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Most schools have a rest period after lunch for about a half hour. Here regulations vary from school to school. Most schools insist that this be quiet time. Some schools are very strict. The general pattern at boarding schools is that the children must be in their dormitories laying down on their beds. This is not a universal approach, but it is by far the most common. Some children take a nap. Many children use the time to read books, but this is not required. It is left up to each boy or girl. Some schools may have the children go to their classrooms. This is more common at day schools. Some day schools have free play after lunch rather than a rest period. At some schools the children can use the time more flexibly such as practice their musical instruments, if tgey can find a spot where they will not disturb the others. . Some children find the imposed quiet time difficult, but it becomes an accepted part of the daily routine. This is a very common feature of boarding school life, but for some reason the children rarely comment on it in their writing. Probably they do not see it as a very exciting period of the school day.
Most schools have a rest period after lunch for about a half hour. Here regulations vary from school to school. Most schools insist that this be quiet time. Some schools are very strict. Usually the children, sat leat the boarders, have to be on their beds and quiet. Other schools are more telaxed ahnd only require the children to be generally quite in their dorms. For some children this was one of the more difficult school rules to comply with, especially if they were excited about the upcoming events. Some schools wereespecilly strict about this and the children were even somewhat confused as to if they could talk with us as we visited with them.
The location for tge rest period varied from school to school. The general pattern at boarding schools is that the children must be in their dormitories on their beds. They did not have to nap, but they generally had to be on their beds. This was not a universal approach, but it was by far the most common. Some schools had the children go to their frorn rooms. A location also has to be found for the day children who did not have dormitories. Day schools generally did not have rest periods, but rather a kind of recess or free play after lunch.
The period after lunch varies a good deal from school to school. There was a notable difference between the boarding and the day schools. Some children took a nap during the rest period at the boarding schools. This was mostly the younger children. Many children use the time to read books and magazines. Sports abd car magazines seemed the most popular. This was not is not required. It is left up to each boy or girl. At a few schools,the children are allowed to play board games in their dorms as long as they do so quietly. Most are very good about this because they enjoy playing the gamnes. Some schools may have the children go to their classrooms. This is more common at day schools. Most day schools have free play after lunch rather than a rest period. At some schools the children can use the time more flexibly such as to practice their musical instruments, if they can find a spot where they will not disturb the others. This is fairly easy at the schools that do not use the dormitories for the rest period. The instrument players were allowed to go to their dormitiory.
Some children find the imposed quiet time difficult. Ir certainly was not the most popular time of the day. Often the children were looking forward to the afternoon events, often games or some kind of activuity program. The rest period, however, was an accepted part of the daily routine. The younger children seem the most difficult to quiet dowwn. One little boy told us that naps were for babies. It is the younger boys, however, that were most likely to tell us that the rest period was a bit of a bore, but they also were the most likely to doze off. The older children were used to the rest period at it had become an accepted part of the daily routine. They were less likely to complain about it. One boy insisted that he liked the quiet time to read. More common were comments about what was planned for the afternoon.
