SCHOOL HOURS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 45, 23 February 1939, Page 14

SCHOOL HOURS

STRAIN ON PUPILS

A DUBLIN APPEASEMENT

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" Londor Representative.) LONDON, February 2. A call for the shortening of school hours, so that undue mental and physical stress would not be put on boys, was made loy the Very Rev. J. G. McEneaney, S.M., president of the Catholic University School, at the annual dinner of the C.U.S. Union, in Dublin. The length of the present school hours was also criticised by Dr. J. F. O'Grady, president of St. Mary's. College Union, and by Alderman Byrne, T.D., Lord Mayor. The Lord Mayor said that if a plebiscite of parents in Dublin was taken on the question, he had no doubt there would be an overwhelming vote for an immediate revision of the programme. Proposing the toast of "Our Old School," Mr. G. P. S. Hogan, president of the C.U.S. Union, welcomed the Most Rev. Dr. O'Shea, Archbishop of Wellington, and wished him success in the work which had brought him to Ireland —the organisation of the Irish contingent to the Eucharistic Congress in Wellington in 1940. Their old school, he said, was founded under the guidance of Cardinal Newman, who entrusted to the Marist Fathers the task of providing a secondary school that would be a feeding ground for the old Catholic University. The Catholic University had gone, but the National University remained. THE AFTERNOON BREAK. The Very Rev. J. G. McEneaney said that during the year the school had held its own in the educational sphere. He had before referred to the overcrowding of the programme by matter in individual subjects, and, according to rumours, these subjects would be considerably lightened in the future. He wished, however, to refer to the undue stress brought on young boys, who were expected to work for longer hours than their parents. Boys in most of the schools in the country were expected to work from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., with three or four hours of home work at night. In the C.U.S. they had felt for many years that this was putting an undue stress on the physical and mental lives of the boys, and they had taken the bold step of cutting down the school day by an hour. Now in the C.U.S. the boys went home at 2 p.m., which meant that they could get a substantial meal at a reasonable hour, and would have ample time for recreation in the hours between the school day and home work. Even in the short experience they had of the change it had been very beneficial. In the past it was found that pupils were listless between 2 and 3 p.m., and now the boys were fresh all day long and were able to imbibe knowledge far more freely. Very large schools, he thought, savoured too much of mass production. IN NEW ZEALAND. His Grace the Archbishop of Wellington referred to conditions in New Zealand, and said Catholics there had done great work under difficulties. Any Irishmen who loved the land, and who were ready to go out to New Zealand, would be welcomed not only by himself but by the Government.. He had listened with great interest to the question of education discussed, and he believed that no education was perfect unless it developed the moral faculties as well as the intellectual faculties. A secondary education was of great importance in bringing forth leaders in any country. Dr. J. F. O'Grady congratulated the Catholic University School authorities on having introduced the 2 p.m. innovation. This was not an ideal arrangement, but it was a step in the right direction, and he hoped it would result in a complete change in the school hours in Dublin. The present school hours in Dublin, in the majority of schools, were injurious to the health of growing children, especi- j ally adolescent children—the most important years of an individual's life. Children required hot meals at proper hours. It was no cause for pride that this was practically the only country in the world which denied its school children a hot meal in the middle of the day. Preparations were being taken to ward off possible destruction from the air in the event of a European war, but thousands of school children were being poisoned in the classrooms of Dublin.