THE PRINCESS IN THE SCHOOLROOM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23082, 7 January 1937, Page 15

THE PRINCESS IN THE SCHOOLROOM

HER KEENNESS FOR GEOGRAPHY The education of Princess Elizabeth is a matter of supreme interest, not only to those within the court circle, but to every one in the Empire over which she may one day be called on to reign. It may be said that recent events will not necessitate any change of plan. At one time Queen Elizabeth had pondered over the idea of sending her daughter to school. King George V, however, is understood to have decided that this course was not practicable in the case of one so near the Throne.

Queen Elizabeth herself was educated at home, with the exception of a brief period spent' as a small girl at a day school in London. Her first teacher was her mother, the Countess of Strathmore, from whom she learned writing, musical notation, dancing, and drawing. Later there came French, with a French governess, and music, with an expert music mistress, besides the details of a good all-round education. COMPREHENSIVE SCHEME

To-day Princess Elizabeth is being trained as a linguist, as has always been the custom in the Royal Family, but there is far more for her to learn in the realms of geography, •economics, history, and the sciences than there* was for former princesses. On the other hand (writes a correspondent of the Daily Telegraph), she will in her palace schoolroom, have all the advantages of the modem methods of education, the well-written, attractively-produced hand books, and all the apparatus which has been de-

signed to make learning a pleasure to the modern child.

It was found possible to arrange that the first years of learning in her parents’ Piccadilly home were not lonely ones for the young Princess. Lessons were to some extent shared with selected companions. There has also been the private dancing class, where Princess' Elizabeth learns poise and deportment. She has to a peculiar degree the art of carrying herself with ease, charm, and a graceful dignity. Her first lessons were from her mother, soon to be succeeded by a resident Scottish governess, for public duties left the Duchess, as she then was, little time for the schoolroom. After this came, in addition, certain specialist tutors who were able to gve their royal pupil the advantages of a full school curriculum and teach her many things outside it. She has learnt to swim, she rides well, and is a promising musician, though less gifted in this respect than her sister. KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGES Princess Elizabeth is. now 10J, and serious lessons may be said to have been well begun fully five years ago. She has made considerable progress with French and German, and also with the rudiments of Latin, History has been given the important place it must have in the training of one called on to play a great part in the life of nations. For her it is not merely the history that her contemporaries are learning at school; she will have to master the principles and precedents of the Constitution, such as many of her father’s subjects never need to learn at all, and those who do study later in life at the universities. She has taken kindly co geography. Far-away parts of the Empire are more than mere names to her; she has received presents from many of them. Even the toys for which she is now growing too old have brought her knowledge of our dominions. She likes to collect photographs of cities and beauty spots, and takes an intimate personal interest in the countries outside the Empire whose reigning families are connected with her own. Classics such as “ Black Beauty ” and “Alice in Wonderland” are among the books she loves. Homecraft has been studied under ideal conditions in the perfectly-equipped little house presented to her by the Welsh nation four years ago and now standing in the grounds at Royal Lodge. STRICT TIME TABLE Nothing is allowed to interfere with the time table of morning lessons. This at first lasted only an hour and a-half, from 9.30 to 11 o’clock, but it has grown with the curriculum and the Princess’s capacity for concentration. Whether at home in Piccadilly or at Royal Lodge, the schedule has provided for the play hours in the open air which are no less necessary than lessons. Always there has been the background of Windsor Castle, and of all those great ceremonial occasions symbolical and significant of centuries of British life. Then, too, she has all her young life had the benefit of the constant society of her mother and of Queen Mary, which, even more than academic attainments, will fit her for her high position as Heir Presumptive to the Throne.