SCHOOL HOURS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10273, 15 February 1894, Page 6

SCHOOL HOURS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —Will you permit me to inquire of some of your numerous readers what are the usual school hours in North Canterbury. I was always under the impression ■ that they were five par day—-three in the fore and two in the afternoon, but it is not an uncommon-.occurrence Jjor some of my children to be kept lit half or three-parts of the dinner hour; and 4 or even 4.30 is the time they are most frequently released in the afternoon, and this with the usual accompaniment of home-work. If my surmise is ‘correct, surely the Boards of Education does not sanction such an unwarrantable stretch of authority on the part of any of their teachers. I make 'the above inquiry before bringing the matter under the ■ Board’s notice. The pale arid sickly appearance of many of the children should be sufficient indication to any sensible teacher that he is confining his pupils too long in the close atmosphere of the schoolroom. But I fear some of them think that the public schools were instituted wholly and solely to enable them to obtain big averages, and thereby establish a claim for preferment, no matter at what cost to the unfortunate children.—l am, &c., MOTHER.