Work and Play in Girls' Schools / By Three Head Mistresses

by Dorothea Beale; J. F. Dove; Lucy Helen Muriel Soulsby

For of the soule the bodie forme doth take;

For soule is forme, and doth the bodie make.

Spenser.

The mistress as educator.As the object of school life, or rather of life at school, is not merely teaching but education, and as education, whatever the true derivation of the word may be, means the gradual drawing out and development of all the faculties of which the human being is capable, we shall speak in this chapter not of the “teacher,” but of the “mistress” as the person who in school life takes the place of authority analogous to that of the parent in the home, and upon whom falls the responsibility for the time being of seeing that a due balance is being maintained in the development of every faculty. The importance of this harmonious development of the powers is manifest. We do not desire girls to be brainless athletes any more than we wish that they should be delicate or stunted blue-stockings, and either of these exaggerated types is made doubly deplorable if, as sometimes happens, there is a deficiency of moral power.

Health conditions.The most important conditions for health are first of all a wholesome environment; secondly, wholesome occupation for the mind; and thirdly, proper exercise for the body.

The environment will be discussed later.

The occupation of the mind will also come chiefly under the head of mental training, but here it may be desirable to notice that the mind must receive much of its training through the exercise of faculties other than the intellectual. Meaning of recreation.This truth is of course the foundation of the whole idea of recreation, recreation consisting much more in change of thought and a difference in the objects on which the attention is fixed, than in the particular form of exercise through which this object is attained. It is for this reason that games of all kinds are so much more valuable than mere walking under ordinary circumstances, because walking is so purely mechanical, especially when exercised for limited periods among well-known surroundings, that the mind continues to occupy itself with the thoughts, and possibly with the intellectual problems, upon which it was before fixed. Some forms of recreation more valuable than others.Better than walking, as both an exercise and a recreation, I should count riding, rowing or bicycling. In riding and bicycling there is the great interest of managing the horse and propelling the bicycle, the exhilaration and quickened circulation produced by passing rapidly through the air, together with the refreshment gained through the eye by the contemplation of new and varied scenes, especially if they be beautiful. Every form of occupation or exercise that will keep girls in the open air is for that reason alone valuable, because there is no bodily want so imperious as the necessity of breathing fresh, unvitiated air; but as a true recreation the first position must undoubtedly be given to games, because in them there is always a special interest upon which the mind must be concentrated, and which therefore entirely prevents the possibility of the thoughts dwelling upon the subject of the last lesson, and sends the girl back braced and invigorated to overcome the intellectual difficulties that may be required of her. Games essential to a healthy school life.I think I do not speak too strongly when I say that games, i.e., active games in the open air, are essential to a healthy existence, and that most of the qualities, if not all, that conduce to the supremacy of our country in so many quarters of the globe, are fostered, if not solely developed, by means of games.

I have said that games are essential to a healthy existence; of course I mean that they are so under the circumstances of school life. Without this proviso the assertion would be an exaggerated one. For I think if it were possible, with a due regard for the necessities of their training, to make girls cultivate a farm, or even do all the work of a large garden, or build a house, or make a road, the interest of performing a real work of utility, together with the exercise of the muscles and other faculties, would give the necessary recreation and muscular exercise; but the initial difficulty can hardly be overcome, viz., that in building a house, or cultivating a farm, the exigencies of the work must be considered rather than the training of the workers. Games give exercise.Hence it is that games have been invented as a means of exercise in the open air, which will occupy varying numbers of players, which can be dropped and resumed according to the exigencies of the weather, varied according to the capacities of the players, which possess endless interests, develop numberless faculties, and yet which can be pursued upon limited spaces of ground, the possibilities of which for the purpose are never exhausted, and without the using up of valuable material. In fact for people who are to be intellectual workers, games are the modern adaptation of the old command “to till the ground,” which, like other laws of a fundamental nature, cannot at any time of the world’s history be neglected. Efforts have from time to time been made to carry out the injunction literally, as in the attempts of Mr. Ruskin to inspire Oxford undergraduates to try the experiment of road-making, or in the foundation of schools, which are meeting with a considerable measure of success, in which the boys perform, besides a certain proportion of indoor work, a good deal of agricultural, including woodmen’s, labour. Games waste the minimum amount of material and can be played on limited areas.But for most schools, with their limited possibilities as regards acres of land, trees and materials, games are the only possible means of satisfying the need. These ought to be as joyous and spontaneous as possible, and therefore should be of every possible kind to suit different tastes. The joyousness and spontaneity are so especially necessary for girls on account of their extreme conscientiousness and devotion to duty. Boys, for all I know to the contrary, may perform their duties equally well, but they are rarely inclined to worry over them as girls do, and they have such overflowing animal spirits that they always contrive to find relaxation, by means of fun and activity of all kinds at odd times, which either does not come naturally to girls, or which, if indulged in by them as well as by boys, would make life an unbearable pandemonium for their elders.

Let us then have games of all kinds; every game, with, I should say, the single exception of football, is suitable. Games for small numbers.Let us have lawn tennis, fives, bowls, croquet, quoits, golf, swimming, skating, archery, tobogganing, basket-ball, rounders and hailes, as many of these as can be provided for, and some at one season of the year, others at another. All these are useful, because only a small number of individuals, one or two, or at the most four, is necessary to make most of them enjoyable, and therefore they can fill up gaps of time when large numbers are not available for organised games. Let these games also be encouraged by means of tournaments and competitions held occasionally, and let prizes or challenge cups be offered for success in these competitions, and where there is a golf course arranged, let there be an autumn and a spring medal.

Their higher functions.Games, however, have a much higher function to perform in school life than any I have yet mentioned. Here is a splendid field for the development of powers of organisation, of good temper under trying circumstances, courage and determination to play up and do your best even in a losing game, rapidity of thought and action, judgment and self-reliance, and, above all things, unselfishness, and a knowledge of corporate action, learning to sink individual preferences in the effort of loyally working with others for the common good.