LORD BORDER’S IDEAL SCHOOL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23865, 20 July 1939, Page 2

LORD BORDER’S IDEAL SCHOOL

A definition of his ideal school was given by Lord Border, the King’s physician, speaking at Bedales School. “If I were sending my ewe lamb to school for the first time,” he said, “I should want to be satisfied that the child would be given the essential foundation of selfdiscipline, and would acquire good manners, cleanliness, and punctuality. I would not bother about academic training-—nobody bothered about mine. But I should bother about health, about food, and more and more about rest both of the body and of the mind. I should bother about the possibilities of manual work, about some chance of close contact with the good earth, and I should still make an inquiry as to the possibility of the pursuit of what used to be called the gentler arts. I should like to see the staff and to check over the type of persons engaged in the tutorial work. I would run a mile from any crank, taking my precious bairn with me, and I would be suspicious of orange ties, hair which was too long, and tweeds which were too furry. I would assess progress in terms of human happiness and contentment rather than by the number of pupils who got their school certificate at the minimum age, or the importance of the positions filled and the size of the salaries earned by past students.”