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they should learn at school not only the
basic ‘Three R’s’ but how to apply them to every day life.
This is the policy that I did my best to achieve. Some of you
reading this chapter will have been in the school when I was
there and may remember, I hope with some pleasure and amusement,
some of the ways in which we carried out these ideas.
We were fortunate in the position of our school on
the edge of White Ash Woods, and nature rambles through the
woods added a great deal of knowledge to the minds of even
country children who were used to these surroundings. One day I
remember we found a dead magpie lying in the middle of our path.
It bore no sign of injury and indeed was still slightly warm.
The children gathered around and expressed their surprise at the
beauty of the bird, which they had been bought up to regard only
as a pest. In particular what astonished them most was the deep
blue sheen on the feathers, which they had |
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always taken for granted were black. Needless
to say the corpse was carried reverently back to be given a
state funeral. A waste of time? I think not – a new respect
for all living things may have been born in some of those young
minds.
One of the things which I found worried parents
most was the fact that when children returned from school at the
end of the day and were asked, ‘what have you done at school
today?’ The answer frequently given was, ‘Nothing much’.
Because of this, anxious parents often asked me what we actually
did – if anything. Actually younger children regard the
following of the normal timetable as a matter of course and
therefore it amounts to nothing much. They take it for granted
and expect you to do the same. If they were asked, ‘Did you do
any reading today?’ The answer would be, ‘Yes’; ‘Did you
do some maths today?’ again, ‘Yes’; ‘Did you |