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A more comprehensive and detailed account of the medical service as it bears
on the nursery school is given in Appendix I. by Dr. McVail. The same author
reports in Appendix II. an inquiry into the physical results of attendance at nursery
schools.
The social aspect.—The social function of the nursery school is two-fold. It
trains the child in right personal and social behaviour and so fits him to be later a
useful member of the community; and it exerts, through the children, an influence
for good on the standards and ideals of the home.
In addition to providing the right environment for the little child, the nursery
school gives him companions of his own age, and skilled and sympathetic adults
who have the time and the knowledge to train him in good habits. In the best
nursery schools two characteristics are conspicuous ; first, the activity and independence
of the children in helping themselves; and secondly, the pleasure and capacity
they show in helping others and taking their share in doing work for the school.
They learn to wash and dress themselves, to dust, wash dishes, serve and carry food,
put away their possessions and look after pets with a care and a sense of
responsibility that surprise their own mothers. They learn to give and take, to
carry on their own pursuits without interfering with others, to be good-tempered
and truthful.
The trustful and friendly attitude of the nursery school child is a delightful
result of the understanding sympathy with which the schools are directed. The
potential underdog, rebel or anarchist, can all be recognised among the entrants to
the nursery school, but it is seldom they are not transformed into orderly, active and
happy citizens of their community.
In most of the nursery schools we found that the bond between the teacher
and her nursery survives the children's transfer to other schools and that many of
the children who, it must be remembered, leave at five years of age, return to the
school sometimes for many years for play hours, club gatherings or merely to see
tneir old teacher.
In one school a lending library was established which boys and girls, even up
to 15 and over, continued to use; in another, children who returned for play hours
became later Brownies and Girl Guides, Wolf Cubs and Scouts, and in another boys
passed on into gymnastic and billiard clubs.
The nursery school is usually, indeed the first, of a series of friendly and educative
social groups which carry the child through childhood and adolescence to adult
age. The Children's House at Bow, though of recent origin, is a centre of many
such social activities.
Further, through the children, the influence of the school reaches the parents.
Though in two of the schools visited a Fathers' Club has been formed, it is naturally
the mothers who manifest the keenest interest in the activities of the nursery school.
In practically all the schools, Mothers' Clubs or Guilds have been formed. The
primary aim is to establish friendly relations with the mothers and so to secure
their co-operation in the work of the school. The social and friendly character of
these gatherings is emphasised, but, directly or indirectly, the mothers gain through
them a fuller knowledge of their children's needs and possibilities.
Open days are sometimes held, and, in one school in Bradford, the mothers
are allowed to come in pairs to spend a day in the school as spectators of their children's
activities.
We have much evidence of the value of such extensions of the school's
influence.
The gratitude of the mothers is shown in many ways, most often by help given
in washing overalls and school linen. In one school a mother made the overalls,
in another a mother acted as cook to the country cottage party, in another a group
of mothers collected money towards an extension of the school building.