REST FOR SCHOOLGIRLS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22504, 23 February 1935, Page 17

REST FOR SCHOOLGIRLS

4 TIME TO' GO TO BED What time should schoolgirls go to bed? This question, asked and answered by a London schoolmistress, has raised another —that of the effect of wireless on the schoolgirl and boy of to-day. Miss C. A. Cross, 8.A., headmistress of East Ham Grammar School for Girls, who is retiring after 30 years’ educational service, in her farewell speech, said that all schoolgirls should be in bed by 9.30, and expressed her anxiety at the “increasing distaste” for homework and for real concentrated effort in school hours. It was suggested by Miss Cross that the continuous sound of wireless sets and gramophones engenders the habit of hearing without a corresponding mental effort, and that the lure of the kinema keeps the schjolgirl occupied long after she should be in bed. In effect, she maintains that wireless is making a nation of “ half-listeners.” Educationists and medical men confirmed the view that girls and boys should be in bed by 9.30 p.m. Here are representative opinions:— Miss E. Allwood, senior mistress of St. Margaret’s School, Bushey, Hertfordshire: “I agree with the remarks of Miss Cross on the question of early bedtime.”

A Harley street doctor: “There is little doubt that the accessibility of amusements tends to keep children up too late. It is the experience of school medical officers that much of the tired appearance and mental and physical ‘flabbiness’ is directly attributable to lack of proper sleeping hours.” Miss Rennie, honorary secretary of the Parents’ Association; “Wc are about to hold a conference at which doctors, schoolmasters, schoolmistresses and parents will give their views. Tests made recently in the United States showed that children who were slightly underfed but had 10 hours’ sound sleep were more healthy, than children who were overfed and had less sleep.”