BACK TO SCHOOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19550, 1 February 1927, Page 12

BACK TO SCHOOL.

THE FIRST-DAY INFANTS. GOOD-BYE TO BABYHOOD. SNAPSHOTS IN PLAYTIME. THE MODERN CLASSROOM. They bade goocl-bye to babyhood yester- . day morning—those many hundreds of Auckland's very junior citizens who set off for their first day at school where, to quote the average mother on such an occasion, they lose all their pretty ways. These five-year-olders may not be aware that they have changed their status. According to their respective temperaments they will continue to regard life as a rare lark or an impenetrable enigma or a natural affair that is as clear as day until school tasks give them their first lessons in personal responsibility. .For the moment they have no notion of what it is all about. Out Into t,lie World. At' the mid-morning recess, when a drizzling rain kept them to the shelters, many were still perplexed about this sudden change that had overtaken thera. While, last, year's vintage bubbled merrily in the infants' shelter, this year's, or some of it, sat silently on the seat along the wall. The faces here and there showed clearly that they had begun to understand the loneliness.of the crowd. From a few pairs of big eyes tears were welling. Home and mother seemed very far away. They had been basely deserted or cruelly abandoned. This seething mass of shrieking children was all very well in its way but mother mattered most just then. • Why had this been done to them ? Why had they been put in twos at little seats to be talked to by an utter stranger who was very nice and all thatj but certainly not mother, who understood everything without being told ? It was incomprehensible. They remembered that mother had said she would meet them when they came out of school, but -when might that be? Too many strange "peoples" altogetherf-' And so they sat and fought back tears- and felt they would never be pavt of the joyful pandemonium going on around them. Left Wondering. When the bell rang there was a wild rush to the schoolrooms, but one of the first day division, a tiny chap in whito silk socks and silk shirt and navy serge pants with shoulder straps (his mother's own boy without a doubt, but ho will soon be plamouring for "older" clothes, poor chap), did not drop to the idea. He sat still wondering mildly what new game tf?as to develop from the stampede. Then he found himself entirely alone except for one elderly man of about nine, who was having trouble in fastening up the bandage on his ankle. The little fellow cast his wondering gaze around and then bolted for' class—his first realisation that time was no longer his own. Those who had been "brought" by an elder brother or sister were in better case than some of the solitary mites. Their footing was more or less established, particularly if "major" was also an infant and entitled to use the shelter of that division. One "major" was a girl who was determined to do the full duty of a mother toward Little Brother. But Little Brother displayed an independent streak in his character. He made playful advances to another little boy who had the graceful sort of timidity of a gazelle. This little boy toyed with Little Brother's blue tie and Little Brother tugged at each other fellow's belt. Little Mother, fearing war, dashed forward, separated the affable pair and with her round his neck led Little Brother away. One fears that Little Brother will soon lose his "pretty ways" and go home one day with a very black eye and a bleeding nose. Joyful Barbarians. Already he has an interest in the senior boys' shelter shed. There the male gender in its most barbarous state enjoyed its recess by indulging in the finest sort of horseplay imaginable. It stood on the long seat and each end pushed inwards, veiling meantime the friendliest insults. When Little Brother roaches that shelter his dear mother will have forgotten that he ever had "pretty ways." In a colo.urea-glass window of the infant department of the school in question there are these words:—"The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here The way to be happy is to make others happy." Three truths. The modern school, with its light and air and cleanliness and brightness, is certainly a place for happiness and the modern methods of teaching, which lead instead of drive, develop instead of break, will soon remove* the doubt and tears which some of tho babes have brought with them. The New Spirit. It is difficult for a man who was schooled in the days of "blood and slaughter," in buildings which had the gloom of prisons, to realise what a transformation there has been in a very few years. Teachers to-dav—or most of then? —cultivate the comradely spirit with the children, whose confidence they usually win. The old restraints are gone. The children do not fear authority and therefore respect it more, and they are not afflicted with the self-consciousness which was noticeable under the old regime. In every class, from the smallest- infants to the oldest boys and girls, the constant, effort is to develop their initiative, to cause them to ask why and to seek the answer. Here hangs a school-made thermometer and beside it is a graph recording tho temperature of each month. Because it is a primitive instrument it is not exact, but the number of points it is at fault is known and it has become the habit of the older boys to check the readings against those of the post office instrument, The gardens and grounds /ire kept in order by the children. Each teacher is allotted an area and his "people" fit is refreshing to hear a headmaster speak of the "people" of the school!-do the work, and they do it well. . Cricket is played both by bovs and girls,'the school having numbers of teams under captains appointed by general election. The children make their own pitches, they have made their own wickets out of piping, and there are stirring contests between the Comrades, Silver Spurs, Kiwis, Buccaneers, Colts, All Whites, Pioneers and Kanris. Happy children? Their fortune is greater than they know.