So far as evacuated children are concerned the success of
the scheme must depend to a large extent on the teachers. Their help in the matter of discipline is obviously needed on occasion out of school hours as well as in, and if they should show signs of discontent with their new conditions the children can hardly be expected to settle in as they should. It would not be fair to generalise from isolated instances. I can only say that such information as happens to have come my way suggests that the women teachers are playing their part in that respect better than the men. There is all the difference between making the best and the worst of a situa- tion which nobody likes. When teachers complain of their billets and the school accommodation available, talk of try- ing to get back to London (like the evacuated mothers), and openly advise their pupils to do the same, it seems pertinent to recall the existence of a Conscription Act. The condition of exemption is the performance of work of national import- ance in a proper spirit.
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