BACK TO SCHOOL

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 108, 31 January 1935, Page 13

BACK TO SCHOOL

What to Buy and Where CHILDREN’S NEEDS Meeting Every Pocket and Requirement School holidays will be drawing to a close soon now, and parents and children will be faced with that always absorbingly interesting task, getting prepared for the new school year. For some children, of course, the change will not be great in the mere passing from one standard or class into a higher one in the same school. But there are many hundreds of others who will be packing their bags for school for the first time and still others who will be launching out into a secondary school training with their primary school days behind them. By now most parents will have given some very serious thought to the question of just what form the schooling of their children will take for the coming year. Parents and guardians of boys and girls who have completed their elementary training will have made up their minds whether they can afford the undoubted advantages of further tuition, and will be more concerned with just precisely what form that is to take. Those of pupils who have done some secondary school work have had to decide whether their children are to proceed yet further on the scholastic way. The problem of the moment in all these cases, and one to which some thought should be given before actual enrolment is made, is the clothing and adequately equipping, both scholastically and athletically of their children. Task Made a Pleasure. In this regard the financial consideration, although necessarily a severely limiting one, is not always the most pressing. For in these times when education enters every phase of child life so many activities have to be provided for, and needs range from clothing and books to sports equipment of various kinds. It would indeed be a harassing problem but for the fine service of modern newspaper advertising. This science has made a task which might be one of drudgery a most absorbing and engrossing one. There are, of course, prices to fit every pocket, and supplies to meet every conceivable demand, as the advertisements on this page indicate. These things have combined to lend a new interest to the perennial task, and parents and children who go about it in the spirit of a new school year will find the duty a pleasant one—-the buying of the most suitable garment or book, or tennis racquet for the occasion. And with these facilities at their disposal there is no reason why parents, whatever be their financial circumstances, should not get the very best value for their money.

The problem deserves care and study, for in these days of intense education as a preparation for life and a vocation, the desirability of adequate equipment for that schooling needs no stressing. It will mean a lot in giving the boy or girl a good start off. From Kindergarten On.

To start with, of course, many hundreds of tiny tots in the city and provincial centres will be introduced to school this year through the kindergarten. Their needs will be comparatively elementary, but ■ nevertheless worthy of due consideration. The chiefest will be clothing, to meet the warmth of summer, the declining sun of autumn, the rigours of winter and the rain of the spring. City shops provide a varied assortment of shoes, stockings and socks, underclothing, dress materials, pants and shirts, caps and hats, and' overcoats to meet the need. On the scholastic side the demands will be more restricted, being confined to story books, chalks and crayons, painting sets, and materials for the arts which will begin the training of hand and eye. But whether the boy or girl be going to primary or secondary, public or private, or day or boarding school, there are many needs which are common, In addition there are uniform and other requirements in particular cases which have to be consulted.

Serviceability is the great desideratum in school clothing for children at whatever stage of their school careers they may be. This is a thing every mother knows, or will very soou learn, for the playing field, which takes so great a part in modern education, at all times makes an exacting demand on boots and shoes and clothing. P>ut it is not so exacting that it cannot be met economically by the enterprising manufacturers and shopkeepers. In addition it will be found possible to send the young New Zealander to school almost wholly clothed and equipped with goods made in New Zealand. Parents will do well to remember this also in their school year shopping. Many Attractive Lines.

So then, whether it be boots or shoes, socks or stockings, shirts or pants, dresses, hats, caps, overcoats, or underclothing, there is a wide range of attractive lines offering. Items to be considered more particularly for boarders will be pyjamas, towels, sheeting, rugs, gym. shoes, blankets, and other requirements, and of course, the great demand here is again for serviceability, whether, it may be added, a boys’ or a girls’ school is in prospect. More attention than ever is devoted to health at schools and the importance of cleanliness and the care of the teeth will naturally direct parents’ attention to soap, toothbrush toothpaste, hair, brush and comb and boot polishing outfit. Just as there is a sense in which clothes maketh the man, they also make the school boy and school girl. And they can never be really effectively carried unless the hair, teeth and footwear are spick and span also.

When the field of sport is considered here again most parents and guardians will realise that there is no need to stress its importance. From kindergarten right through io the close of the secondary school career sports in the narrower sense ami recreation in the larger now play a large part in school life. Sports activities catered for by schools have spread considerably, and their facilities for them have never been better than to-day. It may not be necessary to go so far as to say that Waterloo was won on tlie playing fields of Eton, but there is no denying that school sport has played a great part In building up the physique of the race. For children to get the best from their sport they must be adequately equipped for it. Varied Sports Requirements.

There are, of course, two main seasons to be catered for in the school year, summer sports in the first and third terms and winter in the second, but most people will probably find it best to deal with one at a time. School "ames such as cricket, football and tennis have long had a firm place in the school life, and shoppers will find

a wide variety of tlie appropriate clothing and gear available, chief concern at present being with cricket ami tennis.

While the summer lasts, too, swimming will continue to attract most school children, who will swim either at the baths provided by some of tile schools, or else at the beaches. This suggests swimming suits and towels, and in this connection parents are nor likely to he greatly troubled by the recent controversy over exactly just what is appropriate and proper. Tlie main thing again will be to get something that, is as serviceable and economic as possible. Swimming in its (urn suggests sunburn, and that necessitates the provision of preventive and curative lotions.

There are other sports which wilt take their place in the school year—athletics, and as the year advances, boxing. More modestly marbles will have their days, and in one secondary school at least, chess is played The book requirements of pupils depend almost wholly on what stage they are nt in their school careers, and what school in particular tney are going to. Tlie booksellers stock every requirement, including all that Is necessary in the stationery line and merit a visit as soon ns exact requirements are known. On display will be found everything that is required from the immortal stories of Peter Pan and Wendy and Little Red Riding Hood, to advanced works on foreign languages and history, as required by secondary school pupils. Why Not A Bicycle? While on books it is worth remembering that money can be wisely and well spent outside the severely limited requirements of the school course. There are fields of boundless enjoyment and a great deal of general cultural value for the scholar to explore In literature and history, often of the lighter kind, and it is well that his oilier tastes in those directions should be fostered and encouraged They will bo given a further stimulus by school days.

School days may also mean that the problem of transport has m be considered. Even where the home is served conveniently and cheaply by tram, train or bus, there is another possibility. Hundreds of pupils ride to school on bicycles. This is a really cheap form of locomotion, but that is not its chief asset. It is in itself a great form of exercise. The same moral applies in regard to school shopping as with Christmas shopping, and it is “shop early.” If parents wait till after the schools open before giving any thought to the question, let alone making their purchases, they will naturally be mote hurried in the job. That not only means that it will be less pleasant than it should be. but that the careful consideration and planning necessary to do the best with the money available will not be possible.