Vasile Salaru, age 58, has resigned from his post as a state secretary in Romania's Education Ministry after public outrage over his remarks yesterday about the proper education for girls.
Local schools should have a separate curriculum for the girls, he said at a press conference, teaching them how to walk nicely, how to serve tea and to be good hostesses.
"I would like to see an 11th or 12th-grade student walking nicely on heels, dancing the waltz or tango, and being a good hostess. I think this is a side of Romanian education that has been totally neglected and that could remind us, I hope you don't smile, of the former boarding school education," ROMANIA-INSIDER reports today.
Girls don't need to know traffic rules, he continued, but how to walk provocatively.
"I apologize if I didn't make myself understood, but I think that a boy, when he has a girl by his arm -- at least this is how things are where I come from, in the Moldova region -- is not interested if the girl knows the traffic rules, but if she knows how to walk nicely, like a lady. In one sentence: Chest forward, bottom back, and let the boys faint!"
Student organizations have manifested their disapproval towards the education official's statements, which they called sexist, and asked for his resignation.
According to press reports, Vasile Salaru did indeed resign today, but not before news of his words had spread across the world. In fact, my waiter at a restaurant dinner in San Francisco tonight brought up this topic for amusement.
ALLAN CRUSE
22 OCT 2015