Figure 1.--This boy enjoys a little quite time by himself with his guina pig. Many schools do not permit the children to bring pets from home to school. A few schools, however, do permit small pets.
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Figure 1.--This boy enjoys a little quite time by himself with his guina pig. Many schools do not permit the children to bring pets from home to school. A few schools, however, do permit small pets. |
One should not get the impression that the schools schedule every lat minute for organized activities. Schools understand, as explained at Moffats, that small children need time meerly to 'stand and stare' and to follow their private fancies." So all ~ schools provide some free times. An' important part of childhood is unspervised play where children can use creativity and imagination to explore their world in ways that adults can not really fathom. Many schools have ample grounds and woods perfectly suited for the children to make tree houses or dens--a specially popular activity with the younger boys. Prep school age children delight in this activity, for many it is their favorite activity. Other schools have lakes where the children can sail and canoe or make rafts of varying bouancy. Their free time gives the children the opportunity to make and enjoy friendships.
The children at prep schools engage in a wide range of free time activities. One of the most popular activities at schools with available wooded areas is simply unstructured free times in the woods. The children, especially the younger boys, love to form small groups of best friends to play games and build dens or camps from which they raid other groups. The engineering involved is in many cases elaborate, if somewhat suspect. The state of the boys after an hour or so in the woods is enough to drive matron to drink. There are the inevitable bruises and skinned knees. But the boys love it. It overs the opportunity for a little rough and tumble and the chance to be with together with their closest mates. It also offers the opportunity for a little privacy. Hidden away in their dens they are away, for a precious few minutes, from the constant supervision of the' masters--a cherished time in the lives of boarding children who are very closely supervised and regimented. Another popular activity is time with pets. Some schools allow the children to keep small pets like guinea pigs and rabbits, normally the kind that are kept in cages. Other children choose activities like skate boarding or roller skates, depending on the school rules.
Schools have a varity of policies on two particularly popular items, skateboards and biciycles. The concern with saftey as well as damage to school property has forced schools to adopt a varirt of rules regulating both.
Bicycles: Most schools allow the older children to bring bucycles, often with the written approval of the parents. Most popuplar with the children are BMX or dirt bikes in which the children, usually the boys, delight in atacking formidable natural obstacles. Some schools have areas, like "The Mound" at Hardle that offer a good challenge to the children. Most schools have set up a kind of "MOT" certificate that the children must earn before obtaining permission to ride their bikes. Some schools like Wells House plan a bicycle expedition in the summer.
Skateboards: Skateboards are very popular with the children, mostly the boys. Schools vary as to their policies toward skateboards. Some have banned them. Other permit them, but with strict rules as to wear the children can plsy with them and insistence on wearing protective gear. Here the principal concern is that the children can injure themselves. Another oroblem id damage caused by skateboarding.
Schools have free time at various times in the schedule. Some are only short periods such as the time after games in the afternoon. The children may jut casually use thim time, others may use it more judiously. Other periods such as the evening after dinner offer longer periods. This varies greatly from school to school. Some schools try to fill much of the day up with scheduled activities, including evening prep. Other schools provide more free time in the evening before bed. The largest blocks of free time are of course scheduled over the weekends. At all schools, Saturday and Sunday afternoon offer longer periods when the children can engage in a range of activities of their choice. Saturday morning is used for classes and Sunday morning for church. The afternoon however is largely devoted to freetime, although some schedueld activities also take place. The older boys might be involved in games on Saturday afternoon and a range of optional activities such as field trips are often availavle.
Most schools sharply reduce access to television. Most schools discourage TV viewing to avoid "its baneful inertia" . The schools prefer the children to take advantage of outdoor activities (when weather permits) or the wide range of extra-curicular activities afforded by the school . Many of the , especially the younger children, mentioned this as one of the greatest disadvantahes of coarding. Schools vary greatly, however, on their television policy. Most simply do not permit access to television, except carefully selected programs, usually programs of some educatIon events. Some schools will allow limited viewing of certain highly popular shows. Often schools will permit the children to watch important sports events. It is common to see masters and the older children watching television together in the afternoon when test matches and other especially important events are being televised. Many schools encourage or require the children to watch the evening news after dinner. More commonly the school or individual teachers will record natural history, world events shows, or other informative shows on the now-common VCRs and use them in their variuous classes. Regular watching of entertainment shows is rare. One headmaster we visited with, for example, agreed to allow the children to watch the science fiction show "Blakes Law" each week as a special treat because so many children requested it. Some schools do permit some TV viewing during the winter when outdoors activities are limited by the weather, but then strongly promote outdoor activities when the weather improves.
Many schools routeinly show a movie saturday evening. The choice of the film often often is a major subject of discussion. The headmaster or senior master often select the film. The choice is usually hardest at coed schools as boys and girls tend to have different tasts in films. The children often lobby for films of particular interest. No one person can have previewed all the diiferent films the children request. We recall one engaing headmaster at a Somerset school who let the children talk him into one suspect American film, the "Blues Brothers", assuring him the film was suitable even for the younger children. The film to the headmaster's chagrin had a combination of profanity and violence that he would have quickly rejected. Needless to say the film was a big hit with the children, mostly because of their headmasters discomfort. To add insult to injury a parent of one of the prefects who had assured him the movie was in good taste complained about the showing of the film.
Inclement weather and Winter pose a special problem for schools with children desiring active diversions after classes. Even during the winter games can be practiced in the gymnasium that most schools have. Those less interested in sports can rollar skate, pratice on their skate boards, ride their bikes, play imaginative games with their friends or traditional games from ping pong pang to chess, use the art room, work on model airplanes, or have a quiet read in the library. Often a ceertain activity such as marbles or yo-yos will become a popular fad before the children pass on to a new activity which has caught their fancy.
