CHILD DICTATORS

Evening Star, Issue 23381, 26 September 1939, Page 9

CHILD DICTATORS

HARMFUL LATE HOURS A complaint that children are dictators in the home, and: suffer in health because they refuse to go to bed when thev should, was made by Dr Nora Allan, a school medical officer under the West Riding Education Authority. Her statement formed part of a report presented to the authority by_ the school medical officer. Dr T. N, V. Potts. Children, she says, will not go to bed when they are told, and many do not get enough sleep to make them tit to do their lessons. “ It is the usual thing to learn that children of four, five, and six years of age go to bed at 8 or 9 o’clock. Some will not go even then, but insist on waiting up until their parents retire. It is the will of the children that decides.” Older children go to bed as late as 10 o’clock and go to school “ pale, listless, and heavy-eyed,” and looking so under-nourished that their teachers recommend them for extra meals, milk, or school dinners. Insufficient sleep, Dr Allan adds, remains the greatest obstacle in the way of making healthy school children.