Training for Leisure
BY HUGH LYON (Headmaster of Rugby).
THE occupation of boys and girls in their free hours has always been a problem to boarding-school authorities. In school hours they could be supervised at least, if not altogether educated ; but their leisure was a continual difficulty. The old policy of neglect, of " letting them do as they liked in their spare time " (as it was more delicately phrased), had much to commend it in theory; in practice it led to such abuses that parents took alarm, and schoolmasters and mistresses were given to under- stand that their duties did not end with the end of school hours. Then came a complete swing of the pendulum, and the organization of leisure became as merciless as school-time routine, until it was the proudest boast of a headmaster that he knew where his boys were and what they were doing every minute of the day.
In both " systems " there were two things lacking : first of all, any theory as to what leisure was for ; and secondly, any constructive attempt to teach boys how to use it. So far as anyone thought of leisure at all, it was probably regarded simply as an interval between periods of work, much as peace was often thought of by the old school of statesmen as a time for licking wounds and sharpening swords and spears. And the suggestion that children needed to be taught how to employ leisure was distasteful to our predecessors, as it may at first sight be distasteful to us. For it savours of those dismally strenuous week-ends when we are never left alone for a minute to hang over a bookcase or potter round the billiard-table, or of those governesses who weary the young by teaching them " how to play." Yet, what are we educating boys and girls for, if not for life ? Can we then be right to concentrate exclusively upon the efficiency of those we educate to do their work, while we allow their tastes and interests, by which they will be guided in hours of leisure, to develop haphazard ? If so, then it will not be long before the evil effect is seen else- where than in their pastimes. For just as leisure often reveals a man as he really is, so the use or abuse of it strengthens or weakens, raises or debases him. Those pursuits which, whether at school or after, we are apt to consider unrelated to the business of life are little by little shaping or hindering the power not only to carry through life's business, but to fill the whole of life with meaning and with beauty.
But the non-interference policy has been defended on other grounds by many who realize that education should cover the whole of life, and not a part only. All liberal education, it is said, spills over into leisure ; and a man or woman who has been trained to observe closely, reason- intelligently, and love widely (and all education worthy of the name should teach these things) is not likely to be betrayed into selfish or trivial use of free time. A noble theory ; but in practice how far is it true, even of those who have had that long training in the humanities which is the privilege of a few ? To how many even of these is spare time an opportunity for enrichment and enlarge- ment, and not merely a threat of boredom which violent and ephemeral entertainment can alone avert ? And what of the rest ? Women, it is true, have fared.better, since the arts were in girls' schools regarded as necessary " accomplishments," befitting the weaker sex and a fair wind to the haven of marriage. But the average English- man has long been notorious for his neglect of the arts Even if he has the beginnings of " taste," if his faculties of criticism and appreciation have been a little developed, he is still shut out from half his inheritance, for he has not been trained to use that creative activity which is latent in every one of us.
Present conditions have given the problem, if not a greater importance, at least a special urgency. Quite apart from the enforced " leisure " which so many now enjoy, the spread of civilization is going to mean more spare time for all, especially for those who have not by birth or environment a natural disposition to use it wisely. And it is to, the credit of the schools of to-day that, in spite of the increased demands made upon their school-time efficiency, the breadth and depth of their training for leisure have increased in the last generation beyond all expectation.
To take literature first of all, for it was here that the old system failed less conspicuously. Of old children were " taken " laboriously through one or two of the classics and made to write a few formal essays in school, while out of school they were vaguely " encouraged to read." To-day the range of work in school is immensely widened, and includes modern adthors, free composition, play-readings, debates, discussions ; while out of school there are literary societies, plays, school magazines, and a general recognition that it is not a disgrace to be the school poet. In fact, not only is the appreciative faculty developed to the full, but there is every stimulus to literary creation.
In music and the fine arts the development is still greater. Apart from the vastly improved methods of teaching, there is now a determined effort to interest others besides the specialist. Few can go through school to-day without being taught to sing at sight or draw from imagination ; lectures on appreciation both of art and music form part of the curriculum, as do concerts and visits to exhibitions. Out of school, orchestras, choirs, musical societies, glee clubs, brass bands, gramophone and wireless groups offer a bewildering choice to the musically-minded ; it is no longer thought .comic to play the bassoon, or absurd to sing glees in a house study. In the art school the transformation is even more evident ; etching, poster designing, paper-cutting, modelling in clay, cutting out and designing models in cardboard, sketching, architectural and figure drawing, oil painting, dress and scene designing in a model theatre, all these flourish in spare hours. Of other intellectual- hobbies, such as photography, woodwork, scientific research, nature study, there is no time nor need to speak ; every school magazine is eloquent about them. When to this is added the variety of out-of-school physical activities—fencing, boxing, swimming, riding, and so on, we might well conclude that we are once more approaching the Elizabethan ideal of all-round de-
velopment. , Nor is it only with a view to the spending- of leisure that these pursuits are encouraged. Many a boy and
girl who does not shine in ordinary work or games has in this way discovered unsuspected ability, with a corre- sponding gain in confidence and self-respect. And more and more we come to know that it is in a child's un- official .education that the greatest lessons of all are learnt —the desire for knowledge, the respect for skill, and the love of beauty. More and more are WC realizing that the
development of manysided interests, so far from being an interference with school work, is in fact a powerful stimulus to increased efficiency. So the light spreads ; and there is abundant hope that our children will at length emerge from the shadow of that Philistinism which has been our hindrance and our reproach for many generations.
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