SIR, —Here is one teacher who heartily en- dorses Mr. Bentall's
suggestion that we press for shorter holidays. The endless summer break, originally meant (says Mr. Bentall) to let country children work on the farm, is today an outrage. Probably the authorities have dis- covered that if you keep mum and quietly chop a day off here and there, nobody notices and you save the odd bob on the overheads. They may also hope that teachers will grumble less about part-pay if they only get part-work.
Common sense (old-fashioned) and psy- chology (modern) agree that little and often is a better dosage for learning than much and seldom. In the present system teachers and children are on edge and under pressure be- cause the few hours they have together are hurried and too crowded. Corners are cut and the deadline threatens. The proper tempo of education is leisurely, cheerful and relaxed.
Wastages Mr. Bentall did not mention : (1) 'school journeys' during the term; (2) time off for sickness (children are always ill); (3) annual holiday with parents taken during term; (4) periodic flaps — speech days, sports days, end-of-term mania, start-of-term dementia, and so on. To make headway against these neces- sary or inevitable menaces the teacher must have more time—a lot more.
Many other countries are more sane about their school year. Children, parents and teachers would surely prefer (they may not admit it) forty-six weeks of unhurried learning in the schools to thirty-five weeks raced against the clock—thirty-five weeks, several of which are spent in tedious revision of work forgotten during seventeen weeks of demoralising idle- ness.
This is an important matter which may even have some bearing on the narrowing'curricu- lum which is worrying so many people. I can't understand why it never seems to be debated publicly.—Yours faithfully,
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