STANDARDS OF SCHOLARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19834, 3 January 1928, Page 9

STANDARDS OF SCHOLARS.

IMPROVEMENT IN LONDON,, CHANGE IN POOR QUARTERS. HYGIENE AND GOOD SPIRIT. By Telegraph—Press Association.—Copyright. Sun. LONDON. Dec. 81. The annual report of! the London County Council on the London schools lor 1926 records an increasing improvement in the poorest quarters as the result of medical service, school caire committer, and the introduction of simpler and more fsuitable forms of dress. Better personal hygiene followed upon the bobbing of hair. Tha changes spread i;rom the infants to the girls but were aot so marked among the boys. A collar census in 1895 in the "toughest" school in London showed that 21 out of 400 boys wore collars, and many went without boots and jackets. By 1926, although linen collars had disappeared, soft collars and blazers were most noticeable, while shorts had replaced trousers. The family history report adrs that the poorest school in London, which was formerly a battleground for parents against the authorities and children against the teachers, to-day shows mo rags and few torn clothes. Tha parents uphold the teachers and the authorities. The sons of former scholars are evolving a public school spirit. They excel at football and do not play truant. They settle their differences with boxing' gloves, with the knowledge of their master, instead of with fisticuffs and behind his back. Corporal punishment is very rare, and tale-telliug and such-like pettiness is unknown. One headmaster recently foaad the worst boy in his school staying in on his own initiative to write down his. science lesson when the remainder had gone homo. The report says that on the first day of the general strike, the teachers in a certain poor neighbourhood were late in arriving at school. They found, hovrever, that the prefects had assembled tha children, conducted prayers nnd started w.rk according to time-table, la another «=ohool a few insurgents typed, in proletarian language, an appeal to the school to strike, but the scholars disregarded it. Six hundred boys are coached in cricket a'; the grounds of private clubs.