TEACHERS PROTEST

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 459, 17 June 1937, Page 2

TEACHERS PROTEST

CHILD ACTORS Legislation Urged Press Association —Copyright. London, May 19. The training of children with theatrical aspirations was compared with that given to performing animals at 'the conference of the National Association of Head Teachers at Cardiff. Ch Sid actresses who lose their girlhood freshness land grow up too quickly, and who take half a day from school 'to have their hair “permed,” were also mentioned by Miss I. Payn (Cardiff), who moved a resolution, which was,carried, culling upon the Government to take immediate steps 'to amend the Children and Young Persons Act. Miss Payn said that any child on (attaining the age of 12 might obtain a license for stage performance, if passed as medically fit and providing that certain rules were observed. Those conditions might sound quite satisfactory, but they were not always what they seemed. “Most of u:j are acquainted wi'lh these little nomads,” said Miss Payn. “who we find on investigation have attended three or four schools in lalmost as miany months. In my school only one of these children was able to retain her place in the school, and there was one who could no 1! spell the simplest words, while her arithmetic was on the same level. Cigarettes and Chatter. “Some girls who were engaged in a revue for a month arrived at their lodgings ,to find that nine of n-hem had to sleep in one bedroom, five I juniors sleeping across one bed? and j four seniors in the othei;. ; The- seni- ' ors, who were girls of 14 and 18* were in charge of the juniors, but so lightly did this responsibility rest upon them that they prevented (their young charges from sleeping by their smoking and flippant chatter. The seniors were regaled between p. rformances wfth sandwiches and port, wme. Ths juniors arrived home on Boxing Day hysterical and hungry find entirely cured of further stage

aspirations. When these stage child,ren return to scho-ol they have grown up too quickly, and, therefore, badly. They become physically an'd> mentally older, having suddenly los'. the freshness of their girlhood and budding womanhood. “With their permed hair —some of them need to take half ia. day from school to have it permed—with Itheir use of rouge, lipstick, and powder, :liey are to be pitied. They are not yet womtii, and they are no longer rchool children. The glamour of the lock lights and the desire to draw attention to themselves is all important. Their scale of values is all wrong. They want life, but they don’t know hew to live. Are we to see the work of early years thus cast •o lightly aside for the transient glamour of the fuotligliits?”

■ x Naked in Midwinter. | Miss C,. A. Kinghorn (Cardiff) said i there was a growing pracLice of picki *ng up very small children for stLige | work. | “1 have seen a (tiny child,” she saidv | ‘sitting in a dressing-room, with her Hips painted and her finger-niails like I a Chinaman’s. A child like that will never stop such practices. .Child dancers have do work so hard that hey suffer from abdomimal trouble and heart strain. The poloured children who took part in the film- 'Sanders of the River’ were drawn from Cardiff. They were well trated generally, but one. can imagine their suf- ; tering when they had to act in noth- | ng but little raffia skirts, on the i banks of th? Thames in December.”