OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 May 1941, Page 6

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

FREE KINDERGARTENS (To the Editor.) Sir, —From what I know of the enthusiasm of those interested in the establishment of a Free Kindergarten, I feel sure that “Inquirer’s”' five questions will not throw any cold water on the scheme. (1) Masterton, however well equipped otherwise with educational facilities, has no Free Kindergarten. (2) There is room for more than one Kindergarten. The proposed site would cater for a great many children and there is no reason why other institutions should not follow. . (3) Membership subscriptions and the proceeds of functions which could be held in the hall would form the backbone of expenses for upkeep. (4) There is, literally, no time like the present. It is vital that our educational and cultural institutions be maintained and fostered. Any other view savours of panic and a lack of poise, the essence of the morale that is going to win the war. It is such acts of faith in the future that give us the deep-rooted conviction that will carry us through. (5) “Be it over so humble, there’s no place like Home"—but it is not necessarily the best place for training the young. Economically, by the principle of centralisation, in a kindergarten one person would look after some thirty children and free thirty mothers for two or more hours a day to undertake useful war work and so help to achieve maximum effort. There is, I understand, to be a general meeting of the association on June s.—Yours etc., VIRGINIBUS PTJERISQUE.