THE SUMMER HOLIDAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 May 1930, Page 8

THE SUMMER HOLIDAY.

Sir Thomas Sidey's proposal to change the summer holiday period for tne schools has been discussed at meetings of citizens in various parts of the Dominion, but without arousing any greatenthusiasm, The Taranaki gatherings at which the subject was mentioned this week evidently found considerable ’difficulty in forming opinions on it, though it was si that consideration of the proposal was likely to be worth while. There is much to be said in favour of the scheme to relieve children of school duties and give them the opportunity to spend their time out of doors during February, the hottest month of the year, but this is not the only way to make a desirable change at the height of summer. In Taranaki and elsewhere the scheme of lengthening the morning school period and closing for the afternoon seems to have worked very well. Perhaps the general adoption of this scheme would meet the needs of the case without causing any disturbance. A break of a fortnight at Christmas, followed by three weeks’ school, is a proposal that must naturally be viewed with some doubt. Even after a fortnight children would take a little while to settle down again, and their work might suffer. To restrict the Christmas and New Year holiday periods to a couple of days each would be impossible unless all kinds of business adopted the same system, and that would not be likely. The present holiday period is observed more or less completely all the world over, and New Zealand could not afford to substitute another period for it, especially the busy February, unless the world altered its calendar. It is, of course, part of Sir Thomas Sidey's plan to make one very important alteration in the calendar—the fixing of Easter—but again New Zealand can scarcely act alone ' ’ such a matter. So many interests are involved that it would be a very difficult matter indeed to plan a new holiday arrangement which would suit everybody. On the whole it seems that the best results can be obtained by arranging the school hours so that the children need not be kept indoors at work during the hottest hours of the hottest days.