SHORT HOLIDAYS?

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22511, 15 December 1947, Page 6

SHORT HOLIDAYS?

BRITISH TEACHER’S ADVOCACY LONG WEEK-ENDS INSTEAD On the last day of my fortieth year as a teacher I told my form that I was going to employ my leisure in a crusade to cut down the holidays," writes Frank Jones in the Sunday Times, of London. "Then you won’t live long to enjoy your pension,” was the reply of the form humorist. Notwithstanding this threat I have no hesitation in affirming that the present system of holidays is all wrong and that the only possible excuse for a stretch of seven week's idleness is that at the end of it the boy is so fed up with such a period of inaction that he is glad to get back to work. Three sets of people are affected: the teacher, the pupil, and the parent, and of these the parent is the only one likely to support my thesis. I am convinced, however, that, given a fair trial, a new system of holidays would meet with the approval of the other two. First, let us consider the teacher. His hours in school are very short. The time he spends at home in preparation and marking are very much what he chooses to make them. But nobody with the slightest knowledge of teaching will fail to recognise that his job is one that makes great demands on his physical energy. If there is any defence at all for the present system it is on the teacher’s behalf that it can be substantiated. Public School System For the average boy at a day school long holidays have no such defence. The present system originated with the public schools which, being boarding schools, are in a class apart (incidentally, the saving of several weeks feed, laundry, light and heat, and other weekly costs, has an important bearing on the school’s finances). One curious result of this origin is that it became an accepted tradition that the higher a boy’s social position the longer his holidays. And so public school, high school, grammar school and elementary school have hitherto had holidays in descending order of magnitude. This may seem irrational (and even 1 snobbish) but there is a certain common sense in the distinction. The squire’s son in the country with his horse, his gun, his fishing and his golf clubs can fill in his time with pleasure and even profit; the working man’s son in a small house is too often a nuisance to himself and to everybody else. One further reason for the disparity; the boarding-school boy, cut off for threequarters of the year from family life, will benefit from that intercourse with his family that the day-school boy enjoys without interruption. Modern Cry of “Parity”

But with the modern cry of “parity” there has come about a levelling-up of holidays, and for the first time the working man’s wife, urged (be it remembered) by politicians to go out to work, is threatened with having children on her hands for long weeks together, a prospect she naturally faces with dismay. Few town boys have the initiative to amuse themselves and, even if their day schools provide facilities for regular games of football and cricket, few will avail themselves of them. Too often the town boy just lounges about the house or rides up and down tfyp street on his bicycle—and the poor mother suffers. The only benefit accruing from the present long holidays is that the mother may learn from the bitter experience of managing one boy what it is like to have day-long control of from thirty to fifty. So I think I shall at least have the mothers on my side when I suggest that a radical change in the holiday system is eminently desirable. To placate both teacher and pupil let me say at once that the system I advocate need not add a single hour to the time spent in school. All I ask for is a more sensible distribution of the periods of relaxation, Friday to Tuesday Breaks First of all I would advocate more week-end breaks. How grateful and refreshing would be even a monthly break from Friday afternoon to Tuesday morning! The advantages of the “day off” were recognised hundreds of years ago when every major saint’s day was a dies non. Secondly, I would cut down the hours of afternoon school in the summer term and devote the time to games and other occupations in the open air. Thirdly, I would consider whether teachers and pupils alike would not be willing to increase the hours spent in school if compensation were 'made by a substantial reduction in homework. One other change is necessary, not at first sight bound up with the question of holidays. The school certificate and all other examinations must be transferred from July to March. The present time of examinations is an instance of the baleful influence of the domination of the schools by the universities. No other reason can be given for the holding of examinations in the tropical heat which regardless of jokes against the English summer, seems to dog our examination weeks. Under the present system no examination candidate can become a cricketer; and the condition of average school .cricket is a standing proof that, whatever adverse critics may say, the average English schoolboy puts first things first. jhe present system of school holidays is typical of the conservation of English convention. Now that so much is in the melting pot I hope that some enterprising headmaster may be allowed to give my system a trial.