LEISURE IN SCHOOLS Stn,—A recent letter in The Spectator, December
3irst, quotes the experience of two girls in two schools who find no time for reading. This calls attention to a grave defect in most schools, •boys' as well as girls'. Few schools arrange times for leisure-hour pursuits, voluntary enterprise. Those of us who have been in any of the few schools can testify to the educational worth of the system.
As a schoolboy I found that one afternoon each week was allotted to " Quiet Employments." That meant no games and no regular school- work. Natural history, astronomy, carpentry, drawing and reading were some of the pursuits. I can name many men who carried their chosen subject into late life. And over the last thirty years I can point to boys whose voluntary enterprise helped them to win university scholarships.
White Papers and Education Acts will not remedy the defect. It must be done by governors of schools, headmasters and headmistresses.—Yours, •
Furze Hill, The Sands, Farnham, Surrey.
ARTHUR ROWNTREE.
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