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So far as possible in the selection of cases for admission to
Faircross, I try to make sure that there is some real physical
disability by reason of which the child is debarred from gaining
adequate benefits from tuition in an ordinary elementary school,
and that the case is not one merely of maternal indifference militating
against the efficiency of the child's school life ; but, notwithstanding
my efforts in this direction, I do feel that home circumstances
are a very pertinent factor in the conditions of many of the
children attending your Open-air School, and that the benefits of
the few hours a week they spend at that school are brought to naught
by the many hours they spend in the uncongenial atmosphere of
their own homes.
For my part I am willing to look upon it as a definite possibility
that an equal amount of money spent on a residential institution
of fewer places would give more definite and lasting results than
that amount of money spent on an ordinary non-residential open-air
school.
What I suggest is that, at least during the summer months,
with at least a small number of children, an attempt be made on
a voluntary basis to keep the children at the school throughout the
whole of the week with the object of expediting the recovery of
such debilitated children, and the further object of investigating
the possibilities of such a course of action on a permanent basis.
(10) PHYSICAL TRAINING.
The Local Education Authority have no officer with special
duties for organising physical training in your schools. A large
amount of work, however, is carried out, and .the provision of a
playing field at the Park Modern School is, I hope, to be regarded
as a precedent which will be a standard in all our future school
planning.
The spectacular efficiency of physical exercises, whilst, indeed,
an index of the efficiency of these exercises, must not keep us from
recognising that the very best exercises of all are those in which
the movements of the body are purposeful and free from restraint.