LONDON’S SCHOOLBOYS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 31 December 1927, Page 5

LONDON’S SCHOOLBOYS

IN POOREST QUARTERS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CONDUCT. SOME NOTABLE EXAMPLES. BY CABLE-PRESS ASSOCIATION -COPYRIGHT Received 10.30 a.m. to-day. LONDON, Dec. 30. The London County Council’s report on London schools in 1926 records an increasing improvement in the poorest quarters as a result oi the medical service in schools, care committees, and instruction in simpler and more suitable forms, of dress. Better personal hygiene followed the bcbbingi of hair, the changes spreading from the infants to the girls, but not in so marked a degree’ in the boys. Although the collar census in 1895 in the toughest school in London showed that 21 out of 400 wore collars and many went without boots and jackets, by 1926 linen collars had disappeared, hut soft collars and blazers were most noticeable, while shorts had replaced trousers. The family history report adds : “The poorest school in London, which was formerly a battleground of parents against authority, and of children against teachers, to-day shows no rage and few torn clothes. , Parents uphold the teachers and authority. Sons of former scholars are evolving the public. school spirit, and excel in football; they do not play truant, and settle their differences with the boxing gloves, with the knowledge of the master, instead of with fisticuffs behind his back. Corporal punishment is very rare; tale-telling and suchlike pettiness unknown. A headmaster recently found the worst boy in the school staying in on his own initiative to write down a science lesson on light, when the remainder had gone home.”

The report discloses that on the first day oi' the general strike the teachers in a pcor neighbourhood were late in arriving, but found that the prefects had assembled the children, conducted prayers, and had started work according to the time-table. In another school a few insurgents typed in proletarian language an appea, to the school to strike, but the scholars disregarded it. Six hundred boys are coached in cricket at private and club grounds.—“ Sydney Sun” cable.