The Press Junior THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1935. Back to School

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21386, 31 January 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Press Junior THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1935. Back to School

On Tuesday the primary schools will open for the first .day of school after the summer holidays; for hundreds of children it will be the first day of school-life. Those whose sixth birthdays have fallen during the long vacation will pack a new small school-bag and go off on Tuesday morning with hopping and skipping steps that will give the lie to Shakespeare's word-picture of the' schoolboy creeping like a snail unwillingly to school. Those of us who have left school-days years behind us, and those who are high up in the secondary school classes find it almost impossible to remember just what happened and just , bow we felt on that first day at school at the age of five. Now the newcomers must be six years old before they go to school; they are as anxious to experience their first week of school as their big brothers and sisters were to break-up for the holidays six weeks ago. And, in most cases, the big brothers and sisters are as eager to get back ] again as they were to leave for the holidays; though they may grumble about homework and the pains of arithmetic and geography and history at the end of the term, they are restive arid full of longing for the -playground and the classroom order before the holidays are over. For many who live in the country the holidays are busy days—perhaps more .busy than schooldays—in the midst of the harvest; but they are busy in a different w"ay. Holiday work is regarded as fun by'most boys and girls: to fork hay, build sheaves neatly into stooks, carry out huge baskets. of food and great billies of steaming tea or cool barley-water for farm workers, lead horses home for food and water, ride over hills 'to round up sheep, go all day in the saddle on far mustering work—all these things are full of enjoyment for the healthy boy and girl. When a good day's work is done it is the best of holiday pleasure to go swimming in the cool of the evening or to lie in a country orchard with ripe plums and other fruits hanging deliciously within reach. A holiday spent in this way is better than one spent all in idleness , and those who have been playing or working out in the open, on the hills, in the harvest fields or on the beaches, will prove this when they go back to school next week with browned bodies and fresh minds for the new term's work. They .will, be anxious to make many: good - resolutions for the new year; but if they are wise they-will not talk mueh about thesfe good resolutions. They will work' and play with vigour and if they .keep the good resolutions they will have good v reason for being'proud.; But it lg better to work hard and play hard for the joy of it, —• —