The Preparatory School.
The last half century has seen a very great increase in the number of preparatory schools. As demand and supply always depend on each other, it is not difficult to see from this that the practice of sending boys to preparatory schools is becoming yearly more customary, and it must be admitted that this is of the greatest value in laying the foundations of a sound education and healthy constitution.
It is impossible to overrate the important effect which the preparatory school may have upon a boy’s life. It is the gradual substitution of school discipline for the unfettered liberty of home-life, and a gradual hardening process whereby the weakling gathers strength. At the age of eight and a half or nine the bitterness of leaving home is very great, and those who have the misfortune to be sent to a big school at that tender age find the plunge very cold indeed. The preparatory is a sort of half-way house between home and the public school, and not only in the matter of work but in every department of school life it has the greatest influence. The intellect of the average boy, when first he goes to school, is frequently quite frozen, and it sometimes requires several weeks of untold patience and individual attention before the thaw sets in. But not only is the mind of the small boy often in the most primary stages of development, but his physical strength is sadly deficient: and to plunge him suddenly into the midst of a number of boys far bigger and stronger than himself may very likely cause him to overtax his forces and to do himself real physical injury. Further, neither in the class-room nor in the playing field can he hope to have the same individual care and attention which is part and parcel of the preparatory curriculum. It is obvious, for instance, that the ordinary day at a public school is too long for most boys under fourteen years of age, and it is interesting to note that the headmaster of Eton is advocating more sleep for growing boys. Neither is the average boy under fourteen physically strong enough to rough it in the same way as older boys; he has no idea of taking care of himself, and would no more think of voluntarily changing his stockings because they were wet than of voluntarily going to bed because he was tired. When first a boy goes to school he cannot, as a rule, think for himself, and the first service which a preparatory school does for him is to teach him how to think, and the necessity of so doing. It may be argued that a boy will learn to think and act for himself far quicker if he is sent at once to a big school, but this is akin to the argument that throwing a man overboard is the best way to teach him to swim. It must be admitted, however, that there is a tendency nowadays to do too much for the boy, and that feeling of responsibility—which always has such a steadying and beneficial effect upon a boy’s character—is not sufficiently stimulated, owing to the overanxiety of parents and masters.
Perhaps the most charming and fascinating of God’s creations is the manly little boy of three or four years of age, and when first a boy goes to a preparatory school he retains much of this innocent charm. He is, as a rule, simplicity itself, and credulous to a degree, whilst probably at no time in his career is he so impressionable. It is, therefore, not difficult to see that, at no time in his life, is the influence which is brought to bear on him of more vital importance. After four or five years at a preparatory a boy has, or should have, a certain feeling of self-reliance, and a strong feeling of self-respect—two very essential attributes to his character when he enters the larger field of the public school. An excellent feature in the education of the modern boy is that he is continually rising to the top, and having to begin at the bottom again; when he is just beginning to feel a bit big for his boots at the preparatory, he goes on to the public school, where he is nobody, and has to start climbing up again. Arrived at the top he goes, or may go, to the ’Varsity, where again—for a time, at any rate,—he is nobody. Many a man’s character has been spoilt through the rise and fall not being sufficiently pronounced, and it is no uncommon thing to hear it said of a man that he was not kicked enough at school. Whilst a boy’s self-reliance is trained and stimulated, he learns continually that he is not the only person in the world, and that self-assertion is not the golden road to success. It is, however, in the nature of things that the home estimate of a boy should be somewhat different to that which is formed of him at school, and thus a boy frequently fails to realise the expectation of his fond parents. The state of mental ignorance in which some boys come to school is quite phenomenal, and it is no uncommon thing to find a new boy who actually cannot spell his own name or add three and four together. His very ignorance has led him to make droll remarks at home, which have, of course, been regarded as the soul of wit, and by mistaking instinct for intelligence, an entirely false estimate of his capabilities is frequently arrived at. So many small boys dislike reading, but are quite content to be read to—one of the primary causes of backwardness—the result being that when they come to school they have the greatest difficulty in keeping up with the others. It is most unfair, both to the master and to the boy, to send a child to school in this lamentable state of ignorance, and a great deal of valuable time has to be devoted to teaching a boy the most elementary things which are so easily learnt at home. A boy of this description could have little or no chance at a big school with forms of twenty or thirty boys in them, as it would be quite impossible for the master to give him the necessary amount of individual attention, whilst even at the preparatory, his progress is sadly hampered. The effect of this is that he fails to reach the higher forms of the preparatory school, and some of that essential grounding has to be hurried over or skipped altogether.
If, on the other hand, he has learnt to read and write well, and knows his arithmetic tables thoroughly—quite an unusual accomplishment—and has also a slight idea of what is meant by a substantive or an adjective, he has a fair chance of being in the swim, and at the end of his four or five years at the preparatory he will have passed through the different forms, each with their fixed standards, and will have received a thorough grounding which is of the most vital importance to his subsequent work. The usual number of boys in a form being nine or ten, it is easy to see that a master will be able to give each boy a considerable amount of individual attention, and will insist upon his work being very thorough. It is a mistake for boys to be kept at home too long, nine years of age being quite the limit, for unless a boy is exceptionally quick he will not get through the work necessary to enable him to take a good form at his public school, the advantage of which cannot be overrated, as he may otherwise vegetate in the lower forms, and lose all chance of getting to the top of the school.
Next in importance to his mental training, comes the physical development of the boy. That more attention is being paid nowadays to the health and strength of small boys is generally admitted. To quote from a paragraph in the Field of February 10th: “The modern preparatory schoolmaster has for more than a generation introduced greater comforts and more liberal diet for small boys, and the physical effect of it is visible to the eye that can recall and compare the average size of the twelve-year-old school-boy half a century ago with his modern representative.”
The old Spartan idea of hardening boys by a system of roughing it can be carried too far and may have the most detrimental effects. Montesquieu was not far from the mark when he advocated a liberal diet and moderate exercise till the age of twenty-one, by which time a man is fully formed and more fitted to undergo a stricter diet and more violent physical exertion. Till recent years, however, the reverse has been the case; school fare was synonymous with the bare necessities of life, plus the unwholesome concoctions which were eaten at all times of the day at the tuck-shop, whilst most violent exercise was taken immediately after dinner, the one square meal of the day. It is a popular fallacy that a boy has a digestion like an ostrich, but there are many men whose health has been permanently impaired by the trials to which their digestions were subjected when they were boys at school. One has memories of what, in school-boy parlance, were called “stodgers” (being square slabs of warm dough made palatable by a covering of burnt sugar), to say nothing of ices and sweetmeats and such like unwholesome things. Needless to say, the tuck-shop is a thing unknown at the preparatory school.
The ordinary day at the preparatory generally begins at about 7.30 a.m. At some schools the boys are taken for a short walk of about twenty minutes’ duration, with a sprint of a hundred yards about half way to warm them up and fill their lungs with fresh air, but this has the disadvantage of being somewhat dependent on the weather, and therefore liable to be irregular, when it ceases to be beneficial. At other schools it is the custom to do half-an-hour or an hour’s work before breakfast, which, in summer, at any rate, is no hardship, and this has the advantage of lengthening the play hours later in the day. If, however, small boys are to do much work before breakfast, they should have a cup of cocoa or milk before they begin. Breakfast, which should be a liberal meal, is generally at eight or half-past, and in winter this should always begin with a plate of well-cooked porridge. A doctor in the north was once heard to complain that he got nothing to do because “all the inhabitants began the day by putting themselves outside a big poultice of porridge.” If this is followed by either fish, eggs, bacon, or sausages, with plenty of marmalade, there is little danger of colds or chills. Weather permitting, the boys go out for half-an-hour after breakfast in the grounds, or there are classes with easy exercises in the gymnasium—a very necessary adjunct to every preparatory, especially in wet weather. From two and a half to three hours is the usual amount of work done in the morning, leaving an interval of three-quarters of an hour or an hour before lunch. At some schools an interval is taken in the middle of the morning, and work then goes on till dinner time; but the hour or three-quarters of an hour before dinner is very useful, especially in the summer, when the senior boys have cricket practice in the nets and are individually coached by the masters; whilst some of the boys have boxing, fencing, carpentry, or music lessons. Most preparatory schools possess swimming baths, and those boys who are not otherwise employed are generally permitted to bathe before dinner, under the supervision of a master, and nearly every boy learns to swim before he leaves school. The bathe seldom is allowed to exceed five or six minutes. Dinner is always a liberal meal, with plenty of vegetables, milk puddings, and so forth.
In the summer it is sometimes found advisable to work for an hour or an hour and a-half after dinner, leaving the cooler part of the day for cricket, which is continued till tea time. In the winter, on the other hand, the boys change fairly soon after dinner, and play football for an hour (generally Association, which is more suitable for small boys), after which they are free to carpenter, play racquets, or, at some schools, play golf. If the grounds are fairly large, a small nine-hole golf course is very easily laid out, and affords a vast amount of amusement and gentle exercise, and teaches a boy to keep his eye on the ball. Several schools are making little rifle ranges, which should serve a most useful purpose. The training of the eye cannot be begun too young, and every boy should be taught to handle a rifle. Work in the gymnasium should be as light as possible, heavy exercises having a tendency to develop the larger muscles at the expense of the smaller ones, and boys should never be in the gymnasium without someone in attendance. In winter, afternoon school generally begins at 4.30 and continues till 6 p.m., the usual hour for tea all the year round. At some schools the boys do an hour’s preparation after tea, but it is generally found that at this early age they are, for the most part, unable to concentrate their attention on one thing without assistance for any great length of time, and very frequently school continues from 6.30 or 7 till 8 p.m. After evening prayers or chapel they have a light supper of milk and buns, going off to bed about half-past eight. As most boys “live every minute of the day,” they are generally ready for bed and sleep without rocking. To quote from the Field again: “Nine hours between the sheets is not a moment too much for growing boys who have been taxing mind or muscle, or both, from réveille to tattoo, barring interludes of meal times. Among luxuries for the young few are greater than sleep, and none does less harm even when bountifully conceded.”
Every attempt is made at the preparatory to discover and foster any hobby which a boy may have, and the school library will probably contain many books on natural history, engineering, locomotion, electricity, shooting, fishing, sailing, and so forth, in addition to the usual novels. Perhaps no books are in greater demand than those of William J. Long, “Beasts of the Field,” “Fowls of the Air,” “School of the Woods,” and of Seton Thompson; though Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, Stanley Weyman, and Max Pemberton are great favourites. Kingsley, Merriman, and R. L. Stevenson are mostly read by the bigger boys. Some schools have a small natural history museum, with collections of birds’ eggs, fossils, moths and butterflies; but the small boy has not, as a rule, sufficient patience and perseverance to make him a good collector. Stamp-collecting has many devotees, but by far the commonest hobby is photography, though good results are seldom obtained by the majority. It is also a common idea for boys to have little plots of garden, over which they spend no end of time and trouble; although their industry has frequently little to show for it, a love for flowers and an interest in gardening is often engendered. Anything, in fact, which serves to occupy boys’ minds, and which makes them think, is of the utmost value. The boy who can amuse himself is quite the exception, and it is one of the objects of the preparatory school to teach him how to do so.
In conclusion, it may be said that the chief functions of the preparatory school are the gradual substitution of school discipline for the liberty of home, the gradual training of a mind, generally quite unaccustomed to think, till it is able to understand and think for itself; the gradual development of the body, the encouragement in every form of manly pastimes and interesting hobbies; last, but not least, the engendering of that spirit of self-reliance and self-respect which are the safest armour a boy can have in the battle of life.
Magister.