SCHOOLS OF PLAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 18 February 1911, Page 10

SCHOOLS OF PLAY.

——» : A LONDON ENTERPRISE. [Br Evelyn Isitt.] IFob Tiie Dominion.! It was the East End of London as on© had read of it, this (luring thoroughfare down Whitccbapelway, where the brightncsajof tho shopis and the gin-j?alaces contrasted bo painfully with the. wretclied.ness and squalor of tho people, and one did not quite like the idea of turning down any of those narrow side streets towards ilio docks to search for a school, name • unknown, especially when ' the policeman at the corner said:— "It's not a very nice place, Miss. Better hold on to your bag., You always havo to bo very careful here in the East End, you know." ' ' Tho "next policeman Tather dubiously directed me through, a long twisting street where the shops were doublebanked with a row of stalls laden with Crockery, sweets, vegetables, clothing, meat, and—of all tilings, in the .wide world—little goldfish in small glass bowls. Poverty-stricken women with shawls Over their heads drifted about from stall to stiill, tho roughest of men passed through in groups on their way home from work," and -here and there' along tho pavement charming children were piayiug, children with flower-like faces,: their pinafores con-. Spicuously clean, since this was Monday, and Sunday's cleanness still held good. It was very dark in the squalid street beyond, and darker still in the side street where stood the great school .buildings that I had Come to see, tho school whero fivo hundred happy little boys and girls wore being taught t6 play. ; This was an idea of Mrs. Humphrey Ward's, and it is due to her as chairman, hon. secretary, r.iuLtreasurer of tho Evening Play Centres' Committee that today in the very, poorest parts of London, in Poplar,' Battersea, Bethnal Green, Ist lington, and other similar districts,' there , are fifteen schools where, in the early evenings the children are brought in from the streets and kept at games or some other-happy employment, a privilege, so valued that during the winter nlonths tho .weekly- attendanco at the- centres reaches as high a .figure as. 30,0Qp._ The centres are open fivo evenings in the" Week, and on ■ Saturday mornings during forty weeks of-the year, .. .

Desperately P00r.., . .' ~.X , .' The school I-had-chosen to sso was in .the-very poorest'neighbourhood, right up. against the London docks; and many of tse children wero dosperately poor, a large number of them coming from homes of two rooms, or perhaps only one. A bright-faced, baro-footea boy -told us that bis father was out of work, his mother was able to earn nothing, and he and bis sister practically doponaed on the meals supplied by .the, schools, while the superintendent told tis 'that the football team, which is .one of the best of London's school teams, was sadly hampered by tho bonditiorivof the boys''.boots, "the soles having often to be-hastily secured to tho uppers by string beforo'the beginning of a match.';. - No wonder an appeal is made for old football boots. '/

[ With all their poverty the children do "not look unhappy. • Thoy have pretty, clear skins, though , they are rather col-. ; ourlcss, and somo—especially the little, Jewish children—have bright, vivid faces.. What most is the strained ■'look about their eyes, for even more than ' by want of food is tho London poor child '-troubled by want of sleep. They stay .up till all hours, and infaits who should (; be asleep by seven, 'when eleven' o'clock •Icfcikes aro still Rooking on at.'wakeful, ~-liVely London.}. Pitiful little ifaws ,'ono ■ sees; with jmeteadv nervous lips; and ivist- , ful, uncomprehending eyes, but these happily; are in tho minority. ' . In tho , main hall of the' building we found a number of- little girls doing a ■ pretty flag drill, each- waving a couple of ■ Union Jacks, while'in ir far-off corner the •,lil:tl<j niccfe ofj..pno".Qfj.tho teachers was ■edrntstly teaching-a fancy, dance to a ..picked class of half a dozen children ;'cnch of them aff earnest and intent as 'she.'. ; ' x -' *' - 'i /■' i -• Singing Ganfe's. ■'> i ,

. These schools make a speciality of sing--1 ing games, the old "traditional games which have been played by .English children for ,'centuries, and which 'are believed: to' embody ..in- thiir' modernised form''fragments of ceremonies or of ritual that existed horo perh&ps before the introduction of-Christianity, and tho charm ing action songs recently written'for children of this ■'day. It was those singing games that I particularly wanted to see, ,aiid after the ilag-drill bad been !fallowed 'by a barh-dahce, very gaily enjoyed, the girls formed into two lone rows for tho I game of the Rovers. This old > game, which- Xr,have never seen played in'"New Zealand,'is very fine and martiaVi, and much better-as a play than that stand-by of all jJibriics, Nuts and May.-

, "Wo arecoming to take your land:- tWe nro flib-Eovcrs. . We are'.goming to»take your land,though guardian, soldiers," • • sings One row, answered with defiance-by the opposing 'band, and the verbal quarrel; many ; 'verses long, ends with a mimie combat. The. children entered into the K.liuo with an amazing zest, and great dramatic feeling, and no less did they enjoy the next, an action song of the "Mulberry Bush" order, which beginning happily with "When I ( was-a young girl how happy was I" records the happen-, ings of a woman's life, ; working up to the sorrowful, climax, "When my baby died, died, oh, died, when my baby died, how sad was I." i . ■ .

: How sad were the children, and how they enjoyed their elaborate display . of grief. I had seen other quaint Olid pretty {Singing ; games,played by smaller: children at the l'assmore Edwards Settlement with just as much delight, and there is no doubt that when the words avo well known, and appropriate actions taught, children love these games more'than any others. ' Most children have to be taught to ploy, and in Our New Zealand towns, it would, be well- worth 'while to make use of the school playgrounds and classrooms after, school, hours to teach the ehildren, such games,, especially worth while in Wellington where so, few homes have gardens for children to play in. Drill and Dancing, > v " Singing games though so popular aW only a small part of the programme at the; play centres.- Drill and dancing have their place, and in an. upstairs room Where the older girls had'been dancing for/an hour'without intermission, we Jvatched them do some fancy dances, and then ear,- a gavotte danced by a group of boys and girls, the boys, who were about fourteen, the most unlikely age, and. of the most unlikely type, going through the • performance - - with ■1 an extraordinary pleasure and' lacko'of '■ self-consciousness, ■ •though. ,ds we afterwards learned they were -comparatively. new.to the school.-' A> number, of. them thondaiiced a. hornpipe, and wining through that big hall later on we found the children formed into a big circle, in the middle of which the little girl istructreSs was dancing the Hofnpipo by herself to show how .it should really be done, while tho big boys leaned forward watching her steps with eager delight, and applauding her at the ush with great enthusiasm. As we came through the market again after the school was over, onco more the Hornpipe .was being danced, this.timo in an.arch-' way by some of the lads of the stroet, who apparently were taking lessons from a p!ay-c4ntro pupil. ' ■ In the room devoted to quiet games, between thirty and forty, boys seatod at tho desks were employed with draughts, -halina, fish-ponds, or somo such quiet amusement,' carrying on lively conversations' the while. These same quiet games aro said to • be as useful as any othoivpart; of the evening's occupations, arid to have a very steadying effect on 'the restloss children. The instructors note how boys who at first can fettle to nothing will soon spend tho evening hour quito_ happily at one game, and they derive much interest and amusement from, tho conversations carried on by tho children;

it was in a,classroom patronised by tire football team for reading and gam«! that one boy, playing animal lotto, said to another: "I say, what's a zebra?" and likoa flash his companion .answered. "It's n sort of donkey with'n-football jersey on." The smallest children—they are admitted at. the age of five—have their quiet gan)os 'l'Oonvnud there we found fifty adorable infants sitting' at desks and

ytaiiuj, nuu uutid, ouiuaa»», ana other toys, perfectly happy. These small people have to be very carefully watched, tor they become devotedly attached to the toy of the evening and part from it with pain. ' . The children of tho next stage were weaving mats of coloured paper in a room where on other nights they are taught to model in plasticine, or paint pictures, and very well indeed do somo of them draw and colour, the girls taking special pleasure in illustrating fairy, tales. : In the boys' painting room some forty or fifty boys were copying a picture of a house from a blackboard, and colouring it according to their, own fancy,, and hero tho instructor showed us some excellent pictures they had done of birds, and animals, and figures, * pictures in somo cases almost incredibly good. . Handwork Classes. Theso ore primarily play centres, but tho children are encouraged to choose for themselves occupation in. one of tho handwork. classes. The Tioys . leara " to' mend their own boots, to do wood-carv-ing and woodwork, boys and girls alike are taught basket-work, and the- girls are very fond of tho needlework andf knitting classes, whilo at tho Children's Recreation School, at tho Passmore Edwards Settlement, founded by Mrs. Humphry Ward many years ago, from which all these play centres !took their origin, the girls are also taught cooking. The superintendents encourage V the children :to attend one" class regularly for a reasonable time, and they find that it is through the handwork classes, which also include painting and modelling, that most hold is gained oh the more "difficult" boys. . During the summer the play centre shifts to the playground, and in place of the handwork classes there are playground games wiU. a games master and games mistress in charge, while baby games and toys are provided for the tiny children.

There is much in the idea of these play centres that would be useful in Now Zealand towns, but in New Zealand tho need is rather to make use of tho playground out of school .hours than ot the classrooms, and we have practically nothing like the class , of children among whom these play teachers work. One reads of a district "where in a hundred cases investigated, 67 children, a third of them, under seven years of age; were locked ont of after School hours till 7, 8,: or even 9 o'clock at night, because their mothers were at .work, and normally "those children■would.be in the streets from 4 to 7 or 8 at -night iii . all- weathers. ' .- Generally speaking,; a ohild is supposed to ..attend a play centre' on only two or three nights •in the .'week, but in; special cases they may attend every night. So successful > hove thess London play centres proved, that - the same idea is being adopted in other large towns •ii England, while in.Scotland, Edinburgh, and in Ireland, Dublin, have led the 1 , way in this, provision for the playtime of their poor children., • It is a very great work, and the effect on the children is increasingly satisfactory.' .. :: \