OUR SCHOOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 69, 22 March 1928, Page 11

OUR SCHOOLS.

WORK OF COMMITTEES.

WOMEK'S SUBSTANTIAL

SHAKE.

DETAILS OF SCHOOL HOUSE-

KEEPING

(By LA VIEILLE.)

During the present year 162 women have been giving useful service on the 601 school committees of the large and scattered Auckland Educational District. Of these, 26 are members of the 35 urban committees. In the urban areas of Auckland and Hamilton there is one woman member to twelve men, and in thecountrv districts one woman to 21 men. On nine country committees, each of five members, the women are in the majority, and several of these act as chairman. Two, indeed, of these committees are composed altogether of women. These figures make one feel very cheerful, especially as a comparison with the previous year shows that fifty more women have this year taken up the work. Nevertheless, much more could be done, for out of 35 schools in the urban areas only 14 have women members, and of 566 rural schools only 83. School Housekeeping. This work of school housekeeping is particularly well adapted to women who have managed a home and brought up a family. Sensible women should not think that they are not qualified for it because they would be incapable of speaking from a platform. Such an effort is never required. Men are only too pleased to have their help, and have said so at meetings of the School Committees' Association. Bound as many men are by the regular hours of their daily employment, they often find it impossible to attend to matters that must be seen to in school hours. Here women members prove very useful. The influence of the school in which our children spend so many of their waking hours extends into our homes, governing our getting up and lying down, making demands on our purses for books and equipment, helping or retarding our children's physical, mental and moral development, determining all their future life. Is the school not worthy of our closest supervision! One often hears it said that there is nothing to do on a school committee. Why, then, do so many men spend their leisure time one one? Surely the club or lodge would prove more attractive. If there are committees that do nothing, so much the worse for the schools controlled by them. Their members are obviously shirking the responsibility they undertook from the parents they were elected to represent. Varied Agenda. The following items are taken from a school committee minute-book of last year: Damage to school property by j trespassers; locks, gates; cleaning of j interior walls; hanging of pictures; exhibition of school work and sports; inspectors' reports; tarring and sanding; drain pipes; repairs to school furniture; leaking roof and taps; formation of Old Pupils' Association; seats in playground; water charges and meter; Winter Show exhibit; towels; referendum on school holidays; heating, cleaning, and disinfecting school; broken windows; dental clinic; basketball courts; lavatories; fire drill; fencing; garden tools; Savings Bank accounts; school library. All this, together with writing letters, paying accounts, and making a limited income cover the school's most urgent needs, is routine but necessary work. Someone must attend to it, or the school suffers. When a new school is built it is invariably handed over to the committee in a very incomplete condition as regards furnishing and playing grounds. We all agree that the grounds should be levelled before the school is built, but usually we are only too glad to get the school on any condition. So the newly-elected committee looks with dismay on the school's rough surroundings, and decides that something must be done. To their credit, I have never known of a community whose members were not willing to put their hands in their -pockets to find the money for the necessary improvements. Once a fund is raised, the Education Department will subsidise it £ for £. Community Spirit. The community spirit roused, parents continue to take an interest in the school, which the committee endeavours to foster and direct into channels of usefulness. < If women neglect this opportunity for social service they should not complain that they are being pushed aside in other ways. It seems to me that by thus demonstrating their fitness for such humble work they are paving the way for themselves or for other women to aspire to higher offices in the community. Faithful in small things, we shall command the right to be entrusted with greater.