INTO THE ROUGH
SIR,—! think Mrs. Herbert might find it difficult to show that there is a correlation between criminalitY and nursery schools, but in any case, she seems to have an extraordinary ignorance of the nature of the three-year-old. No child of this age would care for the solitary delights of a playroom, and his creative activity would scarcely consist of making toy theatres with gold paint or whittling armadas. He would be much more likely to busy himself, like the three-year- old I know best, with playing with the detergent suds disappearing down the drain, with scrubbing up the lavatory floor with the contents of the Harpic or with 'watering' the flowers with a bottle of turps. In other words the requirements of the three-year-old are social life and a kindly but thorough supervision. It is extremely doubtful whether any mother can supply this half as well as a class of children of the same age, and a teacher whose sole concern it is to understand and encourage creative development. For most mothers are concerned, not as Mrs. Herbert seems to think, in producing dream homes, but in achieving the far simpler ideal of keeping a familY fed, clothed and comfortable.
For these reasons many of us feel that nurserY schools arc not a luxury but a necessity.which anY education authority which knew its job would supply without question. It is the mistaken idealism of people like Mrs. Herbert which discourages than from doing so.—Yours faithfully,
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