One of the most striking changes for the better is the evidence of care of the children’s health, of which some of the external signs are doctor, nurse and care committee.  A sense of responsibility in this respect is gradually growing in the schools; a fair number provide for sleep, a few try to train the children to eat lunch slowly and carefully, and some try to arrange for milk or cod-liver oil in the case of very delicate children.  Though these instances are very much in the minority, they represent a change of spirit.  This is one of the striking characteristics of the new Education Bill.  A legacy from the old formalism lies in the fact that every room has a highly organised time-table, except perhaps in the Babies’ Room, where the children’s actual needs are sometimes considered first.  The morning in most classes is occupied with Scripture, Reading, Arithmetic, Writing, and some less formal work, such as Nature lesson or Recitation; some form of Physical Exercise is always taken.  The afternoons are mostly devoted to Games, Stories, Handwork and Singing:  this order is not universal, but the general principle holds, of taking the more difficult and formal subjects in the morning.  In the Babies’ Room some preparation for reading is still too frequent.  The lessons are short and the order varied, but in one single morning or afternoon there is a bewildering number of changes.  Some years ago the unfortunate principle was laid down in the Code, that fifteen minutes was sufficient time for a lesson in an Infant School, and though this is not strictly followed the lessons are short and numerous, giving an unsettled character to the work; children appear to be swung at a moment’s notice from topic to topic without an apparent link or reason:  for example, the day’s work may begin with the story of a little boy sent by train to the country, settled at a farm and taken out to see the cow and the sow:  soon this is found to be a reading lesson on words ending in “ow,” but after a short time the whole class is told quite suddenly, that one shilling is to be spent at a shop in town, and while they are still interested in calculating the change, paints are distributed, and the children are painting the bluebell.  The whole day is apt to be of this broken character, which certainly does not make for training in mental concentration, or for a realisation of the unity of life.  Some teachers still aim at correlation, but in a rather half-hearted way:  others have entirely discarded it because of its strained applications, but nothing very definite has taken its place.

The curriculum which has been given is varied in character, and sometimes includes a “free period.”  Except in the Babies’ Class the three R’s occupy a prominent place, and children under six spend relatively a great deal of time in formal subjects, while children between six and seven, if they are still in the Infant School, are taught to put down sums on paper, which they could nearly always calculate