Nelson Evening Mail FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1919. HOT LUNCHES IN SCHOOLS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 103, 2 May 1919, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1919. HOT LUNCHES IN SCHOOLS.

THERE ai’e signs that the time is arriving when the general public will i take as much interets in live children l as in live stock. Hr a general sort |of way, the Education Department, cannot* do more than reflect the intentions of the public as a whole. A; Step in the right direction, indicating ’ increasing care for school children, is : the circular of the Minister of Education on the subject of school lunches. I Unfortunately little notice has so far ibeen taken of the matter in the Nelson ( district, ’ but in Dunedin things were ! even worse, and the Star says, the I circular in some weird way became a I kind of householders’ joke. Few of the parents gathered together there rccent- | ]y to elect new committees gave it the I serious consideration it so clamantly | deserved. Some were mystified by it. * Others thought it such a preposterous I fad that they openly laughed it to ! scorn. At one meeting, indeed, in a ! city farther north than Dunedin, it

was moved that' tire document lie on the table for 12 months as a constant reminder of Ministerial absurdity. But the boot, unfortunately, is on the other foot. As the Star well says, school lunches ought to be as little of a novelty these days as hygienic drink-ing-jots. or movable window-sashes. In Otago especially, and all the colder districts, the absence of arrangements for providing hot meals is as fusty an anachronism as Cobb and Co.’s coaches. What difference can there be in principle between the provision of outward warmth by fires and the supplying of internal heat by warm and nourishing food? Let us face the facts. It is no more possible for children to do their best work hungry and cold than it is feasible for teachers to be true educators if the simplest axioms of physical well-being ato banished with contempt from the Syllabus. Fearfully and with latent misgivings still we have at last called in the doctor, and parleyed timidly with the ! dentist. If it is permissible to cure ills is surely is safe to prevent them 'altogether. Emerson’s “Cast the bantling on the rocks may bo an excellent thing spiritually—as the philosopher himself, of course, alone intended it—but to follow it physically is 'to steer straight for the abyss. The Dominion must indeed do one thing or the other, provide every necessary condition for institutional well-being, or end public schools altogether. There ( is no logical stopping-place short of j the comfots and graces of home. And i there is another aspect no less important. As wo have just said, it is absurd to talk about education if we leave out the body. Learning is one thing, living another. What finer op Iportuuity could there be of adjusting 1 the two than the preparation and eating of a simple but wholesome lunch? Are children clean? Do the? realise the danger of flies? Do the? chew their food, brush their teeth avoid unwholesome stuff, understand j the social meaning of restraint, court esy. and co operation? The veiiesi

•tyro-in pedalogics knows that the big gulf the school has never bridged is the gap between, formal teaching and various living. In America, France Norway, and most of the largo centres of Britain school lunches have beei provided for many years where tin parents are engaged during the day dr where they are too poor to provid< good meals. Fortunately, oven in tin largo centres of New Zealand the ne cessity for such arrangements does no. appear. But in country districts, where children travel far -and cannot get home for a midday meal, cocoa, soup, etc., might well he provided ai cost price. In the City and large town schools a slightly lengthened dinner hour would enable the children to go home and return comfortably, their mothers attending to the preparation and serving of the necessary hot meal. Already teachers have a multiplicity of duties; wo must not add unnecessarily to them. As for the practical difficulties, they are almost negligible. More money would be required for incidental expenses. Let that be granted at once. But except for ranges, hot water, gas, etc., the othci charges would be absurdly small. Children who could not bring pennies would be very few indeed, though it would lie necessary to allow for a little difficulty where two or three come from one homo. Others would provide a penny, twopence, or threepence each day, and would receive in return cocoa, soup, and other sustaining refreshments. At a typical school m America —we quote at pre-war prices a threecent token buys a large bowl of soup with fresh toast, any hot vegetable, coffee, cocoa, or hot milk. Two tokens buy hot roast meat, with dressing and gravy, or an ample bowl of shredded wheat and cream. Would it not be better than those who spend pennies injuriously now ou pastiy and lollies should be tempted to spend them in the school kitchen!