Schools of to-morrow in England

Educat.H.
R.

ftansoni, Josephine

Schools of to-morrow in
England ,

I

Schools of To- Morrow
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By JOSEPHINE RANSOM

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SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW
IN ENGLAND

SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW
IN ENGLAND

BY

JOSEPHINE RANSOM

AUTHOR OF "OUR PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION," AND "INDIAN
TALES OF LOVE AND BEAUTY"

LONDON

G. BELL AND SONS, LTD,
1919

H f

INTRODUCTION

THESE sketches of some of the pioneering
schools of the country are not intended to be
more than sketches. My purpose in investigat-
ing experimental schools was simply to try
to discover what was in them that marked
them as belonging to the " To-morrow " — that
is, the future — in Education. I had no inten-
tion of going into a close examination or analysis
of their methods. It will be seen, though, that
each one contributes something to the solution
of the problem of educational reform. Here a
little point is solved, there another, but in no
one school is to be found a complete solution of
all the immense and complicated problems of
educational reform.

Moreover, I would venture to say that not
every school now struggling with pioneer work
will succeed and become established. I would
even go so far as to say that if some of them did
persist they would defeat their own purpose.

vi INTRODUCTION

With some the very " failure " that they may
encounter will be their lasting success. They
will have added an intangible but important
element to the stream of education; they will
have made the stream wider and fuller, and in
that lies much of the very reason of their exist-
ence. They enrich the content of education and
contribute distinctly to the formation of opinion
as to its meaning and purpose.

It will be clearly understood, of course, that
the schools here described by no means exhaust
the number of experimental schools distributed
throughout the country. They are merely a
few of them. Some, indeed, will be seen to be
ordinary schools, with just some special element
in them which is of significance to the future.
Others are whole-heartedly pioneer schools. This
does not mean that they are either fanciful or
extravagant in their operations, but that they
carry out all their work with a special intention,
and illumine it all with a high purpose, and this
in even quite small details.

Of one thing I am fully convinced at present :
I hope nothing will ever interfere in England
with the freedom that now exists for enterprise
in educational work. From one point of view
it may be wholly desirable to have a standard
type of education to which all are required to

INTRODUCTION vii

conform; for my own part I prefer to see a
margin left for adventure. The unrest that
stirs the educational world almost continually
breaks out into individual rebellion, to be fol-
lowed by fresh lines of endeavour, and this spells
health and sanity for the nation. No educational
system is as yet so perfect that we can say the
final expression has been reached. We are only
now finding out some of the truth about child-
hood and its needs, and are engaged in exploding
many orthodox views on the training of children.
We must be on our guard against falling into the
main error of the past in education: which is
thinking that any given system or method is to
be established into a settled and permanent
form. We are at last becoming conscious that
this procedure is wholly adverse to the spirit of
mankind, which is eternally engaged in the dis-
covery of vaster horizons, and can therefore
brook no particular and limited view for very
long. Within itself this spirit in man is aware
of its ineffable divine glory, and that its goal is
the full, free exercise of its divinity. To the
gaining of that goal every move among men is
directed. How, then, shall any system satisfy
that spirit. It outgrows them all, however
splendid and satisfactory they may be for a time.
Teachers and taught are to-day climbing to

viii INTRODUCTION

new heights, and their way is by no means easy
or clear of obstacles. Some help to make the
pathway so far but no farther; some press on
yet higher; but all are to-day road-makers and
road-menders. Possibly a halt may be called
presently and all enjoy the view-point gained;
but the enjoyment will last only so long as is
needed to take breath before climbing still
higher.

In watching the children in these schools, I
think I have discovered that here we see the
leaders of the future in the making. We who
have seen much sorrow, and who strain to
catch a glimpse of the future, may well feel un-
certain about it, and even say that the prospect
is gloomy. Perhaps it is for us; there is so
much wrong that wre have to put right. But
when I look into the clear eyes of youth, and, in
particular, of those who are being given special
advantages, I am comforted. I cannot but
rejoice, for here is a free and joyous youth,
already half conscious of the difference between
itself and the past. It is a youth which is not
afraid, which is sensible of its inalienable spiritual
right to liberty, and which walks with the dignity
of comradeship in our midst and will meet and
mingle with us on no other terms. One point
I should like to press: this type of child is not

INTRODUCTION ix

confined to any one class of the community, but
conies from all classes, from the palace and the
slum. Such children are the beginnings of the
true and noble democracy of the future.

In examining these schools I have met with
the greatest kindness from those in charge of
them. I record here my warm thanks to them,
for it must at times be a nuisance to have in-
quisitive visitors wandering about and asking
innumerable questions.

It is by courtesy of the Herald of the Star, in
most of which these articles first appeared, that
they are now reproduced in a book. I hope
that in this form they will reach all who as
teachers or parents are interested in watching
the present tendencies in education. It has
been a labour of love, and as such I offer
whatever it may possess of value to those who
are as deeply interested as I am in the training
of our children for the playing of their part in
the future.

J. R.

1919.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTION - - V-ix

I. ARUNDALE SCHOOL - 1

II. BRACKENHILL THEOSOPHICAL HOME SCHOOL - 12

III. THE CALDECOTT COMMUNITY - 22

IV.— PERSE GRAMMAR SCHOOL - - 30

V. HORNSEY COUNTY SCHOOL - 37

VI. — THE MONTESSORI IDEAL - -44

VII. — THE HERITAGE CRAFT SCHOOLS - - 53

'. III. EURHYTHMICS - - 63

IX. THE FARMHOUSE SCHOOL - - 72

X. MIXENDEN SCHOOL - 80

XI. DEPTFORD BABY CAMP AND TRAINING CENTRE - 87

XII. AN OPEN-AIR SCHOOL, PLUMSTEAD, S.E. - - 98

XIII. LITERATURE - - 107

XIV. — TIPTREE HALL - - 116

XV. THE MARGARET MORRIS SCHOOL OF DANCE - 125

SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW
IN ENGLAND

I.— ARUNDALE SCHOOL

IN the beginning of 1915 the first Theosophical
School in England was opened at Letchworth
Garden City, Herts. No one knew how long
the Great War might Jast, and everyone was
hoping for its speedy conclusion. It did not
seem wise to those interested and eager to see a
beginning made to put off the opening of the
School, since children and teachers were ready.
To many, the idea of a Theosophical School did
not seem very pressing, as there were many good
schools throughout the country where the
children of Theosophists could be taught. But
careful investigation showed that in every case
there was something that would not give to
their children all that Theosophists desired for
them, especially where freedom of thought and
religious teaching and practice were concerned.

Dr. Armstrong Smith had gone to France
immediately on the outbreak of war to help to
organise hospitals. He put in some very stren-

1

2 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

uous work till Christmas, 1914, and suffered
severely from the strain. As the hospitals grew
more organised, he felt himself free to answer
the potent call of childhood, and took up his
duties as Principal of the little School, giving
his services voluntarilv. A staff of teachers and

d

about a dozen children formed the first group
of those willing to put Theosophical principles
to the test.

At the end of the first term the question of
finance faced the promoters, and, with the help
of friends, was overcome. Then there came an
opportunity to acquire a large school in Letch-
worth, which was about to close owing to war
difficulties. The matter was taken up seriously,
and Dr. Armstrong Smith and his growing
number of pupils were moved into it in August,
1915. Since then the School has gone on rapidly.

It was due to the great exertions of Dr. Arm-
strong Smith, who never spared himself, that
the School has been able to progress during the
war period, and become firmly established. He
sacrificed everything to it, even his health. This
finally necessitated his taking a long rest. So,
regretfully, he resigned, and his place was taken
by Wilfrid Layton, B.Sc., F.R.C.O.

I do not propose to follow the course of the
development of the School, nor the experiments

ARUNDALE SCHOOL 3

carried on by Dr. Armstrong Smith, which were
attended with very happy results. I am very
mindful that it was his efforts which made pos-
sible the special conditions that now prevail in
the School, and that to his genius for the under-
standing of children the School owes a debt it
is not likely to forget. His enthusiasm over-
came a whole mountain of obstacles, and gave
the School the chance it now has of swift and
steady progress.

Additions have just been made to the existing
buildings which make for added comfort for
everyone, staff and children alike.

The special quality that distinguishes this
School from other schools, though in a measure
it distinguishes all Theosophical Schools, is that
a belief in Re-incarnation affects the treatment
of the children. It is taken for granted that a
long past lies behind each child which makes him
what he is. The result is highly individualistic
work, which is turned to co-operative effort.
Therefore, one finds an unusual independence
combined with real fraternisation. With rare
freedom, the children express their views; with
rare tact, the elders meet them seriously. A
child may question the accuracy of a statement
made by a teacher who is wise enough to discuss
the matter at length, and till the young mind is

4 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

satisfied one way or the other. Very often
teachers coming from more strict schools are
puzzled by this freedom, and confuse it at first
with rudeness. It might easily be the latter if
not sympathetically met. To those who under-
stand, it is a joyous venture to embark upon a
lesson with alert and inquiring minds, ready to
question, to doubt, to discuss, and to express
opinions.

This sense of freedom comes out in the fact
that, contrary to the practice in older and more
" oithodox " schools, the sense of honour is in-
dividual, too. There is added to what usually
is the tradition of honour in schools a keen sense
of personal responsibility, and willingness to
acknowledge mistake or fault.

In the " Moot," this personal freedom has been
discussed, and especially its reactions in the
form of " punishments." It is interesting to
find that children with a developed sense of
personal responsibility will come of themselves
to the point where they demand checks and
safeguards, and the power to enforce decisions.
They realise that an ordered society with rules
and regulations must have the right to hold its
members to those rules when their desires and
actions are disorderly. It is something to dis-
cover how much it means to give willing obe-

ARUNDALE SCHOOL 5

dience to laws, and also the right one has to try
to change them once they become oppressive.
The way in which civilisations grow by volun-
tary cohesions for the sake of the common good,
and then break as men grow out of them, is
thus seen by the children in the growth of their
own " Moot " — or attempt to practise self-
government.

In religion, the same spirit of independence
has run through several phases. At first it was
thought by the School authorities that they
should insist upon those children whose parents
wished it that they should attend some place of
worship. Very soon, however, with exceptions,
this presented a difficulty. The children liked
the services in some ways, in others they were
repelled by them. So far as the children of
Theosophists were concerned, this question
came: " Who is right — those who tell us we are
divine in origin, but make mistakes because that
divinity has not yet reached in us its perfection;
or those who tell us that we are all sinners, to
be redeemed only by our belief in one great and
perfect Teacher — the Christ ?" And one more
question: "Who is right — those who tell us
Christianity is the only religion that is true; or
those who tell us that there have been other
great teachers who, in God's name, have taught

6 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

Truth to the world ?" The children have pre-
ferred to adhere to the idea that mankind is
divine in origin, and there have been many great
teachers to lead the world. This decision makes
the orthodox Church teachings less interesting to
them, and they turn and seek religious satisfac-
tion in other ways. Various kinds of School ser-
vices have been tried, and I am not sure that any
of them have met fully the needs of the children.
They have been free to devise ways and means
for themselves, with some success, and it is a
great lesson to watch small people conduct their
own religious service with gravity and a full sense
of the decorum demanded by such occasions.

The religious problem is by no means yet
solved in Arundale School. The children seek
religion, but are not satisfied with the forms of
it presented to them either by adults or evolved
by themselves. I heard Mr. Layton giving a
Scripture lesson, and did not envy him the task.
He was subjected to a running fire of questions,
all of which he answered squarely, admitting
the difficulties that the teachings of the Christ
presented. Shrewd comment from both boys
and girls showed that certain fundamental rules
of right and wrong as against convention were
already firmly fixed in their minds, as pivots upon
which all the rest turned.

ARUNDALE SCHOOL 7

The presence of boys and girls in all the
classes evokes rich play of opinions, likes, and
dislikes. For the School is co-educational, with
the happiest results. There is a wonderful
friendliness in all the classes, a delightful spirit
of comradeship, and a sweet wholesomeness of
behaviour that is one of the particular delights
of Arundale School. Co-education is an impera-
tive necessity to youth. It offers a range of
experience that is denied to those who are edu-
cated solely with boys or with girls. Delicately
intimate friendships are established, giving a
richness to the School-life that could not other-
wise be gained. Some girls need the corrective
of a boy's outlook; some boys are helped to an
incredible extent by the warm understanding
and friendship of a girl of their own age. Every-
one who knows Arundale School admits that the
effect of co-education, frankly and sympatheti-
cally carried out, has given the School an atmos-
phere of happy intimacy that it is difficult to
describe in mere words.

I have wandered through the School at lesson
time, and watched the different classes at work.
I have always been struck by the fact that the
teachers are aware that they are educating not
only the brains and bodies of the children, but
are calling upon a deeper life and consciousness

8 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

within them. To sit and feel this at play is a
revelation. History, it may be, is in progress,
or mathematics, but whatever it is, there goes
on a subtle interchange all the time of the big,
deep forces in human nature. It is as though
the children put out invisible feelers, and sen-
sitively contacted the realities and the depths
of the teaching that is being imparted. To this
both teacher and taught respond, and to the
driest of subjects is imparted a quality that is
of the highest importance. Moreover, it satis-
fies that " pitiless logic " which is the peculiar
quality of childhood, so long as it is not covered
over or destroyed by the subterfuges and eva-
sions such as far too often accompany our grown-
up outlook.

The usual games and gymnastic exercises are
part of the School life, but Eurhythmies also
are added. The children seem thoroughly to
enjoy the power thus given them of self-expres-
sion. A thorough grasp of time-values and
rhythms is engendered by this system of musical
interpretation, and, in a high degree, control
over the movements of the body. The group
work is particularly interesting. One pupil in-
terprets a piece of music as it appeals to him or
to her. The rest closely watch, and obey the
graceful, decided gestures of this director. They

ARUNDALE SCHOOL 9

rise or sink, move to left or to right, advance or
recede with appropriate steps in quick obedience,
and thus make beautiful pictures of ordered
movement. It is fascinating to watch. Of one
thing only we must be careful in describing
Eurhythmies: not to call it " dancing." If one
does, at once a chorus of young voices arises:
" It is not dancing. It is Eurhythmies !"

In the playing-fields, boys and girls together
take part in all that goes on, except in the foot-
ball of the older boys. Here, too, the influence
of one sex upon the other plays its part. The
adult fear that it would spoil the game for boys,
or make them less brisk and efficient, has been
shown to be falsely founded. The fact is, that
they win most of their matches against schools
where only boys are taken as scholars.

In art, the pupils at Arundale take a great
interest, and many of them belong to the Art
Guild, which has, as its special motive, the
beautifying of the School, and generally to bring
beauty into everything. The work that is pro-
duced attains a high level of artistic expression.
Here, too, freedom of expression, combined with
accuracy of workmanship, show very happy
results.

A Dramatic Society gives the needed stimulus
to those pupils who delight in the portrayal of

10 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

character and the play of emotion. One small
girl on the Committee was exceedingly proud
of the honour, and one day when a Committee
was called to consider some " resignations," used
the long word with delightful importance.

There are many other sides to the life led at
Arundale School, notably the kindly, free, home
atmosphere that pervades it. But the most
marked thing of all is the great happiness of the
pupils, big and small. They love the School,
and rejoice in all its activities. They are fond
of their teachers, and have a charming intimacy
with them, and they are at peace among them-
selves. They respect their Head; but they have
a nickname for him which they do not attempt
to hide, and when he gives them permission to
accomplish some special desire, they will say to
him by way of fervent thanks, "It's jolly decent
of you !" and then confide to one another that
" Latey is a jolly decent chap !"

Arundale is one of those schools which most
distinctly point the way of the To-morrow in
education. Even if in nothing else, yet in this :
it has rid its small, but important, world of fear.
Impositions, punishments, are unknown. Correc-
tive measures, yes; but kindly ones, appeal-
ing to that reasonableness that exists in the most
refractory child when properly approached.

ARUNDALE SCHOOL 11

Of course, there have been many pitfalls at
Arundale, into some of which they have fallen,
and courageously climbed out of; but of the one
of punishment they have kept clear. To this is
due the cheery, eager spirit of the pupils. They
leap forward to attain, not sideways to avoid.
It makes all the difference. I always feel that
in children such as these we see the makings of
that New Age for which we all long. The grip
of ancient things is hard upon us who are grown-
ups, but these children know not even the
shadow of it. They march to a future of sun-
shine, and will bring to birth the fair, new day for
which we have fought. It is our privilege to have
done so, and theirs to reap the benefit. Therefore
one greets this School as one of the heralds of the
future, and watches its growth with keen interest
to see how it will develop, and what will be the
reward of its faith in being among the pioneers
in educational reform.

II.— BRACKENHILL THEOSOPHICAL
HOME SCHOOL

THE effect of the application of the New Ideals
in Education is often seen at its best in schools
like the Brackenhill Home School. It is of
recent growth, and has therefore no traditions
through which to break, and this is at once an
advantage and a difficulty. When one says
" at its best," one really means that the School
is bravely testing how much is valuable and how
much is valueless in what is being urgently advo-
cated under the name of " New Ideals in Educa-
tion." Brackenhill frankly started out upon the
new road. It has found that a few of the sign-
posts were at fault, and has found, also, that
some parts of the road need re-making. But it
has acquired experience, and knows some of the
defects of the way it pursues and how, to a
certain extent at least, to avoid them.

The School was specially founded to meet the
needs of children who were at complete disad-
vantage in their environment. Several of the

12

BRACKENHILL HOME SCHOOL 13

cases would make sad reading. Some were
cruelly treated, some neglected, some deserted,
and some were, so-called, illegitimate. This
latter is usually regarded as a stain upon the
child, whereas the only real stain rests upon
those who brought children into the world only
basely to desert them because the helpless little
ones had no " legal" claim upon them. Bracken-
hill did not at first confine itself to this class of
case, but did have, and still has, some children
in it whose parents were, and are, kindly, and
their homes secure, who desired the modern
educational methods for their children, but
could not afford the high fees of most schools.
Bursaries have been raised to assist most of
these, and thus have left Brackenhill free for
the ones who most need it.

At present the School is at Bromley, Kent;
but there is hope that it will be removed more
into the country. The house is a large, de-
tached one, standing upon high ground, and
surrounded by a big garden. This environment
was made possible by the generosity of one who
is a keen " lover of children," who lent the pre-
mises, and who watches the experiment carried
on with deep and sympathetic interest.

It is necessary to appreciate to the full the
beauty and freshness of the place in order to

14 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

realise what it must mean to the little ones who
go there. Tall trees wave in the wind, shrubs
of every hue cluster beneath them, the lawns
spread their delightful green for little bare feet
in the summer, the birds sing and nest unmo-
lested ; away in the distance are the blue Kentish
hills, and everywhere the sweet, fresh air.

This dedicated place accommodates about
thirty children. To investigate some of their
short lives of but a few summers is to come face
to face with tragedy. It would sometimes seem
impossible that such small fragile things, tender
and helpless as children are, could survive some
of the vicissitudes that have befallen them. In
one case it has been that the parents have been
destitute through the father being but an " odd-
job " man, and yet having a family of twelve.
They had perforce to live in a basement, where
light and fresh air never penetrated. The
mother eventually died of consumption, and the
family scattered, some of the little weaker ones,
in spite of all effort, dying, others becoming
tubercular. Imagine what it must have meant
to come out of such a spot into the sunshine and
to plenty.

Again, two children came to Brackenhill who
had been cruelly treated by a mother who drank.
Little sullen creatures, cowed and beaten, they

BRACKENHILL HOME SCHOOL 15

scarcely knew what it meant to be loved and
cared for; but presently the very happiness of
heaven shone through their eyes. They were
no longer afraid ! A very simple thing to say,
but in it a whole world of meaning. How oddly
that phrase, " the fear of the Lord," has been
used, and children, even babies, are threatened
with having the fear of the Lord put into them !
Perhaps one day we shall say of fine men and
women, not that they are " God-fearing," but
that they are " God-loving," and a new attitude,
a new habit, and a new psychology, will be set
up, for who could strike the little ones " for the
love of God"?

Other cases could be quoted, even to the baby
left on the doorstep, of whose parentage nothing
is known. But it must be clear from even these
few that the purpose is to give the children that
famous " equal opportunity " for which the
world clamours. And here the first difficulty
arises. Money can be spent exactly equally on
each child, everything can be shared by all alike.
It is there for them to grasp. But they do not
come to the School equal in capacity to take
and to benefit.

A healthy child would gain by the instruction
fifty times more than these children can gain,
because their heredity is against them. Parents

16 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

might take special note of this : that they help
greatly to determine the equality of opportunity
that they ask for their children. If they will
indulge in vice and bad habits themselves, they
are endowing their children with some tendency
to physical weakness. The moral, intellectual,
and spiritual sides of a child are helped or hin-
dered by the heredity bestowed upon him by his
parents. So is it at Brackenhill that many
weeks of the year are lost to ordinary accom-
plishment of the subjects set down in the curri-
culum, while the children's bodies are being
treated for ailments that are frequently (not
always) the outcome of bad heredity.

Brackenhill is intended to offer to the few it
can accommodate the corrective of all that is
indicated by what is written above. To start
with the physical side. Cleanliness of body,
clothes, and food is insisted upon, and, of course,
quickly reacts upon the child's own character.
Fresh air and exercise complete the bodily
transformation. Pale faces grow rosy, dull eyes
grow bright, listless limbs awake to that rest-
lessness which betokens the growing body.
Proneness to sickness passes as vitality asserts
its sway, and fretfulness yields to smiling happi-
ness. So is the first step taken.

Not immorality exactly, but lack of morality ?

BRACKENHILL HOME SCHOOL 17

so often goes hand-in-hand with the poverty-
stricken condition of many children. No one
has time to help and to train them, no one to
watch incessantly, and to bend inclinations and
habits in the right direction. So at Brackenhill
instruction begins at once in attention not only
to physical habits, but to moral habits as well.
Even tiny ones have sometimes contracted habits
that are desperately hard to overcome. As the
physical improves, the morals improve in almost
every case, and vice versa. But the teachers
spend many anxious hours puzzling over how to
call up in a child the will to rule and control the
body, to cultivate the intellect to accept reasons
for the discontinuance of injurious habits.
Except where there happens to be mental de-
fectiveness, the battle is invariably won. Moral
stability is the next step. Emotion that ran
riot is satisfied, and its channel and expression
altered by lovely surroundings, attractive books,
rhythmic dancing and handicrafts, and love and
friendliness.

Intellectually, the children show average
capacity. They get on as fast as is possible
with the usual set of lessons, the subjects which
are normally included in intellectual equipment.
Spiritually, they gain by being allowed self-
expression and the satisfaction of natural craving

2

18 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

after answers to the meaning of things. There
is a spiritual flavour to the School through-
out.

" Do you know my father ?" asked one small
boy.

" No," I replied, and I knew that that laddie
had no claim upon a father.

" He is dead," he asserted. Well, it was
perhaps charitable to let him think so.

" No," chimed a sweet voice from the corner,
" he has only gone away to get a new coat and
come back again."

" Yes, come back again in a new coat,"
chorused the young voices, and they laughed.
So. thus easily did they grasp the problem
of immortality, and it left them joyous, not
deserted and forlorn. They, the so-called dead,
would come again, wearing other garments that
are new.

There is a Montessori department to the
School, where dear, chubby, small folk rejoice in
that wonderful method of direction, and instruct
themselves. Everyone knows the spirit of
friendliness that the Montessori method induces
in children. They walk up to one, and cooingly
touch buttons or anything bright. They bring
their blocks or cards, and invite one with an ir-
resistible appeal in their baby eyes to take part

BRACKENHILL HOME SCHOOL 19

in the entrancing game, or to watch them do it.
They pass from apparatus to apparatus in a
leisurely but absorbed way, and grow wise, and
do not know how it happened. They only know
they are happy, with freedom all the time, and
outside the song of birds and the dance of leaves
—and nothing to be afraid of !

The other sections of the School are carried on
along more or less usual lines. But some of the
classes are held in a little bungalow that nestles
among the trees in the grounds. In summer the
classes can be held out on the wide veranda; and
some are held under the big, shady trees near
the house.

Experiments of various sorts have been tried;
some have succeeded, and others have not.
Efforts along the line of self-government produce
the fact that these children are not behind those
who have had greater advantages. They can
tackle quite big problems, for them, and can
arrive at fairly satisfactory solutions. Respon-
sibility they like, as a rule, though unruly spirits
sometimes break through and fling precautions
to the winds. That is the way of Youth. It
grows canny only with experience.

The food is vegetarian, and upon it the children
all seem to thrive. They give service by helping
at meal-time, and by many little courtesies they

20 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

show their appreciation of the inter-play that
communal life demands.

No expense that goes to make the happiness
and comfort of the children is spared, and it is
met in this way. Each child costs about £60
a year to keep. The School Committee insist that
someone — parent, guardian, or supporter of a
cot — shall guarantee £25; the rest is made up by
raising subscriptions, and by donations from the
public. So far, all expenses have been met, and
as the School grows and the numbers can be
increased, it is to be hoped that these donations,
subscriptions, and endowments, will also increase.
No greater service to the future can be done to
humanity than to give children the best possible
chance to equip them fully for the discharge of
their duties in later life.

It cannot be without reason, surely, that fate
has intervened and given such an opportunity to
children who had started out so badly, so heavily
handicapped. When one knows how greatly,
incredibly, it has benefited them, one is filled
with uneasiness for all those who have not had
" equal opportunity," upon whom the burden
is heavy and the shoulders not over strong to
bear it.

One would, in seeking to express the meaning
and purpose of this School, say, perhaps, that

BRACKENHILL HOME SCHOOL 21

its value to the future is in its wonderful power
of redemption. It does prove, beyond all doubt,
that there is in every human being a fundamen-
tally spiritual nature which but needs the right
means to manifest itself. It is character, and
more: it is that divine radiance which illumines
minds and hearts, and to evoke which is the joy
of every true educator. Perhaps one ought to
say there should be no need for redemption; we
all know so much better. We do. But there
is still an evil side to our civilisation, and it grips
young and old alike. It is the business of all
connected with Brackenhill to try to get the
child out of its grip, and to give him the chance
to know at least a little of his divine heritage
and to enjoy it. Such should be the glorious
chance for all children — and would be, were the
adult world generous enough with its wealth.

III.— THE CALDECOTT COMMUNITY

FIRST and foremost the beginnings and early
environment of the Caldecott Community should
be noted. It began in October, 1911, as a
Nursery School in connection with the St.
Pancras Creche with a handful of small folk ; very
soon it had more than it could manage. It is
not difficult to imagine what the surroundings
were in Cartwright Gardens, near St. Pancras
Station, nor the conditions of the streets and
houses in which the children had their homes.
As their school premises were condemned by the
L.C.C. Education Authorities, the Hon. Directors
of the Community put forward their conviction
that only the wide quiet and beauty of the
country could supply the right environment for
its development. Now the Community finds it-
self in Charlton Court, a fine Jacobean house upon
the side of the Kentish hills, about six miles
beyond Maidstone, with the wonderful sweeps
of the Weald rolling away into the blue distance.
It is called a Community rather than a School
22

THE CALDECOTT COMMUNITY 23

because it was felt how great was the lack of co-
ordination between home and school life; also
that the many urgent claims upon a child's
attention should cease to be " attacks," and
become instead fused interests. This required a
brave throwing over of education routine as
usually carried out, a close reciprocal contact
with mothers, and freedom for the school to grow
with the children.

Here we find them, then, in Mid-Kent, with
every charm of refined home-life and beautiful
surroundings in which to grow. There are
about thirty children all told, who are frankly
acknowledged as working men's children, their
parents paying according to their income, and
the remainder raised by donations and subscrip-
tions. That the work is a charity is stoutly re-
pudiated; it is rightly described as opportunity
— as an escape from conditions entirely un-
favourable to child growth. From evils that
are innumerable they have entered into a world
of opportunity, from the terrors of London to
the happy ease of the country — and we cannot
but emphasise the difference between what we
know a child of London's poorer quarters
gets and what the Community gives him in
his new home.

The children all present a very cheerful, well-

24 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

cared-for appearance, the smart bows of the
girls and their little check aprons giving quite
a French touch, which has that enviable knack
of being simple yet distinguished. The boys
looked capable and workmanlike in their belted
smocks — again a French touch.

I spent some of my time looking over the
house, with its light, airy, and cheerful dormi-
tories, where are wholly delightful, simple little
beds for the smaller children. They are about
a foot high, with boards top and bottom, in
which are holes through which run poles on
which canvas is stretched. They are light,
portable, and comfortable. The babies have a
nursery and nurse to themselves, for they come
into the Community at the age of three. As
there is a plentiful supply of hot water the
children are bathed every night, and this they
love, contrasting it with the " one bath a week
in the kitchen " of London life.

A big, well-matured kitchen garden supplies
amply all the vegetables and fruit required and
more, and the lady gardener makes a success
of her work, as do the trained domestic workers
in the house. The children take part in every-
thing— house, garden, looking after the donkey
and the pig, and waiting at table, where the
domestic workers join in the meals.

THE CALDECOTT COMMUNITY 25

I spent the whole afternoon in the schoolroom,
with aboift twenty children present, under the
supervision of Miss Potter, one of the capable
and enthusiastic Hon. Directors. Each child
had its own time-table devised to suit its own
needs, and with emphasis upon its own particular
needs. A bell rang and the children settled
themselves, taking about ten minutes till they
were quietly at work, each at a separate table.
Some were busy painting maps, some reading,
some sewing; others clay modelling; two were
having dictation, others learning tables, and
others writing. The writing is after the new
method, and seemed to give the children no
trouble; and I noticed how high was the standard
of neatness and clearness of the writing, as well
as the ease with which they all wrote. The
directress said very little, but gave quick and
eager attention to any demand upon her assist-
ance or advice. Once or twice she asked that
one familiar with a certain lesson should help
another, and then it was delightful to watch the
two little heads bent absorbedly over the work,
and note the spirit of willing service that existed
between them. As one lesson was completed
another was taken up, and if the whole set was
completed before the appointed closing hour,
then each child could please itself for the rest

26 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

of the time with some favourite occupation.
From time to time a deep and steady silence
fell upon the room, to be broken presently by a
child needing fresh apparatus or some change of
occupation. There was no sign of idleness or
evasion, but of continuous work, self-directed
and happy. The children spoke to each other
sometimes in quiet undertones, and only once,
when several children were seeking for materials
for another lesson, the supervisor's voice was
raised in a request for less bustle.

From time to time the children get individual
lessons alone or in groups of two or three, never
more. Miss Rendel, the other Hon. Director,
told me that each child gets seven hours a week
of individual teaching, and these lessons they
like so much that they cannot bear missing them.
Sometimes they are missed when the general
lessons are not well done and must be redone; then
the precious lesson is forfeited to the repetition
of what was not up to the proper standard.

I asked Miss Rendel what conclusions her
work had brought to her; for one soon realises
that she and Miss Potter are trying not merely
to train these children, but are striving to read
aright the very heart of childhood and find out
how best it can be supplied with what it actually
needs. Of course her conclusions are tentative,

THE CALDECOTT COMMUNITY 27

because, as experience grows, she finds she must
alter her outlook and her methods and be willing
to realise that change must be always taking
place. She is careful to distinguish between
tone and tradition; the former giving steadiness,
the latter perhaps proving sometimes a barrier
to progress. The children, too, offer a special
variety of experience because of the general level
of the class from which they come, though the
Community is fast developing them into unusual
members of that class. Here one wonders again,
as one does with regard to Letchworth and
Brackenhill — what does it all mean ? What is
the future asking of these children ?

Sincerity is the aim after which the Community
Directors strive; to enable the children to be
sincere to themselves and to others, and to face
their motives openly. Therefore in troublous
moments the motives of the disturbance are
sought for and brought clearly to light. In their
work the children are offered honest criticisms;
if the work is not good, no one pretends it is in
order to please them, and they soon appreciate
such honesty.

" Lowness of standard " is one of the problems
the Community has to tackle. The children's
idea of play is to be free to do as they please
without the smallest interference of any kind.

28 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

This does not mean to them even the joy of a
loved occupation, but entire and complete
flinging aside of all standards. It is the " street "
life with its lack of restraint that engenders this
disposition. With this class of children it often
happens that they are locked out in the street
all day with a bag of food, and left to do precisely
as they like till the mother returns from work
in the evening.

Another difficulty is the prevalence of bad
physical habits. Here Miss Rendel spoke only
tentatively, but she thought this was responsible
for so much of the moral laxity found in adult
life. An older child, with a bad habit acquired
either by itself or from another, can taint a whole
tenement of children, and does. The little ones
often recover; with many the habit breaks out
about the age of seven, and then is most difficult
to cure, for it destroys at once the instinct of self-
respect, and of course later on moral responsibility,
without which no community can be morally
sane and healthy. This is a tremendous problem,
and the Community is bravely facing it and
openly combating it on the basis of its being a
" disease " which requires treatment.

One must appreciate the courage and faith of
the Directors and supporters of the Caldecott
Community, and their infinite belief in the possi-

THE CALDECOTT COMMUNITY 29

bilities of childhood. Not that they are blind
to defects and shortcomings, but that, realising
these, they attempt in this beautiful fashion to
rectify both. The whole work is an extra-
ordinarily honest attempt to find the golden
mean between the ideal and the practical, to
blend the two into a scheme suited to a particular
class of child.

IV.— PERSE GRAMMAR SCHOOL,
CAMBRIDGE

;< To get down to realities," said Dr. Rouse in
response to our query as to the aim of the
methods carried out in the Perse Grammar
School. Everyone who knows what a lover of
truth Dr. Rouse is, and who has read H. Cald-
well Cook's entrancing book, The Play Way,
will realise how characteristic was the reply.
Naturally the logical outcome of such an attitude
in education leads straight to dealing directly
with the true underlying values of every subject
in every educational department. It led Dr.
Rouse to the enthusiastic championship of
" direct method " in all things — including the
Classics. He still confesses to more difficulty in
mathematics and science, simply because at
first sight there seem in them to be less of the
" humanities "; but he thought that the royal
road to them would prove to be through nature
study in its many phases.

The Perse School has seen many hundreds of
30

PERSE GRAMMAR SCHOOL 31

boys come and go, and has acquired traditions.
With long- established schools one sees that
traditions do not easily yield to the innovator,
however precious the truth he brings. However,
we find that the Perse School under Dr. Rouse
has ventured greatly away from beaten tracks
into the spirit of the education of " to-morrow ";
into, indeed, the pathway of realities, which it
still eagerly pursues.

We went first to watch the Preparatory School
at work, because Dr. Rouse is passionately keen
on an ordered and sequential education, the
foundations of which are laid in early child-
hood; without this preparation much time is
wasted in the later school stages. We found
the smallest boys busy putting practical ex-
perience into paper cutting. One little fellow
triumphantly declared his paper door was half
glass, " like my own house," and he demanded
of all that imagination should see it as such.
To minimise imperfection as much as possible
is the underlying ideal of all the Preparatory
School. " Unseens " are not given in dictation.
In various ways the work is first prepared so
that there shall be as few chances as possible
left for the child to feel that he is struggling with
the unknown, and therefore making many mis-
takes inevitably. Confidence is first given by

32 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

preparation, and the children get so eager and
sure of their fitness to cope with the lesson that
they frequently ask for their marks beforehand,
and then strive to keep them unaltered.

The great aim of this preparatory stage is
good English, to have the language well under-
stood and handled with ease and accuracy.
All the other subjects are aids to this develop-
ment. Nowhere is there dependence upon time-
tables and books. As one of the mistresses said,
Dr. Rouse gave them every encouragement to
educate and not cram the child. If, therefore,
history seemed to demand it, the morning would
be spent exploring some of the historical treasures
of Cambridge, and with geography the same.
This led to the construction of models of the
scenes described, and so manual craft came in;
ballads led to costumes and their preparation
by the boys themselves — even to the making of
their own dyes. Hence body and mind and feel-
ing go together in an all-round development. All
the boys learn to knit, darn, and sew on buttons !

The teachers are all women : they get more out
of the child, worry him less, and give him the
necessary motherly interest in and attention to
detail of clothes and person which establish
habits that remain with him through life.

Throughout the whole of the Perse Grammar

PERSE GRAMMAR SCHOOL 33

School runs the note that the boy must fight his
own battles, struggle to his own conclusions and
test them. This appeared strongly in the French
classes after the " direct method," given by Mr.
de Glehn. The boys were reading from the
phonetic script, and as they proceeded the
master took infinite pains that every sound
should be as correct as possible, every word
understood. His instructions in simple, em-
phatic French kept every boy alive and alert to
catch the exact sound and sense. They daringly
ventured on answers, and they were genuinely
glad when at last they grasped the correct use
of an idiom. The next class of older boys were
past the phonetic stage, and read with ease.
They, too, listened and worked with eager in-
terest. One could not help contrasting with
this direct method the old way of one's youth,
when languages were approached through the
tortuous ways of dull grammars and duller
commentaries, and the Classics were a thing of
terror and a morass of unintelligible words.
Imagine trying to give a ten minutes' speech in
Latin or Greek ! And, further, think of this
method and its warm interest in the Classics as
living history, acted out, and then think of that
method described in a telling, though exagger-
ated, fashion in The Loom of Youth.

3

S4 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

One thing we noted in passing: in the French
room the maps were in French, and also the
pictures were of French scenes ; there were maps
in Latin for Latin work and history, and the
same for Greek. Details, it is true, but details
that showed the underlying desire to make
things real and living, full of meaning and pur-
pose to young and impressionable minds.

The boys of the higher classes were in uniform :
they belong to the O.T.C. — young men passing
out of school into the world's struggle — and we
appreciated at once the ready courtesy with
which they piloted us about; also the fact that
their work seemed largely to be self-directed
and exceedingly practical.

There is also the Perse School House, on the
edge of the town, with the fields stretching be-
yond. Here Dr. Rouse has a number of boys rang-
ing in age from six to nineteen. This arrangement
is deliberately kept up to provide a sense of the
family life wheie all different ages learn to work
out their lives in harmony, and Dr. Rouse finds
it most successful. Here there is a miniature
farm, where the boys have constant contact
with and care of a variety of pets — horses, goats,
dogs, etc. Like every other educationist who
understands life, Dr. Rouse has had to face the
great problem of instruction in matters of sex.

PERSE GRAMMAR SCHOOL 35

He, too, has turned to Nature for help, and
thinks that in the care of pets youth gets a
natural and balanced knowledge of sex, to
which he tries to add in the human a sense of
control, of moral power, and of a conscience
attuned to an ideal. Nor does he draw his moral
lessons from set lessons and dull instruction, but
from the facts of life and from the great events
in history — so clearly realised by the boys as they
act them out, and come thus to understand
human weakness and strength and whither each
leads or drives.

Dr. Rouse has embarked upon a school of his
own — a Preparatory School — at Chesterton, two
miles out of Cambridge, but this we did not see.
Here he is free to carry out his ideals, and put
his beliefs to the test, his experience into fuller
practice. Very wisely, he has made it co-
educational. Truly he sees life as a whole, and
education as one of its most vital stages — not as
a scheme isolated from Nature, from the commu-
nity, and out of touch with its issues. He speaks
wistfully of his desire to prepare youth for busi-
ness life, to inculcate a spirit of co-operation, of
the right relation to the other nations of the
earth, as well as to its own people; for if one
learnt deeply and truly and comprehended the
facts of national life and the interdependence of

36 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

its parts, one could not exploit it, and then, of
course, one would not want to exploit other
nations.

It will be seen from this brief description that
the Perse Grammar School stands and works for
a great deal that is of vital importance to the
world of youth and its education along right lines.
The keynote of it all is the " direct and truthful
attitude adopted towards all the pursuits in
which the boy is engaged." There is a pioneer-
ing element in the whole scheme which delights
anyone desiring to see educational methods led
in directions which will best and most truly
serve the " to-morrow " of the world, and its
whole-hearted self-realisation.

V.— HORNSEY COUNTY SCHOOL

THE Hornsey County School, under the guidance
of Dr. H. E. Piggott, M.A., gives one a memor-
able impression of the training that goes to the
making of a very large proportion of English
boys and girls. Their parents are for the most
part engaged in some form of clerical business
work, and form part of the vast army of City
workers, whose steady, unostentatious devotion
to a somewhat monotonous duty helps to give
England that solidarity of purpose for which
she gains the commendation of the world. Dr.
Piggott said he thought that the majority of their
boys followed the same kind of career, with the
exception of a small but regular percentage.

The School is now of the secondary grade, in-
spected by the Board of Education and examined
by the University of London. About three hun-
dred and fifty boys and girls are on the roll. An
entrance examination tests the merit of the
new-comer, and from the time of entry onwards
ability and rate of progress determine the divi-

37

38 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

sions of forms. Happily for all concerned, the
endeavour is not to allow a class to exceed
thirty in number. Even a glance at the young
faces showed that the range varied from the keen
and clever to the dull and uninterested, with the
average as generally eager and alive. The
actual educational requirements are kept up to
the standards set for such schools, so one need
not dwell on that side, but turn to seek the hint
of " to-morrow " in the School as a whole. In
various ways this shows itself.

It was my happy fate to have chanced upon a
day when captains were being installed, and was
permitted the privilege of witnessing an installa-
tion. In 1907 the system of prefects was intro-
duced, and since then has undergone various
modifications, aiming at making it an institution
serving the highest interests of the School. The
School motto is significant — Vincit que se vincit.
Upon this declaration is moulded the principles
by which the prefects and captains promise to
abide. When undertaking to keep the customs
and traditions of the School the word " rightful "
is there to guide their enthusiasm. They may
compel their fellows " only so far as is lawful "
to do the same. The reason for keeping the
good name of the School unsullied is that it may
be a " Christian school in very deed and truth."

HORNSEY COUNTY SCHOOL 39

Each is to champion " lawful interests " and
privileges, protect the weaker and younger, be
sympathetic, and, above all, maintain justice
and fair play. " To make my School the house
of things lovely and admirable," outwardly and
inwardly, is the final pledge taken by the prefect.

The pledge of the captain of a form is not
quite so full or exacting, but runs substantially
the same. The captain is nominated by the
pupils and approved by the teachers. Induction
does not take place till next day, so as to give
the boys and girls time to consider the declara-
tion of responsibilities and to discuss it with
their parents. One boy and one girl are elected
for each class, for all the classes are " mixed."

Before the class stood a teacher, spiritedly
directing the induction, to her right a boy facing
his fellows, to the left a sturdy girl facing her
classmates. The speaker for the girls rose and
declared that their leader was their rightfully
elected captain, to whom they promised their
loyal support and obedience, and that they would
strive to make their form an honourable and
happy fellowship under her. The boys did the
same. Then the captains pledged their honour,
" with God's help," to carry out the responsi-
bility entrusted to them. The teacher then
accepted them as loyal supporters, and shook

40 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

hands. Dr. Piggott congratulated the class
upon its choice of leaders. Captains, he said,
now took the place of monitors. It was the duty
of monitors to warn, but captains led. He urged
them " to play the game " of life in every one of
its aspects well and worthily. If all the commu-
nity were well-behaved there would be no need
for police. He noted with pleasure that they
chose for their captains those who had proved
themselves suitable, and not for any personal
reasons of their own. It was through the evils
of personal bias that Parliaments were despoiled
of their full and true meaning. They must try
to choose the right leaders, and having chosen,
support them loyally. " Play the game " and
" loyalty " are old, trite words, but clearly they
thrilled each young heart afresh, kindling that
power to rule and obey which is regarded as one
of the high- water marks of human attainment,
and renders a nation at once dominant and
humble, ready to lead and yet ready to serve.
It was obvious that the class would tolerate no
autocratic rule, but would accept their captain
in a fine spirit of fellowship. Later would come
an initiation ceremony, with the teachers
present, when Dr. Piggott would give the cap-
tain the " secret " key to his or her own conduct
during office. After that came an investiture

HORNSEY COUNTY SCHOOL 41

before the whole School. There was in it all a
big purpose — to cultivate to the full in plastic
youth honour and integrity by means that
appeal to and cultivate the imagination as well
as the sense of chivalry, those most potent aids
to character-building, when properly drawn
upon by teachers possessed of insight into the
heart of youth.

" Insularity " has been regarded as one of the
defects of the English character. By means of
school journeys involving some measuie of
regional survey this defect is avoided, or at least
minimised, in the Hornsey County School. Some
of these journeys have been abroad — to Belgium,
to Switzerland, to France, as well as several to
historical places of England and Scotland. The
account of the journey to the old pre-Roman
Fecamp, Easter, 1914, is a delightful, concise,
yet complete account of a happy holiday. Some
of the accounts of these journeys have been
published, so excellent are they.

A Parents' Union inconnection with the School
is one of its several special activities. By means
of it a warm link is kept between parents,
teachers, and pupils. As Dr. Piggott justly says :
tc Education creates out of the helpless infant
the healthy, honest, efficient English citizen.
This work of education the home and the school

42 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

share at a most important period of life. . . .
The best interests of the children can be fully
served only when there is a clear understanding
and full sympathy between parents and
teachers."

The handicraft teacher's outlook was the
result of much experience. He has been with
the School some years, and he is deeply appre-
ciative of the freedom for expression extended to
him by the Head. He shrewdly remarked: " It
was good for the Head." His is the only depart-
ment not hampered by examinations, though all
take the course. He pointed out that his work
was " teaching boys and girls, not woodwork."
About the room are records of tests of character,
some ending in failure, some in brilliant success.
Good design, he said, was the evidence of wide
experience, of richness of memory; bad design,
of poor experience and inward poverty.

The playing-fields have been the joy and the
glory of the English Public Schools. There boys
won renown in their own world of youth, learnt
to accept success and defeat with cool heads and
kindly hearts. Youth honours physical prowess,
and Dr. Piggott has wisely given much emphasis
to games. To facilitate development in this
respect the School is divided into " Houses," as
in Public Schools; but it has taken time for

HORNSEY COUNTY SCHOOL 43

captains and vice-captains to understand their
position, not merely as an empty honour, but
one which involved them in responsibility. Tone
and tradition both are precious, but not at the
cost of present needs and changing ideals. In
the experience that " Houses " give of interplay
in many ways comes an invaluable aid to the
growth of potentialities in both boys and girls.

The ideal of the School is best expressed by
Dr. Piggott himself when he writes: "Know-
ledge is power; but only when power is behind it.
It is an unspeakable treasure, but only to those
who have power to employ and increase it.
Having knowledge, but with little power to use
it, the pupil may be instructed, but is not edu-
cated. . . . Education is a lifelong process.
. . . Power comes of independent activity—
from work which one selects, organises, and
executes for oneself in seeking to achieve certain
desired ends. ..." The whole atmosphere of
the School amply demonstrates that these are
not mere utterances, but driving ideals, worked
into the daily routine and adding to it a fine one-
pointedness and charm.

VI.— THE MONTESSORI IDEAL

SWIFTLY and surely the Montessori Ideal is
making its appeal to the educational world in
England. Many teachers in all kinds of schools
were feeling that the system under which they
worked lacked in some essential, and to a certain
extent knew the lack to be that of ' ' liberty. " To
Madame Montessori it was given to find that
which they sought. Her genius put to the test
a great principle which emerged triumphant from
the severe and exacting trials to which she sub-
jected it through years of patient toil. That great
principle is best enunciated in Mrne. Montessori's
own words :

" The child, because of the peculiar character-
istics of helplessness with which he is born, and
because of his qualities as a social individual, is
circumscribed by bonds which limit his activity.

" An educational method that shall have
liberty as its basis must intervene to help the
child to a conquest of the various obstacles. In
other words, his training must be such as shall

44

THE MONTESSORI IDEAL 45

help him to diminish, in a rational manner, the
social bonds which limit his activity.

" Little by little, as the child grows in such an
atmosphere, his spontaneous manifestations will
become more clear, with the clearness of truth
revealing his nature. For all these reasons the
first form of educational intervention must tend
to lead the child towards independence. No
one can be free unless he is independent. ..."

With this as her guiding intuition, added to
a profoundly scientific knowledge of psycho-
logy and a complete medical training, Mme.
Montessori. went direct to the root of human
interest and understanding. This is the arousing
of the inner consciousness with its marvellous
power to comprehend — one might almost say to
meditate upon — the object presented to it. It
is a procedure hitherto regarded peculiar to the
Eastern type of mind, and its manner of arousing
the inner consciousness; but here we have it in-
vented anew in a way entirely suited to the
Western type, and, of course, a consequent
arousal of those deeper layers of consciousness
which are left untouched by the usual, though
now passing, methods in education. It is note-
worthy that in The Advanced Montessori
Method, Part I., Mme. Montessori says: "Now
the method chosen by our children in following

46 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

their natural development is • meditation,' for in
no other way would they be led to linger so long
over each individual task, and so to derive a
gradual maturation therefrom. . . . This is
the habit by which they gradually co-ordinate
and enrich their intelligence. As they meditate
they enter upon that path of progress which will
continue without end."

Apparatus was, of course, necessary, and this,
self-corrective in design, is pre-eminently suited
to child-consciousness awakening to the meaning
of the world about it. It is also provocative of
the inner and deep-seated power of the will to
pay attention to, and through the mind obtain
knowledge of, the material used. Hence it is
here that we find every sense trained fully, every
human faculty brought into play, and through
these the child's own inner guidance first sensi-
tively sought, this then establishing its own
control over the whole personality.

We see, then, that the gift that Mme. Mon-
tessori has given to the world is, roughly put,
the substitution of self- discipline for imposed
discipline. It is true, of course, that other and
earlier great educationalists have enunciated an
almost similar ideal, but perhaps Mme. Montes-
sori may be regarded as having brought it to
fruition. In doing so she has induced an almost

THE MONTESSORI IDEAL 47

complete reversal of the usual treatment of
children in and out of school life; in turn this
will bring about a complete reversal in the adult
world of ' ' to-morrow. ' ' The self-disciplined child
of to-day will not tolerate, when an adult, imposed
or autocratic systems of thought or governance.
Free himself, yet keenly aware of the necessity
of harmonious relations with all about him, he
will seek that the whole world of men shall stand
free, and yet united in the will to serve.

There are, in England, quite a number of
schools established for the express purpose of
working out the Montessori method. Some of
them are private, some are a " department " of
a large school, some are " rooms " in Elemen-
tary and other schools, and occasionally one
finds the principle of liberty applied in certain
measure to a whole Infants' School, as at South-
field Road School, under Miss E. Dowling. After
a while one detects a difference in Montessori
Schools, and eventually one concludes that the
difference is due to the fact that the directresses
have or have not been in personal contact with
Mme. Montessori. Those Schools where the
directresses have had this privilege are truer to
type (that is the best way, perhaps, of putting
it); they seem to express a quality, indefinable
but appreciable, which the others do not possess.

48 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

But always one finds the work carried out with
fervour and enthusiasm, and with a fine realisa-
tion of all that it means to the children. Teachers
who are free to use the method draw a deep sigh
of satisfaction over the opportunities it gives
them to evoke the innate and often splendid
qualities of the little ones, qualities which other-
wise might have lain dormant, and left the dis-
tress of frustrated power to eat into the whole
character like an acid.

Mrs. Lily Hutchinson (a Montessori pupil, and
in direct communication with the Dottoressa),
in her Infants' School in Hoxton, has had splendid
results. But one realises that the initial stages
must have demanded from the directress a most
perfect patience. Weeks were spent in awaiting
the response of the children, but when it came
at last, with it came a tremendous rush of power,
of eagerness and continuous progress which
knows no looking back.

One remembers with an amazing clearness
the incidents that occur in Montessori Schools.
At Hoxton a wee girl had been using insets and
wearied of them. She wandered away to a bench
that ran along one side of the room. Something
flashed into her mind, probably a message from
a tired little body. She lay down on the floor
on her back and tried to touch the bench with

THE MONTESSORI IDEAL 49

her toes. This occupied her for a short time,
then she got up and looked round for something
to do; but evidently the message was still per-
sistent, so she went back to her self-imposed
gymnastics. Presently she seemed satisfied and
went direct to insets, and sat absorbed in taking
them out and putting them in again and again.
I could not help thinking of some schools where
I had seen large classes of little girls penned in
their desks and not permitted any but the most
limited of movements for the period of their
lessons. Sometimes this is due entirely to the
teachers, but very often it is the grief of the
teachers that they must do thus, in accordance
with the will of the inspector, who must abide
by a system, by which they in turn are bound.

In another room a child of seven had been free
for the play-time, and then had gone to the circle
insets. For at least one hour and a half she
went many times through the whole process, and
seemed quite unwearied at the end.

One teacher in the Montessori department at
Southfield Road has made a special study of
mathematics, applying the Montessori method
to the English money system. The children
acquire the power of comprehending money sums
even before tiny fingers can write the figures.
Demonstrations here and at Hoxton in a fresh

4

50 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

branch of mathematics, such as subtraction or
multiplication, made it startlingly clear that the
right method made children eager. I am
afraid I have painful memories of lessons in
arithmetic leaving me puzzled and rebellious
because I saw no reason in the method used. It
seemed so like juggling with figures for no other
purpose than to torture small brains with im-
possible situations. Here there is no room for
helpless puzzlement; it is all so abundantly clear
and simple; and, above all, the child grasps it,
and can immediately apply it to fresh problems
and solve them with a high degree of accuracy.

At the Gipsy Hill Training College for Teachers
of Young Children, under Miss de Lissa (also a
Montessori diplomee, and with experience of
the work in Rome and America), there is, as one
usually finds in Montessori Schools, the same fine
atmosphere of conscious co-operation between
child and adult. Not wee brains struggling to
cope with many and urgent demands upon their
precious inner fields of imagination and budding
thought, but a wholly satisfactory opportunity
of seizing upon experience to enrich the inner
and render the outer competent. Contentedly
they realise their immediate world without hustle
or strain, and between the child and teacher
there is a warm bond of understanding.

One could occupy much space in discussing

THE MONTESSORI IDEAL 51

the experience of such Montessori Schools as that
at St. George's, Harpenden, or that at East
Runton, run by Mr. Bertram Hawker; also in
discussing the experiences of those who have
worked out experiments on Montessori lines.
Among these latter are Miss Mary Blackburn,
in the Demonstration School for the Leeds City
Training College, Miss Crouch, Miss Muriel
Matters, the Heritage Craft Schools at Chailey,
and a number of others. Out of this experience
is appearing a divergence of opinion as to how
strictly the Montessori method shall be applied
or followed. It is fairly certain that the tem-
perament of each country adopting it will in
the end introduce, both consciously and uncon-
sciously, modifications which may or may not
enrich the system as a whole.

There is one fact in connection with children's
work, whether the Montessori method is used
or not, and that is the unsuitability of the rooms
used. One is painfully aware of the fact that
tiny children are presented with brick walls and
that windows begin high up, too high to be of
much value to them as a means of seeing the
outside. Not that the world surrounding most
schools is worth seeing. Even where buildings
have been erected specially for little ones, the
windows began above their heads — walls, and
nothing but walls, all day long — and in one place

52 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

there were fields all around, but no chance for
little eyes to look upon their refreshing greenness.

One is tempted to speculate on the future of
the Montessori method, and whither it will lead.
To great possibilities, undoubtedly, when the
educational world, as well as the parents, realise
the truth of such statements as this, for they are
the kernel of the whole method.

" Air and food are not sufficient for the body
of man; all the physiological functions are subject
to a higher welfare, wherein the sole key of all
life is found. The child's body lives also by
joyousness of soul. . . . With man the life of
the body depends on the life of the spirit. . . .
It is a joyous spirit which causes ' the bones of
man to exult.' '

It was Miss Crouch who said: " It is notice-
able that a burst of affection invariably follows
a new accomplishment. The discovery of a
new fact seems to give the child a halo of happi-
ness." If one were to search the records of the
world for the results of spiritual attainment one
could not find them more tersely stated.

It is hoped that so soon as time and circum-
stance permit, Mme. Montessori will visit this
country. She will find the warmest of welcomes
awaiting her, and the keenest of interest in all
that she has to say.

VII.— THE HERITAGE CRAFT SCHOOLS,
CHAILEY

IT is difficult to do full justice to the subject I
have before me, to evoke a full realisation of the
wonderful work done at Chailey. The Heritage
Craft Schools are devoted to the children who,
otherwise, would be flung aside in the struggle
for existence, and, instead, opens out for them
the way to a useful life — the one consolation,
perhaps, to the Ego who wears a broken, almost
useless, body. Here those bodies are equipped
to play their limited part in the world. One day,
it is prophesied, disease will disappear from the
world — so may it be — but here, at present, the
afflicted child is a great and puzzling responsi-
bility.

In 1894, on St. Martin's Day, a Guild, quaintly
named The Guild of the Brave Poor Things, was
founded by Mrs. C. W. Kimmins, taking its
motto and inspiration from a little book called
The Story of a Short Life, by Mrs. Ewing. It
set to work to draw together all maimed people,

53

54 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

whether men, women, or children. Presently, in
1903, Mrs. Kimmins and Miss Alice Rennie
began an experiment at Chailey, Sussex, " to
enable specially afflicted and disabled members
of the Guild who show special talent to be thor-
oughly trained and to become in time partially,
if not wholly, self-supporting." This, they felt,
could best be done in the quiet of the country,
where fresh air and good food would help and
strengthen the boys and girls.

For this no better spot than Chailey could have
been selected. On the top of the hill is an old
conically-cut tree marking the centre of Sussex,
and beside it rises a neat white windmill, with
white wings spread in the sweet pure air.
Thence on every hand is an uninterrupted view
over miles of the beautiful Sussex Weald with not
a factory chimney in sight, and, fifteen miles
away from over the Downs, there comes direct
from the sea a wind that carries healing in its
wings. The high moor, or common, on which the
windmill stands, is a delicious open space where
the bracken and heather flourish, and is the
happy playground of young crippled human
beings, with all the splendours of the clear sky
above them.

The experiment succeeded, and it was decided
to carry on the work more extensively. But the

THE HERITAGE CRAFT SCHOOLS 55

Board of Education condemned the old farm
building as insanitary and unfit for educational
work of a permanent nature. So Mrs. Kimmins
and Miss Rennie turned it into a charming execu-
tive quarters and set about the erection of some-
thing more suitable. H.R.H. Princess Louise,
Duchess of Argyll, made an appeal, and the
result was the building of the New Boys' Heri-
tage. To this Mr. F. J. Benson was the chief
contributor, and laid the foundation stone on
St. Martin's Eve, 1911.

It is a fine building with one of the cheeriest
dormitories it is possible to imagine. At present
much of this block of buildings is devoted to
crippled soldiers, the first of whom came in 1915.
Here the boys were assigned as orderlies to them,
the policy being to " set a cripple to teach a
cripple." The soldiers who came feeling wrecked
go back to the world happy and courageous. The
crippled guests soon discovered how many things
they could learn and do well, and thus by their
own skill and industry could keep themselves
and their families.

The Heritage Boys' Craft Schools were built
by the late Lord Llangattock, who had always
been interested in this work, and who owns pro-
perty in the south of London, where the Guild
of Play and the Guild of the Brave Poor Things

56 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

took their rise under the inspiration of Mrs.
Kimmins. The boys begin with simple things
that are most easily understood, and mostly toys ;
and then they pass through graded lessons till
they are able to design and make quite compli-
cated things. All the Sussex-oak furniture in
the dining-room of the Girls' Heritage, with its
deep surfaces and simple strong designs, the
entire library furniture, the girls' oak school
tables with special drawers for the fine needle-
work, the furniture of the staff and general re-
ception rooms of both schools, have been made
by crippled boys in their big, light, well-equipped
workshops presided over by cheery, sympathetic
teachers of the crafts.

A short distance away is a large open-air
school with one side entirely open to the air and
sun, where a large class of boys were completing
a lesson. Those boys who were under thirteen
go on with the usual school work and subjects,
going into the workshop for their craft lessons.
Later, when over this age. they spend the greater
part of their time in the workshop and train
deliberately in some craft in preparation for their
work in the world. They usually spend about
three years before they are counted as fairly
skilled workmen. Some, the most capable,
earned 47s. a week; most earned over 15s.; the

THE HERITAGE GRAFT SCHOOLS 57

least capable, or perhaps the most crippled,
earned at least 10s. Wages in war-time are quite
different.

As the soldiers now occupy Heritage Boys'
School, the boys have had sleeping-huts, dining-
rooms, and so on, built for them up beside the
white windmill. The sleeping-huts are on a
pivot, so that they can be turned with their backs
to the wind and the curtains drawn wide in
front throughout the night. For laddies such
as these there needs to be special provision made
for their bodily ailments; so there is a nurse on
the premises who has every convenience at hand.
The space being limited, every kind of ingenious
device tending towards extreme simplicity is in
use, so that the whole place can be run with the
minimum of attention.

Still a little farther on, just over the brow of the
hill, is a set of buildings comprising the Girls'
Heritage Craft School, over which a lovely,
sweet-scented little pine- wood presides. The first
buildings were erected by Lord Llangattock in
1908, and opened by Princess Louise. Other
buildings have been added — a dining-hall of
simple dignity, the Domestic Economy and
Housewifery School and Cottage Laundry (this
for non-crippled children, who are trained in all
branches of domestic service), a staff wing to the

58 SCHOOLS OF TO MORROW

laundry, a Recreation Room with a wide ver-
anda having a glass roof, a Heritage Prepara-
tory School for quite small crippled children,
where is a Montessori department.

When I arrived at the door under the guidance
of a kindly secretary, it was opened by a rosy-
cheeked maid who rather took one aback by
dropping a curtsey. It was an entirely charming
greeting. I was conducted to the sweet-faced
matron, who has been quite ten years at Chailey
and watched it grow, and who obviously knows
every detail of the large establishment she
manages with sympathy and understanding.
In a long, light room sat many girls of all ages,
and all crippled in some way — some quite badly,
some less so. Needlework was their occupation.
The older girls were doing dainty, fine embroidery
on underclothing, the beginners were at less
exacting tasks. But all seemed happy, and all
looked brown and well despite their ailing bodies.
All were dressed alike in blue, with peaked caps
upon their heads, and each and all dropped
curtseys when they could. The Montessori
babies were away in their little cart having a
wayside lesson in the names of trees and plants.
Some a little older were having a rest. One boy
came with infantile paralysis disabling both legs,
but he walks now with ease upon two sturdy

THE HERITAGE CRAFT SCHOOLS 59

brown limbs. Some girls were playing in the
garden — " raid-shock " sufferers on holiday,
revelling in the wind and sun and garden. Each
resident child has a little piece of garden which he
or she cultivates. Truly " the children's gardens
are one of the chief attractions of this colony."

The three women who look after the House-
wifery School are cripples ; two of them are con-
stantly employed in the mending that is needed
for the 300 or so residents of the scattered colony.
They train about twenty normal girls, the course
extending over about two years. They combine
work with play and leisure in a most healthful
way. I caught a passing glimpse of fresh young
faces and blue-clad figures, and as I looked they
dropped the same quaint curtsey, to which was
added smiles and roguish looks as they realised
my amusement at and appreciation of their
salute. In the laundry the expert ironer is one
who is stone-deaf; she loves to smooth out pretty
garments of delicate fabric. Sometimes as many
as 4,000 pieces or more are dealt with in the
weekly washing, so it is serious work.

I asked if years of experience had brought
conclusions as to the source of the crippled con-
dition of the children — was it drunkenness in the
parents? "No," was the reply; "it is mostly
due to their evil living." In one word — syphilis.

60 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

A sweet-toned bell rang somewhere, and the
matron was interested in finding out the meaning
of it. Finally she came upon a tiny maiden of
about two, clad like Red Riding Hood, struggling
with a long bell-rope. She watched the efforts
with great interest till the wee one saw us and
was suddenly stricken with shyness.

Energetic and active Miss Rennie then called
for me to whirl me back to the Boys' Heritage to
see the Chapel, a graceful little building with a
spire a hundred feet high, shingled with Sussex-
oak and toned by wind and weather to a soft
silky grey. Memories already cluster thickly in
the Chapel: a head in stained glass from a famous
Continental church destroyed in the war, sent
by a soldier friend; a stained-glass window in
memory of some lost relative or friend. The
whole building is erected, by his wife, in memory
of Captain Harcourt Rose, who had always been
interested in the School.

Thence to peep into the little dispensary fitted
out by Sir Jesse Boot, and then to a room that
will live in my memory for ever. It was a small
room, really, though somehow it seemed filled
with a large spirit that made walls of little
account. There were many things in the room
—tools, benches, bits of leather, a fine collection
of whips and handles of umbrellas made of wood

THE HERITAGE CRAFT SCHOOLS 61

and bits of leather, the sticks having been care-
fully selected from the woods, seasoned and
polished. The presiding genius of the room is a
shell-shock man with a delight in neat and useful
things. But that which struck one particularly
was the presence of two young men, neither of
whom possess arms. One, the older, was born
thus, and so is scarcely conscious of his loss; the
other lost his in a factory accident. Both sat
upon high benches where the light from a big
window flooded their work. The older boy has
long been an expert in the use of his feet, and
was busy putting finishing touches to the study
in oils of the head of a cat, and a very creditable
picture, too. With the utmost ease he mixed
and laid on his colours. He is exceedingly good
at painting notices and signs, and the many neat
notices about the premises are his work. The
other boy was mastering the art of using his feet,
and was also engaged in painting, and succeeding
very well.

Chailey is distinctly a " School of To-morrow,"
From it we realise how much can be done with
what has been rather thoughtlessly called the
" flotsam and jetsam " of humanity, the irre-
deemable frayed and torn fringe for which no
one was seemingly responsible; from it we also
carry away the feeling that out of tribulation

62 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

can be extracted power and usefulness, and even
laughter and some of the sunshine of life — loving
service finding its reward in love. One is
tempted to speculate as to what causes in the
past linked Mrs. Kimmins with so much of woe,
and created in her the insight and genius to plan
and work for its alleviation, and then to dream
of the lives hence, and how again her link with
them will reappear and find other and un-
doubtedly yet more intimate adjustment ! It
is only after seeing it that one understands and
realises why the motto of the whole scheme is
Lcetus sorte mea (Happy in my lot).

VIII.— THE EURHYTHMICS OF JAQUES
DALCROZE

No. 23, Store Street, W.C., did not appeal to me
as a promising place in which to find a School
of Eurhythmies. The exterior in no way belied
my apprehension, and the short narrow passage
down which I ventured merely served to increase
it. On opening the door a staircase was dis-
covered. At once another atmosphere was
apparent, a breath of something different. On
mounting the neat stairs I came into a world of
whiteness and sweetness. There were sounds of
youthful laughter, the beat of a piano. I was
directed through a white door labelled " Students
Only," and passed up white stairs into a large
light room.

The walls and floor of this room are of a cool,
soft neutral colour; all the rest is white. A
grand piano on a raised platform, a blackboard,
and some chairs are the only furniture. A class
was about to begin, the pupils all being grown
up. They were all very simply clad in close-

64 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

fitting blue costumes which left the bare limbs
entirely free. I felt that my heavy outdoor
garments were suddenly a stuffy burden. I
could not possibly move with ease in them. It
was the effect of the spacious room, the graceful
untrammelled figures weaving with gesture and
movement harmonies that suggested the freedom
of birds' wings through the blue, or of the free
swing of the lissom pine- tops of the hills to the
winds that pass.

I realised, as I watched the class at work, the
emotional value of bare limbs with their beautiful
curves. It certainly was genius in Jaques
Dalcroze which enabled him to discover, or re-
discover, the beauty of rhythm in the movements
of the human body set to music; also to have
realised how an " inner self" in each should so
grip" the purpose of the music, be so at one with
it, as to be able to render its meaning through
the physical body. It is characteristic of
Eurhythmic classes that the pupils lose self-
consciousness — they are absorbed in their work
and seem oblivious of any distracting factors
about them. One sees this deep concentration
when a change takes place in the music. Per-
haps the pupils are walking slowly and beating
slowly: the music changes, is livelier, more alert,
and at once there is an answering alertness in

EURHYTHMICS 65

the eyes of the pupils, and an instant translation
of the change into action.

Rest between exercises is taken with real
relaxation, with all the abandon of pose that
marks the play of children — perhaps absence
of clogging skirts has something to do with it.
Even when clustered at the blackboard, eagerly
working out the notation of rhythms, the pupils
formed a charming and graceful group.

Some exercises were undertaken in which one
pupil translated the music in gesture, expressing
also fortissimo and pianissimo. The remainder
were to watch and express her gestures, to rise
with high free gestures to the fortissimo, to subside
low-crouched to pianissimo. Each phase of the
exercise was a picture of grace, and the wrapt
attention that the pupils gave to the leader of
the exercise so as to interpret aright her every
gesture, her wish, her vision, was remarkable. It
is this which is so fascinating in all Eurhythmic
classes. It shows character so clearly, too. It is
very interesting to watch how different is the vision
and power and mode of expression in each pupil.

Emile Jaques-Dalcroze was born in 1865.
From the age of eight onwards he lived at
Geneva, and became a student at the Conserva-
toire of Music. Later he studied under famous
masters both in Paris and Vienna. For a time

5

66 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

lie was in Algiers, and was fascinated by the
rhythmic dancing of the Arabs, among whom
the Dervishes have carried special forms of
emotional dancing to an extreme point. By
1892 he was Professor of Harmony at the Geneva
Conservatoire. Certain lines of thought and
experiment brought him to the conclusion that
musical education should aim at musically devel-
oped human beings. This needed a training of
the whole human creature to a delicate sensi-
tiveness, to "the ultimate bases of music, tone
and rhythm." Tone through the ear, rhythm
by the beating of the hands — these were the first
steps, and " Gesture Songs " easily demonstrated
that he was upon the right line of development.
Then followed a series of arm movements, and
a system of movements for the whole body. But,
as usual, officialdom frowned upon his ventures
and his successes. Like all " Schools of To-
morrow," the experiments were carried out in
spite of adverse comment, till in 1905, in Solo-
thurn, the method was demonstrated with com-
plete success at the Musical Festival. Recogni-
tion was immediate as to its value for the early
and basic training of teachers. " I first devised
my method as a musician for musicians," said
Dalcroze.

Training courses for teachers were held in

EURHYTHMICS 67

1906: a fortnight was considered long enough.
At the Institut Jaques-Daleroze, Geneva, and
at the London School, two to three years are
spent in training. Diplomas were issued, as on
the slight basis of the earlier courses people were
setting up as teachers of the method. Then
1911 saw the completion of the College for
Rhythmic Training in the garden suburb of
Hellerau, Germany. In 1912-13 two hundred
pupils were taking the full course, the total,
including others, being six hundred. A great
School Festival was held in 1913, taking two
days to complete, and five thousand people
attended. An even greater effort was made in
Geneva in July, 1914, when the history of
Geneva was illustrated in music and rhythm.
Naturally Hellerau closed down in 1914, and
M. Dalcroze has no further connection with it.
He founded the Central Training College for
Teachers in 1915, and in 1917 the pupils and staff
numbered over four hundred.

M. Dalcroze paid his first visit to England in
1912, bringing over with him six of his Geneva
pupils, and he gave demonstrations in various
places, arousing great interest. 1913 saw the
founding of the London School; and in March,
1917, the number of pupils throughout the
country was over eleven hundred.

68 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

The Dalcroze classes are described as con-
sisting chiefly of:

1. Rhythmic movement.

2. Ear training.

3. Improvisation, or extemporisation (prac-

tical harmony).

4. Musical rhythm, or plastic realisation.

He claimed that out of these the first, rhyth-
mic movement, is "original," "fundamentally
new," and " essentially the Jaques-Dalcroze
method," and of inestimable value to children
in their musical training. To ensure the success
of the method two essentials are demanded:
" That the teacher have the power of free ex-
pression on some musical instrument, the pupil
that of hearing correctly."

Time is shown by movements of the arms, and
time values — i.e., note duration — by movements
of the feet and body. Infinite variety can be,
and is, introduced. The crotchet is the unit.
From this is developed all the beats till they
become a habit — automatic, sure. ;c The whole
training aims at developing the power of rapid
physical reaction to mental impression."

The word hopp, chosen as the word of com-
jnand — i.e., when some change is needed — does

EURHYTHMICS 69

not appeal to one's sense of the aesthetic in words
either as pronounced or written.

" Upon the health of the whole organism," said
Dalcroze, the system which he worked out de-
pended. "It is by trying to discover the indi-
vidual cause of each musical defect, and to find
a means of correcting it, that I have gradually
built up my method of Eurhythmies." From
this it will be realised how closely the teachers
must observe the children with whom they work
so as to counter every defect and bring about that
"rapid communication between brain and limbs "
upon which the success of the method depends.

From many other things which M. Dalcroze
has said from time to time we realise that he has
studied very closely and deeply human psycho-
logy. Gesture is the outward form of an inward
emotion; *' gesture and music " go together.
Music, he thinks, became too severely intellec-
tual, and lost its power of right translation in
action. He supplies the missing emotional link,
the " plastic realisation " of music.

A growing number of schools are adding
Eurhythmies to their curriculum. At Arundale
School a class has been in existence since it
opened in 1915, so that with the long intervening
practice it is now possible to obtain some remark-
ably beautiful results.

70 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

At the annual display this year was shown
some of the highly complicated tone and rhythm
work, but it is the plastic realisation which
appeals strongly to the emobions. The children
interpreted a caravan overcome by heat in the
desert. A particularly hot summer's day had
suggested the idea. The intense realism was
very striking, as the caravan at last succumbed
to the sand storm. Another interpretation was
to suggest a cooling fountain. One day, Miss
Hadyn, the teacher, told us, it had been hot and
tiring, and so the idea of a fountain had appealed
to them all — flowing, splashing, refreshing. In
one of the final gestures when the bare arms were
flung wide, one of the tame pigeons fluttered in
through the window and perched cooing upon
the outstretched arm of a delighted child.

At St. George's, Harpenden, the Eurhythmic
class is also under Miss Hadyn' s direction, with
equally successful results. The demand for
teachers is at present greater than the supply.

We are sure that the system has come to stay
and to help in moulding the education of the
future. WTe trust that a time will come when
not only private schools will give boys and girls
this " power to feel all shades of tone music and
express them muscularly " in terms of " beauty,
purity, sincerity, and harmony," but that all the

EURHYTHMICS 71

schools in the country will use it as an integral
part of the school work. It will prove an in-
valuable ally in giving a proper place to the
training and development of the emotions during
school life.

IX.— THE FARMHOUSE SCHOOL

Miss ISABEL FRY, principal of the Farmhouse
School, Mayortorne Manor, Wendover, Bucks,
had long held special views on teaching children
" through work rather than solely by books," and
at last came to a point where she felt she could
put them into practice and thus demonstrate
their utility. She could not have chosen a more
charming spot than Mayortorne Manor, in the
midst of delightful woods and open spaces in
Buckinghamshire. The house is old and some-
what rambling, but adapted to its present uses.
Gardens and fields are on every side, and the day
I visited the school the whole countryside was
robed in the vivid glory of autumn colouring, and
all aflame in the pale clear sunshine.

My first pleasure was to capture busy Miss Fry
long enough to explain to me her ideals, and to
tell me what had been the outcome of her two
years' experience. She told me how, through
years spent in teaching, she saw more and more
clearly that education must be a training as part

72

THE FARMHOUSE SCHOOL 73

of social life and environment, and not a mere
intellectual equipment. At last, in spite of the
great difficulties presented by war conditions,
she put her convictions to the test by starting
the School. It is now well beyond the experi-
mental stage, and, looking back, she sees the
justification of her ideas. She had always had
a strong sense of the economic value in social life.
We know history and can reel off dates and
events, and yet we do not know how life fits into
economic values — by which she meant the best
theory put to the test, and not the use of the
smartest practice.

Science, went on Miss Fry in answer to my
questions, is a fundamental part of the training
of the coming age; we should be keen on scien-
tific experience in practice. For instance, in a
school like hers it was important for the sake
of crops and animals to know how changes of
weather affected them, and to know how to
anticipate those changes. Therefore the chil-
dren have a rain gauge and keep a chart, and
make practical use of the knowledge they
thus gain. Contact with actualities gave to
children an enormous amount of practical know-
ledge. The handling of cows, the technique of
milking, butter and cheese making, the tending
of poultry and pigs and rabbits, all supplied

74 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

opportunities for the children to realise practical
values. They leave a door open, the pigs or
the hens get out; there are results which they
must rectify, and this trains them to alert and
keen attention to the true order of things.

Then Miss Fry was needed elsewhere, and I
spent an hour listening to the Nature Study
lesson, the reasoning side of Nature Study.

" What are the outside influences that affect
plants ?" asked the teacher.

" What are ' influences '?" rapped out an
eager boy.

" Things that affect plants from the outside,"
began the teacher.

" Such as caterpillars !" suddenly chimed in a
girl.

" Like the one I've just squashed that was on
that leaf. I see !" declared the satisfied ques-
tioner.

The lesson proceeded with keen questioning
from the class. A little later on I wandered with
the next class into the spinney and beech- woods
quite close by, while they examined and noted
with close interest the facts of the woods that
suggest reasoning on the laws of growth and
plant-world economics.

As the name indicates, there is a small modern
(though, as Miss Fry says, not quite model) farm

THE FARMHOUSE SCHOOL 75

attached to the School. In fact, the School
" carries on a simple or rather primitive busi-
ness." It supplies the neighbourhood with milk,
butter, eggs, and so on. There are five or six
cows, a few calves, pig- styes, and a fowl-run.
The milk-room was specially built, and there milk
is weighed, strained, recorded, and distributed.
A stable has so far only one pony, so the rest of
the building houses a simple carpentering room,
and a room for chalk sculpturing. Then there
are twenty acres of meadow, orchard, and
spinney; a very fine walled kitchen garden where
every kind of fruit is represented; and a tennis
lawn where basket ball is also played. Near by
are other farms, and here co-operation can find
expression, for the neighbours help the School
with hay cutting, and the children in return help
them to " puddle " their wheat.

The usual School routine is to rise early and
attend to various duties, though the morning
milking is not usually done by the children;
there is a " land girl " as well as a man to help.
Breakfast is at 8, set by the children; 8.30 beds
are made. Then sheds are cleaned, also hutches,
stables, etc. Morning classes begin at 10, and
go on till 12.45. Dinner 1 o'clock. From 1.30 to
2.30 is a free time for reading, sewing, and doing
as each individual wishes. From 2.30 to 4.30

76 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

games, out-of-door work, dairy work, and so on.
Tea 4.30. Preparation 5 to 6.30. Supper 6.30.
" Recollection " 7, then bed, the older children
retiring at 8.

The morning lessons are for the cultural side
in education, and include the usual subjects
with a strong practical flavour in them all.
Greek, Latin, and two modern languages are
usually taught. Greek and Latin are taken for
the purposes of science. I listened to Miss Fry
take a history lesson, and realised that she had
indeed a gift for teaching and making the points
yield their utmost in value to the children. She
believes in having a well-stocked and well-
chosen library, and the large number of books
at the disposal of the children showed that
history could be examined from almost any
point of view, the history of humanity very fully
interpreted.

A young girl was deputed to take me over the
farm, and a most efficient little guide she proved.
She showed me the different departments of the
establishment, and seemed entirely at her ease
in all. This is due to the fact that the pupils
take it in turn to look after the dairy, or the
pigs, or the fowls and the rabbits, and so become
accustomed to each and all. She showed me
charts which recorded the milk yield, the egg

THE FARMHOUSE SCHOOL 77

yield, and so on. Only that morning Miss Fry
had asked the pupils' opinion as to whether two
of the cows should be kept. They at once
showed her the records of the cows and their
milk yield. They keep the accounts themselves
of the milk distributed, and from their complete
records know whether an animal is profitable
or unprofitable; also they know the price at
which a creature should be sold.

Later in the afternoon the same girl (of about
thirteen) took me to witness the bringing in of
the cows, the milking, feeding of hens and pigs,
putting " Henrietta," the fat sow, to bed
(" Henrietta " had strong opinions of her own
on the proper time and way to get to her stye),
and the general preparations for the night so as
to leave all the creatures safe, comfortable and
satisfied.

Miss Fry says clearly that she has no wish to
turn children into farmers; she thinks that her
type of school does not suit all children; but for
those it does suit she claims " that farming, being
one of the elemental, fundamental activities of
life, is the one which perhaps best of all ...
prepares a child for taking up any other life
later." She also says: " I feel that the experi-
ment has already justified itself, but I am inter-
ested to find that of the two results which I was

78 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

most consciously aiming at, one has been the
most marked in its effects. I hoped that the
children's sense of social solidarity and respon-
sibility would be developed. This has been
most clearly attained. I hoped also that the
science teaching in the classroom would very
closely associate itself with the everyday tasks
of farmyard and garden. This result has been
less clearly realised. But this fact may be ex-
plained largely by the extreme difficulty of
getting teachers at this very abnormal time who
can afford the time to throw themselves into a
new experimental line."

There are a few points upon which Miss Fry
lays stress, and they may be summed up thus
from her own statements: (1) The school reveals
real relationships: mistakes and failures show
their unpleasant results; care and forethought
show their advantages. (2) The work demands
exactitude — e.g., in carrying milk. (3) It re-
moves self-consciousness from the child and
helps him to realise himself as part of the world
he lives in. (4) It exercises the child in functions
which are too frequently and mistakenly left
" till you are grown up." (5) It does away with
artificial stimulus.

The impression one brings away from the
Farmhouse School is not so much that one

THE FARMHOUSE SCHOOL 79

believes it to be the one that should be emulated
in its details, but that it embodies the right
principle that Schools of To-morrow must
necessarily take more and more into considera-
tion : that true education is the acknowledgment
and development of " real relationships " at
every stage in a child's growth, these relationships
including not only the human but also the other
kingdoms.

X.— MIXENDEN SCHOOL

IT was upon a grey day in November that I ven-
tured to try to find the Mixenden County
School, of which the headmaster is Mr. John
Arrowsmith. At the New Ideals in Education
Conference of 1916 Mr. Arrowsmith explained
the aim that lay behind his work: to introduce
a system of Physiological Education, or Educa-
tion through all the Senses, primarily through
touch. So I sought out Mr. Arrowsmith and
the practical expression of his ideal.

It was rather like going on a pilgrimage.
Halifax is not a prepossessing place, and a long
tram-ride landed me on the edge of a valley,
which I crossed on foot, and finally found the
School. Grey hills, grey hard lines of valley, grey
houses, grey roofs, grey mists, and streamers of
dark grey smoke seemed to envelop one on every
side. I wondered what sort of an enthusiast I
should find in the midst of such unprepossess-
ing surroundings. Mr. Arrowsmith afterwards
assured me that it was very beautiful there in
the summer. I wonder !

80

MIXENDEN SCHOOL 81

The School is small and old, and there are
within it evidences of poor building and relics
of an extraordinarily antiquated type of fur-
nishing. It is high up on the hillside 900 feet
above sea-level, and around it are rugged and
bare hillsides, with an absence of trees that gives
one an uneasy sensation as of something vital
missing.

I found Mr. Arrowsmith at the School, and sat
down to ply him with questions. His blue eyes
glowed with inner fires when he spoke of the
children, and his voice quickened into rebellious
tones when he discussed the difficulties with
which he had to deal. For eight and a half years
he has contended with untoward circumstances.
The habitations about are sparsely distributed
over the valley top and sides. The accommoda-
tion in them is limited; the inmates are herded
into an insufficient number of rooms. Mills are
on all sides clamorous for cheap child labour.
The children who have completed the proper
number of attendances go at twelve years of age
to the mills for half-time work. They are up
and at the mills at six o'clock in the morning,
and work till 12.30 noon. They attend school
in the afternoon. The next week they go to
school in the morning and the mills in the after-
noon till about 5.30. At thirteen they leave

6

82 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

school altogether. It seems incredible, but so it
is; and, unhappily, parents are keen exploiters
of their own children — perhaps the economic
position of the family demands this sacrifice of
child vitality and growth. Alas ! that it should
be so. No wonder a kindly Providence set down
in their midst a lover of children, who would defy
custom and opposition and indifference, and who
believed passionately in " mutual aid " instead
of competition.

One of the first things that Mr. Arrowsmith
did was to unscrew the iron legs of the tables
from the floor and give the children something
more flexible to deal with. One room has
baffled him ; it still has in it a particularly hideous
and uncomfortable little seat for the small child
to sit in. What torture it must be !

As the whole object of the School is to " de-
velop the mental and physical growth of the
individual child by bringing him into contact
with things," one sees practical demonstration
of it on every side. Nothing is wasted, every-
thing is carefully stored for future possible use.
Boards that no longer serve a definite purpose are
stacked for future needs ; the same with iron, wire
netting, nails, and so on. Piles of dry plants lay
ready to be stripped of their seeds for next year's
planting. The floor was giving way in one spot;

MIXENDEN SCHOOL 83

some boys put it right very neatly. One room
had blackboards of the children's own prepara-
tion all around it — blackboards that could be
taken down and set up outside against the walls
in the summer-time, when the classes are held
out of doors.

" Reading and writing are excellent and
necessary tools for the further development of
mind, but it is also recognised that the mind of
the race gained its knowledge and its power by
and through things handled, seen, heard, tasted,
and smelt." In the Mixenden School there is
ample evidence given of the practical application
of this belief, though the war interfered with its
fullest development. The hen-house, chicken-
coops, rabbit-hutches, and pigeon-loft have all
been abandoned for the moment, as also the
simple instruments set up in a small white-fenced
enclosure to mark and measure the changes of
wind and weather, and take simple observations.
But two things remain to compensate them —
the garden, and the construction of an open-air
bathing-pool. The garden is truly, as Mr.
Arrowsmith put it, "a veritable oasis " on that
bare hillside. Everything in it has been done
by children and teachers together. The soil
being heavy clay, they had literally to carry to
their garden all the surface soil in which plants

84 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

and trees could grow. The sheltering border of
trees they put in themselves, and under their
shade, in delightful corners, outdoor classes are
held.

The open-air swimming-pool found in Mr.
Arrowsmith an enthusiast. " It will be the first
open-air swimming-pool made by children in an
elementary school in England," he proudly
declared. It looked quite promising, but certain
defects of construction had been ruthlessly
shown by recent heavy showers of rain. Mr.
Arrowsmith welcomed these as experience. The
flowr of water was easily arranged for by pipes
from the higher ground, and the quaint sluice
in one corner was to let off the water whenever
necessary. There was a gleam of mischievous
delight in Mr. Arrowsmith's eyes when he ex-
claimed: " I shall like to hear what the parents
have to say when we commence mixed bathing
in our pool !"

The playground has a border of trees around
it, planted by the children and watched over by
them. They have learnt to love to beautify.
Between two of the classrooms is a glass parti-
tion, and the children were seized with the idea
that they must decorate it. Each one was
allowed a pane, and the result was quite effective
and gay, lending the joy of colour to the dull

MIXENDEN SCHOOL 85

rooms. Nature Study is conducted out of doors
with Nature. When plays are performed the
children manage all their own scenery and pre-
pare it. It is, indeed, all a wonderful demon-
stration of the belief that " everything they do
shall be of real use in their daily life."

Mr. Arrowsmith had stories to tell of the effect
his work and his ideals have had on the lives of
the children. He dwelt tenderly on certain
incidents that showed a bigger realisation of
life's purpose in those who had been with him
for several years, whom he had guided through
all their brief school career. He would see the
schools of the future as clubs, basically, open
from 8 a.m. till bed-time, especially in villages,
where they should be the centres of vitalisation
for the whole village. In them he would leave
the " type instinct " to work itself out in the
grouping of the children. For the realisation of
themselves there would be gardens, art, science,
craft, calisthenic and music rooms, not all com-
pletely equipped, but which the children should
help to furnish and so create their own atmos-
phere. In these rooms they could spend a few
minutes or a few hours as they wished. They
would have also rooms where the ABC was
learnt, and reading and writing, and so on. This,
he dreams, would be the right way to conduct

86 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

a truly continuous education, extended to the
age of twenty-one or thereabouts, which would
equip youth for its best and fullest expression.
To guide and conduct this kind of education he
would search for the real teachers, men and
women, who are by nature fathers and mothers
and lovers of childhood, and to whom teaching
is a sacred vocation, a joy, and not a routine
profession.

Naturally Mr. Arrowsmith has been in con-
flict with authority, and with those who de-
manded of his children the strict method of
response to question. But he has weathered
many storms, and is confident that what he has
done has been good and has brought out the
true self in the children who have laboured with
him. He has worked for the " To-morrow "
that is already becoming the " To-day " with a
faith and vigour that finds its entire justification
in the nobler life demanded by those who go
through his hands: the children who frow out
of their present conditions and demand the
larger, freer, and more beautiful life, and are
deeply imbued with love of, and desire to serve,
their fellows.

XL— DEPTFORD BABY CAMP AND
TRAINING CENTRE

THE Baby Camp is to be found in the midst of
one of London's most dreary East End slums.
On the day I visited it the surroundings were
not enhanced by that strange, drab fogginess
that gives to London in winter its air of aloof,
forbidding gloom. Through a door in a high
wall one passed into a spacious area with low
buildings on either side. This was the Baby
Camp proper.

Unhappily for us, Miss Margaret McMillan
herself had just gone to France, to tour through
the soldiers' camps to tell them of the dreams
she has of Britain's future, of her glory based
on right education, so that the dream shall find
fulfilment in the beautiful lives of men and
women. The assistant, or nurse-teacher, who
showed us in paid Miss McMillan glowing and
unsolicited tribute. " She is a mother to us all !"
she exclaimed. " We did not want her to go to
France alone, for she works first and thinks

87

88 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

of herself last. Our hearts went out with
her."

One sensed that someone of genius fills the
place with a vital inspiring atmosphere. There
is the subtle potent current of a great ideal
finding its way to birth and expression. So
often one finds it thus : power, foresight, vision of
future splendours — and all set to grow amidst
appalling difficulties. Perhaps it is for the sake
of testing strength and of drawing near to the
greater beauties that it should be so.

However, Miss Chignell, the Principal both of
the Nursery and Training School, gave us
generously of her time to explain the purpose of
each part of the work. From her, too, fell
warm words of trust and love when she referred
to Miss McMillan's great efforts to realise her
passionate desire to uplift the world. We saw
the small babies first — wee things a few weeks
old some of them, who had just been fed and were
contentedly settling to sleep. A solemn little
semicircle of half a dozen tiny ones were being
fed, and they all looked very rosy and healthy.
Their shelter is a large and airy one, open entirely
on one side, and heated in the centre by gas.
Their mothers are mostly at wrork; all were so a
short time ago, when munitions were the order
of the day. They still bring their babies to this

DEPTFORD BABY CAMP 89

place of quiet and rest, where they are trained in
a way for which distracted working mothers have
but little time.

Along one wall runs the words : " I desire to live
worthily all my days, so that after my death I
may leave to others a record of good work done."
This, goes on the writing, was a saying of King
Alfred's which was dear to the heart of Miss
Rachel McMillan, of whom there is a large photo-
graph underneath, and whose loss her sister still
mourns deeply, for they worked together in this
Baby Camp.

In the next shelter were older children, though
still little more than toddlers, from sixteen
months onwards. They sat sedately feeding
themselves carefully, and very particular about
their manners. Upon manners great stress is laid,
and while the children are delightfully free and
happy, yeb they are patiently trained in the way
of such manners as would grace any table in the
land. In the centre of their table, upon the white
painted boards, was a bowl filled with mosses
from which rose delicate snowdrops. All this
is done with a high purpose. Miss Chignell told
us of the days when the neighbourhood resented
their presence, and how the children would bide
their time to rush in and snatch a growing flower
and tear it and trample it in sheer wantonness.

90 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

But that has passed, and the Camp and its work
are respected. The mothers of these little ones
are also away at factories all day. That at one
time was a condition of admittance; now any
child that applies is taken in. Across the wide
yard the next group were taking their dinner.
They range from three to four or five years old.
Again cheery faces, clean and wholesome-looking,
with rosy cheeks, and again the ease of good
manners; and our conversation followed up this
point. They had, before they came to the Camp,
no physical training, no habits of cleanliness or
control, no regular hours of eating and sleeping.
They were wrongly managed, or not managed
at all, and to correct all that is one of the pur-
poses of the Baby Camp. It is there to instil
the first and fundamental lesson of all lessons
and laws — self-control. Upon that hinges civili-
sation. To this is added the law of consideration
for other living things. Hence the yard is
largely a garden where many things try to grow.
In the far corner is a large tree, and a square of
earth about it has been seeded, so that in the
summer the babies may have the pleasure of
playing on its desirable greenness. A thin, stray
London cat had its hunger appeased, and I fancy
that cat was astonished — anyway, it made the
most of its opportunity.

DEPTFORD BABY CAMP 91

About ninety children are on the books, but
that day there were seventy-six in attendance.
Some were absent because of the recent strikes.
The weekly charge is two shillings and sixpence,
inclusive of three-quarters of a pint of milk per
day and three square meals, to say nothing of
bathing and heating and attention. But, while
the strike was on, this was too much for the poor
mothers to pay. One little boy Miss Chignell
had specially inquired after — a boy whose home
is in a basement, and who is like a pale plant
deprived of air and food. His mother acknow-
ledged that the Camp was the right place for him,
and that they were doing wonders with him there,
but she could not spare even a shilling a week.
Miss Chignell pleaded for him without payment,
but perhaps some remote sense of pride restrained
the mother, and the price is the child's health
and vitality.

The Baby Camp is open from 7 a.m. till 6 p.m.
The first thing is a bath or wash and dressing.
They have breakfast at nine, dinner at twelve,
and supper at four. Over 75 per cent, of the
children are rickety when they first come, but
the good, pure food and open-air, regular life^
cure that. Fifty per cent, are verminous, and
to deal with this there is a special hot-air appara-
tus, and they are soon largely cleared of this

92 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

detriment to health and comfort. Gradually the
mothers are won to help in combating this evil,
and that, with Camp treatment, reduces this to
20 per cent.

As we stood talking, another and older group
of children passed across the yard and out of the
gate — " a little rivulet of child beauty," in Miss
McMillan's own words. We followed them across
the street and down an alley and into a yet
narrower alley which opens upon another space
and an open shed to one side. Here those of
from five to seven or eight were settling to their
mid-day meal, singing grace first and then sitting
down quietly. There was the same order, kindly
quiet, and restraint and observance of good
manners which marked all the rest. We here
inspected the baths and other appliances where
body, and, in consequence, mind, are made
happy by cleanliness. After dinner the whole
Camp settled to sleep. The beds are simple,
and each child has a warm rug to cover it. In
the winter they sleep in the shelters; in the
summer in the open air.

Next came a visit to the clinic, where not
only the Camp children are treated, but many
others from the neighbourhood. A cheery
nurse in charge declared that she was kept busy
all day. There was a characteristic touch in

DEPTFORD BABY CAMP 93

this room that was another indication of the
vision that besets Miss McMillan. Here, where
healing is the keynote, there hangs over the
fireplace a lovely picture entitled " The Guardian
Angel," by Frank Dvorak. It was exhibited
in 1911 at the Royal Academy, was purchased
by someone and presented to Miss McMillan.
It is a lovely thought that keeps it here, before
the eyes of suffering children, to ease their pain
and give them the joy of colour and a conception
of tenderness easily understood by them. In
another house is a dental department, where
some of the students also reside. On the ground
floor is a studio, the resort of colour and that
charm of careful disorderly order that only an
artist's studio can attain. Yet another house,
opposite the Camp, is being prepared for the
students. The story of this house, though not
pleasant, amply demonstrates what it is that
Miss McMillan seeks to alter.

When the war broke out the house was occu-
pied by a German family. Presently, as public
opinion grew more and more resentful against
Germans, the local feeling blazed into action.
Paraffin was poured on the place and set alight.
The interior was burnt out, the occupants escap-
ing, though the mother was injured. They
removed to another part of London, only to fall

94 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

victims to bombs during an air-raid, some of the
children being killed. The mother's reason fled,
the father is repatriated. The house will now
be the^iome of those whose ideal is to change the
goal of the world's desire, to induce it to leave
behind the days of war and ignorance and
poverty, and, with the help of tiny children, to
march forward to a more hopeful future.

The course of training for these students is a
full one: English Literature, History, French,
Drawing and Modelling, Physiology, Dentistry,
Voice Production, and the Psychology of Chil-
dren. The Board of Education have not yet
decided what kind of certificate it will be able
to award. The working day is from 6.30 a.m.
to 6 p.m. Out of this comes an interval of two
hours for meals and four hours for study and
recreation. There are two sets of people in
training at the Camp: (1) The nurse-teachers and
(2) the students. There are seventeen of the
former, who come from various parts of the
country for six months' training; the latter are
girls of from sixteen to twenty-five years of age,
taking a two or three year course. These
students go right through the creche and school,
have a period in the clinic with the dentist,
doctors, and nurse, attend also at the bathing
centre and at the minor operations which are

DEPTFORD BABY CAMP 95

performed on Saturdays. Their work is thus
made to cover the whole range of interests which
shall best serve in the true education of children.

This is the usual routine of the day: The
earliest arrivals are at 7 a.m., and are enter-
tained by a student in the nursery till 8, when
the rest come in. At 8, nurses, teachers, and
students take their own children to their respec-
tive bath-rooms, where bathing, washing, hair-
dressing, teeth-cleaning, nail-trimming, and
putting on of the pretty overalls goes on till
9 or 9.30. Then the children have their break-
fast, then training in the little physical habits
that mean so much to health. From 10 to 11.30
or 12 the school subjects are taught to those old
enough. The preparation of the tables for dinner
is carried on by the children of three upwards
under supervision. Beds and blankets are made
ready for the afternoon sleep. The length of
sleep varies for the different ages. Then beds
and blankets are put away, the children tidy up
generally, and have some handwork, drawing,
and singing, or games. Tiny ones are prepared for
tea at 3.30, and the others are ready at 4. Some
then go home, others remain till their mothers
call for them at 6, and some simple, happy
occupation is found for them while they wait.

In her Ninth Report of the Deptford Health

96 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

Centre, Miss McMillan says that expenses
amounted to £1,600 for the building of the new
Cleansing Centre, the equipment of the new
Nurses' Home, the Bungalow for Students, and
a Hall Shelter. This was met by a legacy left
to her sister during the last week of her lifetime.
The working expenses amounted this year to
£2,900. The parents* contributions averaged
£500, the Ministry of Munitions granted £500,
friends donated £300, and premiums from three
pupils came to £120. The remainder has to be
found, and I rather think that Miss McMillan
herself earns a good deal of it by her writings.

Miss Chignell told us that their dream is a
model centre from which others may draw in-
spiration, to be followed by a network of such
centres all through London. " More humanising,
more lovely than parks even, or even recreation
grounds, would be the presence in every neigh-
bourhood of beautiful and well-nurtured children,
offering always the object-lesson of a wholly
redeemed human life," writes Miss McMillan.

Many questions rise to one's mind when
examining this Baby Camp and all its accessory
activities. But the main question is answered
in the words quoted above. It takes the eye
of insight into the divine purpose that lies hidden
in human growth to institute and foster such

DEPTFORD BABY CAMP 97

work as is here carried on. The parts have their
coherence, the work is seen as a whole; clinics
and studios and beautiful garments all serve
the central aspiration to make of these chil-
dren " wholly redeemed human lives."

As the labouring classes are struggling for some
freedom, for leisure, striking out almost blindly
for what some resistless impulse tells them is
absolutely necessary for that which is in them,
so here is the beginning of the fulfilment of what
they are fighting for. Leisure not well filled is
mere idleness, and leads to many vices ; but now
babies have a chance to learn to use well and
worthily, and with cultivated tastes and habits,
the leisure that will be the rule of the world one
day. The future already nestles in our midst,
and in this Centre finds a rich and happy
environment in which to develop.

XII.— AN OPfiN-AIR SCHOOL,
PLUMSTEAD, S.E.

IT is now some years since the Educational
Authorities definitely added open-air schools to
their list of ventures for the betterment of the
bodies as well as the minds of children. Of
course, open-air schools must be where they are
most needed, and this Plumstead School has a
large area from which to draw frail and ailing
boys and girls. To get to it one passes through
the long and ugly monotony of South-East
London. The 'bus swirls through sordid streets
and grime-laden houses, and the dulness of it all
seems intolerable. I contrast it with where I
am writing up the notes of my visit. London
wearied me, my lungs seemed full of the poison
of soot and dust, and at last I escaped and am
miles from everywhere in North Wales, with the
wild sweetness of the mountain air cleansing my
body from city impurities, and the silence my
mind from the clamour that prevails where
human beings congregate.

AN OPEN-AIR SCHOOL 99

Oddly enough, though, one does not wholly
escape from human ambitions, for here the
passion of the few also is the winning of worldly
wealth, and to that end they toil from dawn till
dark in a never-ending round of tasks. Their
recreations are different, and that is all. The
glory of hill and dale, the purple shadows of
evening upon the mountains, the glint of moon-
light on the rushing stream, are scarce noted —
their eyes are all for the immediate and com-
pelling affair of the moment.

There is a wonderful pine-wood here, where
intense and eerie silence reigns. Sometimes it
is full of a friendly spirit, sometimes so hostile
that it is no comfort to remain in it. Brilliant
sunshine and dark shadow are there; and the
eternal secret of Being and Becoming seems
strangely near and discoverable. It was the
same deep secret at Plumstead, only it was em-
bodied in restless children instead of in lofty
pines. I would that I could read the secret . . .
I but guess.

The Open-Air School buildings cluster beside
an elm- wood on high ground up behind Woolwich
Arsenal. The guns of the Arsenal boom out
regularly and insistently, and recall those recent
days when gun-fire meant terror and death.
The Thames winds away into the blue distance,

100 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

and across, beyond its flat valley, rise the hills
of Essex, and away in another direction are
Kentish hills, softly, deeply blue. " Excellent
for geography lessons," said Mr. Turner, pointing
it all out to me.

Mr. H. E. Turner has been at the School since
its opening. He had always been keenly inter-
ested in open-air work and Nature Study, and he
certainly studies the children. The buildings at
his disposal are his constant regret, but they are
likely to remain unsatisfactory as long as there
is uncertainty about the land upon which they
stand. They are just bare necessities. The
wind was blowing hard, but the sun shone out
from time to time, and in the well-placed shelters
there was warmth and comfort and the joy of
space. The trees were still bare, but in the
summer their thick green tops must make the
wood a delight to the children who run and play
beneath.

It was the day upon which the School takes
in new children that my visit fell, and though I
missed the regular routine of work, yet I gained
in hearing Mr. Turner give his " first-morning
talk " to the assembled boys and girls.

A kindly nurse shepherded some thirty of them
into Mr. Turner's room, and I sat in a corner and
listened to him capturing small hearts and minds

AN OPEN-AIR SCHOOL 101

to co-operate with him in the effort to attain to
better health.

" I always have a talk to the boys and girls
on the first day," he began, and his kindly grey
eyes softened as he looked at the little ones
clustered about him, " because we have to work
together. Many boys and girls think that this
is a funny school when they first come, so I want
you to understand what it is meant for. Then I
want you to go home and tell your mother all
about it. But you must be careful to tell her
the truth, not just tell tales. Your mother will
want to know how you liked your first day, so
be sure and put it right. Don't go and say you
don't like this and that; just wait a little and
find out why things are done here in this School
to make you all well.

" I want you, then, to be sure and not get
wet when you are coming in the morning.
Stand in a shelter and wait awhile, and come
dry. We will put off breakfast a little, and will
not mind if you are late. You must not think
this means you can dawdle; but don't get wet,
and we will understand. Also, boys and girls
are funny creatures, you know; they have a little
headache or feel a bit tired, and say so. Then
mother says : 4 Oh, you need not go to school
to-day.' But that does not help you. You

102 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

must come every day to this kind of school, and
never miss a day unless you are really ill. The
little pains and aches will all disappear, and as
you play you will forget all about them.

' Then I want you to be sure and eat what
is given you. We will only give you a little, if
it is something you do not like. So many boys
and girls do not like porridge at first, but they
soon get used to it. Keep on trying, and you
will learn to like it. The same with your other
meals. The teachers eat the same food as you
do, and some of them did not like it at first either,
but now they do.

' You will have lessons every day, but here,
too, I want you to do only as much as you can.
What we want you really to do is to get strong
and well. You will have as many lessons as you
can manage, but when you are stronger you can
do more. So during the morning your teachers
will help you to do what you can. Then after
dinner you must all go to sleep. You will sleep
in the shelter when the weather is rough or wet,
and in the open whenever it is possible. You
will each have a blanket, and you will wrap that
round you and go fast asleep. Then there will
be more lessons when you wake up, and games,
and so on.

" But there is one thing I want you specially

AN OPEN-AIR SCHOOL 103

to remember. You are here to get well and
strong. That is why you come to this School.
The one great thing to help you to get well is
to be happy. That is the quickest way to get
well. To be happy at your work and at your
play. Happiness is the greatest and best of all
medicines. I want you to be happy all the
time, so that you get quite strong like other boys
and girls. Then you can go to their schools and
do as they do. You are here, you know, because
your bodies are not quite as strong as they should
be. So be happy ! Don't worry about the
wind and the cold; you will soon begin to like
both and learn that they help you to get well,
so long as your feet are warm and you have on
warm clothes.

"So remember that you are to get strong
and well; you are to tell mother all about every-
thing, but be sure it is the truth, and not what
you fancy; and first, last, and always, you are
to be happy."

During this little talk the children listened,
and sometimes they wondered and sometimes
they approved. You, who read, will have
gathered, as I did, that here were children below
the average in health, and that the Open-Air
School was to cure them, or at least to make them
stronger, by means of good food and fresh air and

104 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

happiness. Their pale faces and pinched looks
told the tale of tuberculosis somewhere, and
when they had all departed I asked questions of
Mr. Turner.

Yes, each child who came to him had tuber-
culosis in the family, and though not active in
the child it gave to him delicacy and weakness
of some sort. At home the children were usually
wrongly treated. Windows were kept closed
and their food was vicious. One boy had a
great weakness for pickled onions, and especially
vinegar. It was injurious, and as long as he took
it his palate cried out for its coarse pungency.
Mr. Turner undertook to give up eating pickled
onions if the boy would too — for a month at first.
He did so, and never went back to them, and
it helped him enormously. I am not sure
whether it was this boy or another, equally
delicate, who is now an A.B. seaman.

Upon two things great stress is laid: good
strong boots and warm clothes. Over and over
mothers had complained of the expense of the
kind of boots he begged the children should wear.
But with these delicate little ones the first essen-
tial is dry warm feet, and finally mothers would
come to see it; then if they had wariji coats
the wind and cold did not distress them at all.
The children had three meals at school, not

AN OPEN-AIR SCHOOL 105

up in the shelters where their lessons were
carried on, but in the L.C.C. school a short dis-
tance away. The food was plain, wholesome,
and well cooked, and the open-air life soon gave
them an appetite. The percentage of cures —
i.e., the disappearance of tubercular conditions —
was very high. The children reacted in different
ways to the treatment — some began at once to
show a change, some took even a year before
Nature was satisfied and bestirred herself.
Behind much of the difficulty lies the ignorance
of parents, who dress wrongly, feed wrongly,
treat wrongly these boys and girls tainted
by their own health conditions. Much of
Mr. Turner's time is spent in educating mothers,
who come at first with many complaints, and who
end up by being glad and willing co-operators
with him in winning health and strength for their
children.

Seeing that Mr. Turner seemed to order his
curriculum with considerable freedom, I could
not resist the question as to what inspectors
thought of his methods and his results. He
answered, with a twinkle in his grey eyes, that
if inspectors are worried with questions they
must, of course — in fact, are bound to — answer
according to the code ! But he had invariably
found inspectors kindly disposed and reasonable.

106 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

This interested me, because I find after many
inquiries that teachers and inspectors play a
sort of battledore and shuttlecock with each
other. They hurl anathemas at one another,
but the anathemas, like the shuttlecocks, are the
same, from whichever side they come !

Perhaps the peculiar message of open-air
schools is to the effect that if we would have the
generations to come in an all-round healthy
condition we must alter the environment in
which the children spend the greater part of
their day. The open air seems so simple a thing
to command, and yet weak lungs perish for lack
of it. Most L.C.C. schools are like great prisons
surrounded by high walls, and these little ailing
ones, who cannot endure them, bring to us for
to-morrow the tremendous lesson of the value
of the good fresh air and the wind and trees, the
flowers and the little things of the earth, the skies
and the changing clouds. The finger-post they
show us reads thus : The way to the future is to
combine with Nature in education; let us have in-
tellectual freedom blended with the freedom of
God's earth and its beauties and interests; so shall
we grow strong in body, mind, and heart, and
leave no wreckage on the way to show where
ignorance of what was best sacrificed us to a
custom, a code, or a settled observance of any kind.

XIII.— LITERATURE

OXFORD in the rich beauty and wonder of
spring-time is a rare delight, especially to the
passing visitor. And one was glad with a great
gladness that this year the bronzed and healthy
young men walked the quiet streets, the busy
marts, the green ways of the parks, without
the strange thrilling secret consciousness of
death awaiting them. The old colleges are
ringing again to the steps of youth, careless
laughter, and song. And over all Oxford broods
once again that proud, high spirit of the intellect
of man seeking knowledge. It pervades all the
atmosphere, giving a sense of importance to
humble folk of the lowlier walks of life, and that
lofty air to the bare-headed, jaunty young men
as they stride along arm in arm.

It was in the midst of all this that I sought

out Miss Lee's school in the Banbury Road,

beyond St. Giles's, and where the lovely trees

overhang the roads and screen the tall houses

107

108 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

whence come the sounds of laughter and jolly
voices.

To try and find out how fully literature can
yield up its meaning, and thus contribute to the
training of young minds, was the object of my
search. For twenty years Miss Margaret M.
Lee has held steadily the ideal that literature is
one of the great moulding forces in education.
Not that she forced literature upon her pupils
in any cut-and-dried form, but that she believed
it could be presented in such a way as to be a
means of interpreting human life. Miss Lee
holds that literary epochs have a continuous
current. In the writings of every period, small
or great, is to be found the unending chain of
evolution. Interpretations of spirit and matter
are found in literature, also the bent of politics,
the hopes and despairs of the people, their wail
under oppression, their songs of freedom, the
call to the ruler, the sense of conservation, the
power of revolution — these, and all other things,
are to be found in the stream of literature as it
takes birth in a nation, and flows and eddies,
is sluggish or fast according to the will and temper
of the time.

The School is called the " Wychwood School
for Girls," and was never intended for a large
school; rather was it due to the fact that Miss

LITERATURE 109

Lee and her friend Miss Batty were determined
to use their gifts for the few children whom
they could reach, and, without strain amid
other duties, offer a first-class education.
Miss Lee herself is devoted to Literature, and
in the pages of the Herald of the Star has
expounded its worth and merits in educa-
tion. She not only teaches regularly in the
University College, Reading, but is also tutor
in English to the Society of Oxford Home
Students, Fellow and Lecturer of King's College
for Women, and Examiner for the Internal
B.A. degree in Honours of the University of
London.

By degrees the School grew, as it proved its
worth, till in 1918 a larger house standing in
charming grounds was taken. The deliberate
intention of the Principals, wisely, is to keep
the numbers small, so as to be able to pay indi-
vidual attention to the girls. The specialities
of the School are: History, Literature, and
Modern Languages. Many modern experi-
ments are also tried. For instance, self-
government was given a trial; but the time
and opportunity did not prove favourable, and
a large body of opinion among the pupils
was at last so against its continuance that
Miss Lee consented to put a stop to its practice.

110 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

Seemingly the reason was that those available as
leaders because of age and position in the School
had not the qualities that, whether in young
or old, go to constitute a leader. Presumably
the effort will be made again when the material
is suitable. It was not at all that self-govern-
ment was a failure, but that the time did not
find the right elements at hand, and Miss Lee
welcomed the failure as she would have wel-
comed success — that is, with understanding of
the enrichment brought by experience, whether
good or bad. This does not mean that the
pupils are not trusted or given responsibility;
they enjoy a large share of both.

I should like to give the fourth part of the aims
set out in a tiny leaflet about the School. I am
sure that it well expresses the underlying pur-
pose in the fine work that Miss Lee carries on in
the classes. It runs:

" To base all teaching upon a spiritual prin-
ciple inculcating tolerance and sympathy in
religious matters, and a diligent practice of her
own faith on the part of every child. ..."

Miss Lee kindly permitted me the privilege
of listening to her literature class. I give some
brief notes of it which go to show more fully
than long explanations what the spirit is that
animates her teaching and entrances her pupils,

LITERATURE 111

who follow eagerly the train of thought she
pursues.

She was discussing the period that began in the
the latter part of the eighteenth century. The
deaths of Shelley and Keats, she went on, marked
the end of the poets of the romantic revival.
There were others of the same school, but not so
important, such as Coleridge, Southey, and so on.
They demanded freedom, the natural things, and
revolted against the strictness of Pope's diction.
Keats sought Beauty — Beauty. When we trace
down to the roots this desire for Freedom and
Beauty we find it is of the spirit. After twenty
years of the new centui y came a slump. Why ?
In 1822 in England there was great unhappiness,
many taxes, bad crops, and high prices. It was
the discontent that followed the war — its after-
math. There was unemployment and industrial
discontent. The Chartist Movement was a
protest against all these things, and finally a
Bill (1832) was passed to remove grievances.
The books of the time, like Charlotte Bronte's
Shirley, and others, as Alton Locke, reveal many
of the troubles of the time^ but there were no
great writers. Coleridge and Wordsworth were
still alive, but Coleridge was in the grip of the
opium habit, and Wordsworth was at Grasmere.
The older poets were silent, the younger dead.

112 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

So between them and the next period there seems
a gap. We get glimpses, though, of what was
happening in a strange Ode addressed to Queen
Victoria on her accession to the throne by some
of the working people of Sheffield. Its tone is
sad and desperate, and it deals with existing
industrial and political affairs. Then came
Matthew Arnold, who was melancholy about the
state of art and literature.

Are, then, bad government and poor literature
related ? Rather are they two results of the
same cause.

If people had only read Shelley's Ode to the
West Wind they would have been cheered.
" When winter comes can spring be far behind "?
That was how he saw the meaning of the
difficult times, and how he tried to express a
spiritual " unknown #." Difficulties were part
of the rhythm out of which comes balance.
Bad and good, and then balance; from the dull
and exciting must be extracted balance. It is
a most tremendous principle, that of balance,
and it depends on memory. There is no good
in going back; it cannot be done. Our power
should be to welcome the new, and to be ready
to move on, with memory to help us, to
welcome the unknown x after which the poets
strove, and which is at the back of all change

LITERATURE 113

—and is the spirit. 1832 saw a great change.
It . was like the sudden change in spring-time
when the warmth comes. There was a sudden
revival, a great hopefulness, lasting from 1832
to 1854. People were happy. The Chartists
had got what they wanted. But it came to a
sudden end in war — the Crimean War. This
ended the early Victorian period. Meantime,
there were new movements going on: the
Catholic Movement, the Oxford Movement, the
High Church Movement, the Broad Church
Movement, which carried (this last) in its name
its purpose. Electricity and the railways were
discovered. In Politics big schemes were being
carried out. Carlyle was enforcing the lesson
of social brotherhood, and Dickens was writing
of the evils of education as carried on in his
day. The Workhouse and the Poor Laws were
reformed. There were great improvements in
agriculture, easy transport was available, tele-
grams were used, news came quicker, and
we had closer contact with other countries.

Evolution was perhaps the great rediscovery.
It had long been known in the East, and Darwin
found out part of it again. He found out the
part about the body; how it comes up from the
lowest forms of life, from protoplasm, through
the various kingdoms, to the human. It was

8

114 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

a shock to the dignity of his time ! It did not,
however, take into account the spirit — undying,
immortal — which goes on through the different
forms, gathering experience from all. All these
things helped to make people feel life as larger
and greater.

In 1832 the Reform Bill had been passed, then
the Corn Laws repealed: corn was cheaper, there
was prosperity. Ideas of brotherhood began to
be talked about more; Carlyle emphasised them.
Then we come to the new school of poets:
Tennyson and Browning. Browning published
Pauline in 1833, and Tennyson his short poems in
1830. Both represent the new and hopeful feeling.
They put more into their poetry than did the
earlier poets. They wrote about everything —
about the sea, the daisy, the grandmother — they
brought together the practical and poetical. One
thing they had in common, both were optimists.
They looked on the bright side of things; they
are more constructive, and inspire us more.
There was a third great English poet, Matthew
Arnold, whom England depressed. He was
conservative, and did not like change. He was
intellectual, but rose no higher. Both Tennyson
and Browning soared to the Spirit. They showed
that, contrary to reasoning alone, things were
working out for good. They both had the

LITERATURE 115

sense of free, broad brotherliness, their un-
known x.

Then closed the lesson. My rough notes con-
vey but little of the spirit of deep understand-
ing that pervaded the whole of that lesson, the
power of showing how literature carried within
itself the story of human progress, its continuity,
its hope, its despair, its love and hatred, its
tides of misery and rejoicing, its sordidness and
its splendours. Nor do any notes convey the
richness and ease of expression, the apt quota-
tion and the skilful blending of historical move-
ments with the detail of human environment.

Literature interpreted thus must surely be a
part of all To-morrows in education. Yet we
know that literature, as ordinarily treated, does
not yield up its full treasure. Of a truth, such
exposition of it as given by Miss Lee demands
not only fresh, eager, young minds to receive and
grow upon it, but finely-tempered teachers en-
dowed with insight, intuitive and broad-minded.
No teacher of lesser quality could catch the
subtle message, the elusive beauty, the truth and
the power of the poets and writers, and awake
response to them in children's minds. It will
undoubtedly make them for ever keen to seek
the many solaces of literature and the superbly
potent graces of the unknown x of the spirit.

XIV.— TIPTREE HALL

TIPTREE HALL is "A Community of War
Orphans and Others." In that statement lies
at once the joy and pathos of the scheme.

Tiptree Hall is away in the country towards
the coast of Essex. From Kelvedon, a light
railway jolts one in a friendly fashion to In-
worth, whence one can either walk the mile and
a half to Tiptree Hall, or be bundled along in
the blacksmith's high cart. I preferred the
latter, and the running comments of the driver
on things in general were worth all the bumps.
Driving down a long avenue of flowering chest-
nuts and other trees, one emerges in front of
Tiptree Hall. Before the doors stand two
statues of women, quaintly out of keeping with
the whole effect; across the drive, masses of
violet-coloured rhododendron bushes give an
exquisite touch to the scene.

Mr. MacMunn welcomed me, and took me at
once to the work-room, where a few children
were at various tasks. They took my presence

116

TIPTREE HALL 117

for granted. But as Mr. MacMunn gave me his
attention, one by one the little folk vanished
away into the garden.

One boy was sitting in front of four black-
boards, on which were written a number of
words. He asked for a word, and I gave him
" map." He at once picked out from the words
before him (sixty or more) all those directly
applicable to the word; after that he picked out
what might be said of a map, and engaged in
lively debate with Mr. MacMunn as to the
logical use of certain words. The idea, said
Mr. MacMunn, was that he was aiming at finding
the least common denominator of knowledge.
Language was essentially a means of classifica-
tion, and it mattered less that the children
should know the derivation of a word and more
that they should know how to use it. The kind of
child they had came very poorly equipped with
power of verbal expression. "Not 'arf !" was
their mainstay in speech, and everything was,
or was not, " not 'arf !" Now their power of
expression is incomparably greater; they have
range and choice of words, and use them with
effect.

Then Mr. MacMunn and the boy showed me
the catalogue they are building up. On lettered
cards are words such as " indicate." This card

118 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

has a picture upon it which illustrates the use
of the word. This leads to the next word,
" indicator," upon another card, and again an
illustration. The names of cities, of the coun-
tries of the world, and many other things, were
in that wonderful catalogue. It certainly would
help in the cultivation of a rich, fluent, and
practical use of language.

It was the fact that there wfere the names of
many foreign cities in the catalogue which led
Mr. MacMunn to remark that he thought children
prefer to start with universals, and work down
to particulars. It is a good thing for children
to study their own immediate neighbourhood,
but they like to get an idea of the world as a
whole first. So we have a map of the world
hanging there (pointing to a large map on the
wall), and they can, at a glance, see how they
are related to the whole. It exercises the imag-
ination.

The room was empty by this time of children,
and from the garden came shouts and laughter.
We went out, too, to see what was abroad. In
a beautiful, sheltered corner runs a small lake.
An old boat had been stranded in it, and this
had been rescued and made fairly water-tight.
All the children were in it, and were keeping
it moving, one with a pole, another with a hoe,

TIPTREE HALL 119

and the rest with equally quaint instruments.
They went up and down the small stretch of
water, and implored Mr. MacMunn to make
one of the party. They offered to wash a space
for me, but I still had a long journey back, and
felt the risks were too many.

We left the merry party, and wandered over
the rest of the garden. It still needs much
developing, and the future will no doubt see
many changes take place. In the sunny yard
we came upon two who had left the boating-
party for other interests. They were busy
pulling a heavy ladder into place against the
wall. We stood and watched, and they offered
us various explanations on where they got the
ladder and what they were up to. The boy
climbed up, took out a brick from the wall, and
put in his hand, to withdraw it sharply with an
exclamation. The baby birds had mistaken it for
food. Then the girl climbed up, and looked, and
felt. Then the brick was replaced with great
care. It must have been very observant little
eyes that discovered there was a nest there at all.

Mr. MacMunn remarked that this power of
keen observation was natural to children, and
should be encouraged. For instance, if we knew
the future lines upon which a child would develop
we should train all his senses in that direction.

120 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

If a child desired to be a doctor, the power of
diagnosis or observation of signs and facts
would engender a power of quick sympathy
and swift deduction which would be invaluable
later on.

The children were now making ready for the
mid-day meal, and were putting the tables in
order. Then we sat down. The children did
most of the serving, and were very frank in
their criticism of one another's ability to do so.
To my surprise they asked for what they wanted
in French, and when something new came up
they asked for the necessary word. They did it
quite naturally, but I noticed that they were
not sure of my understanding them, so they
took care to speak to me in English. As the first
course came to an end, Mr. MacMunn found
himself the last to finish. " Slow coach !"
accused one reproachful voice. " Old slow
coach," amended another. " No, he isn't," came
a warm defence; " he's only taking his time to
eat slowly. That's the proper thing to do,
isn't it, Mr. MacMunn ?" There was infinite
love and patronage in the child's voice. The
argument silenced the accusers. Towards the
close of the meal two children were engaged in a
heated discussion over something. They came
one on each side of Mr. MacMunn and appealed

TIPTREE HALL 121

to him to settle their dispute. With a quiet
smile, he said to them gently: " When will you
learn to settle your own difficulties ?"

The dining-room opens upon a conservatory,
where was a shrub in full golden bloom, and
delicious scents were wafted in from it, and also
from a great rose-tree that climbed high to the
roof.

As the children were then free till 3.30, Mr.
MacMunn kindly gave me more of his time.
The lake was still the fascination, and away to it
fled the small troop. Their voices were almost
the only sounds that disturbed the intense quiet
of the country at mid-day.

The children arrange their own time-table, and
as a rule keep to it strictly. They were en-
couraged to think of all work as play and all play
as work. From both they gained knowledge and
experience. They were very responsive children,
though some were more easily understood than
others. They were being helped to look for the
Real and the Beautiful in one another. They
were being encouraged to face every element in
their own make-up, and to try to understand it.

" What of the future of these children ?" I
asked.

" Wre shall keep them till they are sixteen,
and hope to train them for what suits them and

122 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

their inclinations. Perhaps — who knows ? — they
may even be leaders of men." There came a
shout from the garden, and Mr. MacMunn fled.
I had visions of small people struggling in the
water. However, it was only a dispute being
noisily settled. At 3.30 the bell rang, and the
children came in. Their clothing was of the
scantiest. A pair of trousers held up by his
braces entirely satisfied one boy, and the warmth
of the day justified his choice — or rather lack
- of covering.

The blacksmith's cart now appeared to take
me back to the station, and I left amid the most
friendly expressions of interest on the part of
the children.

I am glad to have seen Tiptree Hall. It is a
daring venture to make in education, and
possibly only Mr. MacMunn could carry it on
successfully. The actual experiments are not
vastly different from those carried on elsewhere,
but they are carried out in a way and to an
extent that I have never seen tried before. It
is difficult to put it correctly, but it seemed like
this : Mr. MacMunn has laid bare his soul to the
children, and they have responded. In externals,
the School is most poorly equipped; in Truth
and Reality its riches are untold. There is an
interplay between the mind and soul of each
child with Mr. MacMunn's that is strangely

TIPTREE HALL 123

affecting and stimulating. It is the practical
Ideal carried out with vast faith, and accom-
plishing extraordinary results. Mr. MacMunn
has a quiet, sleepy physical presence, with behind
it a most amazing alertness to the psyche of
children. He is sensitive to their every mood
and change of inner values.

The children are all orphans except one, and
there are ten in all. Unhappily, the conditions
and inconveniences are such as to make it neces-
sary to cease being co-educational. Perhaps,
some day, there will be an opportunity to take
it up again. One hopes so, for it is essential that
boys and girls should grow up together.

In religious matters they have already col-
lected expeiience, though the School has been
open only since January. Various schemes
have been tried, but the thing that really seems
to suit them best is a silent time out of which
come their own prayers; presently something
more elaborate may emerge from that. Perhaps
it is the influence of the silence of the country
which gives them that sense of the need for
silence in themselves. And it is not a silence
of emptiness, but of full, rich growth.

The School is equipped with the barest necessi-
ties, in and out of the work-room. It did seem
to the promoters that this country would be
grateful enough to its fallen soldiers to make

124 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

such an effort to give the best to their children
a huge success. Alas ! it is only with difficulty
that the scheme gets along at present. And
yet it would not take more than a few, very few,
thousands a year to give it the power to do so
much for these orphaned little ones. It seems
so banal to say we owe them a duty, but we do.
They are some among our future citizens, and
if they can be given the best in this way we can,
and ought, to give it to them.

With the exception of one or two, the staff at
Tiptree Hall is either paid a nominal salary, or is
voluntary. Thus they pay their debt to the
children. The public cannot do less than
support their efforts.

The more I see of piivate enterprise in educa-
tion, the more I am convinced that it would
be fatal to the " To-morrow " of England to
put a stop to it. In the blood of the British is
the love of enterprise, and in some who dream
high dreams it takes the form of determination
to sacrifice all for the sake of the children of the
race. At Tiptree Hall is to be found an almost
extreme expression of the British love of a fight
against heavy odds. May the victory be not
long delayed ! Faith is there, a great faith, and
let us all help to justify it.

XV.— THE MARGARET MORRIS SCHOOL
OF DANCE

IN the midst of the " madding crowd " at Flood
Street, Chelsea, Miss Margaret Morris has estab-
lished her widely-known School of Dance. Miss
Morris is possessed of foresight, so she has a
settled corner of her own in the little Margaret
Morris Theatre in which to develop. Here I found
a group of girls seated around tables and all busy
with brushes and paints. There were no models
of any kind, no drapery nor designs from which
the pupils might be expected to draw inspira-
tion. They were all merry and yet busy; con-
templative and yet active in expression. They
were, in fact, trying to put down in colour and
form, each according to her imagination, what
her sense of rhythm dictated.

The variety of design produced would certainly
have fascinated a psycho-analyst. A great
difference showed between those who had been
some time at the work and those who had only
just commenced. The former could produce

125

126 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

amazing analyses of poses in a dance, and trans-
late them into coloured geometrical designs.
The pupils said it was quite simple when you
knew how. I dare say; but it certainly was a
question of knowing how. The latter were still
struggling with the memories of ordinary things
seen, such as shop windows, and statues in the
park, but produced with considerable accuracy,
showing great keenness of observation. Some
were busy painting pictures of the other pupils —
always more with an eye for colour rhythms than,
for the moment, faithfulness to the proportions
of the model.

" I think," said Miss Morris, ' ' including paint-
ing and drawing in the training of dancers is
certainly the biggest difference between my
School and any other; I am pretty certain it has
never been done before."

One could see in the pictures produced by
some of the girls how profoundly the dance had
affected their minds. They had drawn groups
of figures expressing certain rhythms, and then
had designed a background to harmonise with
them; or they had designed a background that
pleased their imagination, and then had fitted
the figures into it in suitable postures. Colour
is analysed and used as a background, and
postures analysed and coloured make the most

MORRIS SCHOOL OF DANCE 127

extraordinarily effective backgrounds. One saw
how movement and colour literally flowed to-
gether. Some of the pupils seemed to delight in
vivid colouring, very strong and bold, and yet
well blended or contrasted; others indulged in
the portrayal of curious groups of figures, having
odd postures, yet pleasant to behold.

Miss Morris passed from one pupil to another,
commenting, suggesting, or approving the work
shown her. Then came an interval for tea, and
I had the pleasure of putting to Miss Morris a
number of questions concerning the growth of
her work.

" I come of artistic parentage," she said, " and
was on the stage since I was eight, and learned
ballet stage dancing. But, in spite of this, I was
not really interested in dancing till I met Ray-
mond Duncan. I realised then that in Greek
technique dancing might be developed into an
art, instead of being merely a set of meaningless
acrobatics."

Miss Morris is not a lover of the ballet. She
sees in it a stilted form of art that can never be
natural. If there is one word that may be said
to describe Miss Morris and her work it is the word
natural. She seems to desire above all things
to be natural. This comes out in her delightful
way of treating her pupils. She is not the teacher

128 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

only, but the kindly, sympathetic comrade as
well, who understands and appreciates difficulties,
who does not merely rail at inability in order
the more quickly to produce results, but who
encourages the beginner with great patience
through the first halting steps.

" The difference," went on Miss Morris, " be-
tween my School and that of ordinary drawing
schools is that it is a physical and mental train-
ing, co-ordinated rather than localised. It em-
bodies a training in the harmonising of form,
colour, and music, with movement. Instead of
being a limited set of movements, it allows of
unlimited numbers of free movements, the possi-
bilities of developing them depending on the
capacity of the individual."

Miss Morris has a vision of the part that danc-
ing should play in the reconstruction of society.
Beauty of movement to express, beauty of colour
to see — and then the two combined ! The,y will
react upon character, and beautify and enrich
it. Dancing, she thinks, is the sanest form o
social exercise. She prefers the " fundamental
soundness "• — as she describes it — of modern
dancing because it is " based on the natural poise
and balance of the body, as in walking," and is
not made of such stilted movements as charac-
terise the minuet and waltz.

MORRIS SCHOOL OF DANCE 129

Then we returned to the theatre to see one of
the dancing classes taken by Miss Morris herself.

Very simple dark blue draperies are the decora-
tions for the part of the theatre where the dancing
lessons are given. One by one the pupils came
out from behind the curtains, graceful, bare-
footed, and clad in exceedingly simple garments,
vividly or softly coloured according to the taste
of the wearer.

Then they carried out their exercises. They
swung in full free movements, following the
directions given by Miss Morris. Many of the
movements appeared to be similar to those used
in the ballet, but not marred by the tendency
to artificiality that accompanies the latter.
Some of the movements resembled those used
in Eurhythmies, but were free of the close
application to note values such as are peculiar
to it.

Miss Morris acknowledges frankly and gener-
ously that it is to Duncan that she owes her
conception of the simple, unaffected Greek posi-
tions as the foundation of all practice in dancing.
And it is obvious in the work done by her
pupils that simplicity is the essence of all they
do. An arm stretched out fully or bent in grace-
ful curve, a step taken, or the body bent — in
each and every movement there is simplicity

9

130 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

and ease of posture. There is no posturing at
all, such as is found in the ballet. The dancing
is done for love of it, for joy in lovely movement
and in making pictures with movements of
limbs and bodies, but not for the sake of attract-
ing the onlooker by any sign or smile of invita-
tion to applaud.

It is, in fact, the most wonderfully natural
dancing, and is obviously a source of joy to the
eager, vivacious pupils.

Some of the pupils are preparing for a profes-
sional life, either on the stage or as teachers.
They are drawn from all ranks of society, and
each one is watched with care by Miss Morris.
She has seen such remarkable changes take place
in the characters of the children as the sense of
rhythm and beauty sinks more and more deeply
into their natures. She is now adding a boarding
school to complete the circle of her work. It
is not enough, of course, to be able to paint and
dance ; other and more ordinary elements must be
added to their daily routine. The School is for
girls and boys from four to fourteen. It will be
of interest to students of educational methods
to have a few sentences from the prospectus on
the " Objects of the School."

" To give a child a wide and understanding
outlook on life, and the relationship and inter-

MORRIS SCHOOL OF DANCE 131

dependence of one nation to another by the
study of international history, and the literature
and art of all nations."

" To make all subjects taught so interesting
that the child will want to learn, and will gain a
lasting benefit from the lessons (the vividness of
an impression and its retention depending on the
amount of interest with which the pupil has
received it)."

" All discipline in the School to appeal to the
reason of the child, as being for the convenience of
all concerned ; the teachers not to tyrannise over
the children, nor the children over the teachers."

" There will be no religious instruction, but
the whole education will be an attempt to develop
the child spiritually as well as mentally and
physically, and to make it honest in everything,
which must be the common basis of all religion."

Further, Miss Morris thinks that her way of
carrying out education is the " Sane and right
foundation for the study of any subject, business,
profession, or art." She does not believe in over-
crowding young minds with unnecessary facts,
but prefers that children should be helped
to " use their own brains, that they should be
given a strength and flexibility of mind and body
which will make them fit for any occupation they
may afterwards want to take up."

132 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

At fourteen the children will be drafted off
either into schools and colleges, where they will
have business or other training; or they will
remain and specialise in painting, dancing, or any
other art. " In my School," writes Miss Morris,
" there is a main idea, that every subject must
be unified in the pupil, each subject helping and
harmonising with the others. . . . Finally, the
relation of what the child learns to its own life is
most important of all. As the dancing will make
the child walk, stand, and breathe properly, the
mental training must help it to think clearly, to
make decisions, to organise its own life; in fact,
to be equal to anything that may present itself—
that is what / understand by education."

The subjects in her School will range over
English, International History and Literature,
Diction and Reading, Geography, Natural Science,
Mathematics, French, Drawing, Painting and
Design, Sight Singing and Ear Training, Dancing
and Gymnastics, Practical Cookery, Needlework,
Carpentering. Then extra subjects will include
Latin, Languages, Acting, Professional Dancing,
Ballroom Dancing, Dance Notation, Singing and
Voice Production, Piano, Violin, Violoncello.

This year, 1919, Miss Morris is to hold an Out-
door Summer School at Harlech, North Wales,
where there are wonderful views of sea and moun-

MORRIS SCHOOL OF DANCE 133

tain. There painting and dancing classes will be
held so as to study form, colour, and movement
in Nature, and receive first-hand tuition from
Mother Nature herself, the great artist and
creative worker.

Miss Morris has also founded a Club, called the
Margaret Morris Club, of the Committee of which
she is Chairman. The main object of the Club
is "to further the idea of honesty in art, as
opposed to compromise for the sake of pecuniary
gain and benefit." Another object is " to present
at performances new work, such work to be what
the artist really wants to do, without any con-
sideration for the feelings of the audience."

Among the remarks we find also these words :
" The main object of this Club is not to make
money, but to bring together honest artists of all
kinds, and to form a circle of people who will
encourage and help them to remain honest."

As with all other schools which venture out of
the beaten track, Miss Morris has met with much
success and also much opposition. There is with
us still that type of orthodoxy which will grant
that the methods of another may have in them
much of good suitable to many, but they do not
approve, and that, for them, seems to end the
matter. It is a curious form of mental blind-
ness; and it hampers those who suffer from it.

134 SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW

It would be so delightful if only people would
pursue their own pathway and leave others to
tread theirs. But that is never enough; they
must criticise, condemn, and if possible check or
destroy the pioneer. Of course, we all know
that opposition stiffens the will and rouses still
more the courage and resource of the pioneer;
but it would be a lovely thing could we wel-
come and examine the new in a friendly spirit,
and only reject it after mature thought and
judgment and without rancour. Perhaps this is
expecting the Ideal to mature too easily and
readily. The Kingdom of Heaven does not come
so swiftly to earth. I do think, though, that all
these new ways in education are heralds of the
Kingdom, which by such means will come the
more quickly to earth, and bring the " peace
and goodwill " that at the present time seem so
remote from us.

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