SCHOOL DESKS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2750, 19 April 1916, Page 3

SCHOOL DESKS

THE HYGIENE OF ATTITUDE. 1

In the course of his report to Monday's meeting of householders at the Wellington South School, the headmaster (Mr. G. Flux) said: "The Education Department is honostly doing its °est to benefit our children by means of physical instruction, and medical inspection, but here again the benefits are largely nullified by the retention in our schools of obsolete and unsuitable desks. This.applies not alone to the Wellington district, but to the whole Dominion. Notwithstanding that better types of desks are on the market, there are in use at.the present time in almost all of our .schools in this country a very large proportion • of ' anted iluviam desks, of which bonfires should have- been made decades ago. I see little or no improve,'roent in the carriage of our children on the-streets, in spite • of• ■ improved physical instruction, and I attribute this failure-in a great measure to pupils having to sit for several • hours' a day in desks which induce unhygienic attitudes. Since writing the above, I have seen by the newspapers that our present Minister of Education has this mattor ,in. mind. It.is hoped, for the sake of'tho physical' welfare of our children, that lie will not allow it to Tr.mnin there, but will bring it to fruition." , I