Miller says the campaign will give parents the knowledge and confidence they need to help their daughters "make choices which will help them realise their ambitions". I look forward with interest to reading my Government info pack'. We do need some help here - we're up against a society in which toy pink hoovers and ironing boards are "girls' toys" and chemistry sets are "boys' toys". We' re battling against a media which is obsessed with celebrity and appearance. And lest we forget we're fighting against workplaces which have failed to become family-friendly, and childcare options which are limited and expensive. However, I am not too sure how Government info packs' are going to help - nor how we've got to the point where it's this bad. It's also pretty difficult to raise girls to be 'ambitious' when 'ambition' is still perceived in Britain to be a dirty word - especially when women use it. Ho-hum. In the meantime, while I eagerly await my info pack, tell me - what advice would you give your daughters?

Jenny Cornish is a freelance journalist from North Yorkshire, with two young daughters, specialising in parenting, education and politics. (From The Daily Telegraph, 3 June 2013)