SIMPLE LIFE FOB SCHOOL BOYS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 22 February 1916, Page 8

SIMPLE LIFE FOB SCHOOL BOYS.

HEAD MASTER'S CRUSADE

The simple life for schoolboys was one of the war-time subjects before the annual general meeting of the Incorporated Association of Head Masters in London recently. It arose from a group of five resolutions on war economies in education, standing in the name of Sir John McClure, head master of Mill Hill. Unanimously and ■without discussion it was resolved:

"That this association do consider the best means of reducing the expense of school life, and that all its members pledge themselves to seize this opportunity of making simplicity of living a, marked feature of English public schools."

One of the head masters, interviewed by the Daily Mail afterwards, said: "If the public schools represented the aristocracy of character and ability in England the matter would be simple; but the chief factor is whether the parents can afford the fees. The result is competition in the standard of Hying, in dress, and luxuries generally in the schools. This promotes vulgarity. Boys' minds are set on the rewards of wealth rather than on the forms of culture for which they ore sent to school. You cannot train character amid excessive comfort. We want more of the real Spartan spirit in our class rooms. Speaking of "economy for its own sake, there is plenty of room for reform. The raising of fees by expensive extras, the excessive "amounts spent on sport, the heavy outlays on stationery and books and on food, suggest some directions where great economies could be made."