Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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10 at fault and to emphasize the unpleasant aspects of home life. But there are the discussions and nervous reactions between adults, the clashing of temperaments between brothers, which may impair a child ' s health and thus effect his aptitude for work or games a mani- festation of mental upset far removed from the cause. The attractions of living at home are numerous and obvious; more comforts, spasmodic affection from someone, freedom to choose one ' s playmates. But these can and will be enjoyed more fully in the holidays when parents can be more indulgent having turned over the disciplinary training to experts. Parents relieved of this responsi- bility will have a pleasanter relationship with their children. At school a boy is punished impersonally by a master. When the ordeal is past, the boy returns to the other boys and plays in a normal man- ner. It is a les ' son learned and over. Punishment meted out by a mother or father, in order to seem consistent, has to be followed by a period of disapproval when neither child nor parent is happy and the results are far from satisfactory. It is a subject vast and important but one is limited for space. It is reminiscent of an English boy of five who once demanded of a leading citizen in Bermuda, Hartley Watlington, Sir, tell me all you know about boats . The English system of education, of which the preparatory school is an integral part, is the outcome of years of educational experience. The best type of school has been a model for schools the world over. The Saltus Boarding School endeavours to be a preparatory school, but adapted to local needs. Because of small numbers, due to limited accommodation, it can only make a start in the right direction, but it is trying to instil in the boys the proper attitude to their environment. It is trying to teach good habits, and, by s et times for all things, en- able them to distinguish at an early age the difference between work and play, and to realize that work comes first. With the full time boarders the effort expended, which is just as great as if there were thirty boys, has been amply rewarded in the form of gratification expressed by parents. Who are the boarders? Bermudian children whose parents are doing what they think right regardless of their persional desires to have the constant companionship of their own children. It is sad but true that the wrench of separation at an early age is felt more by a mother and father than their son. There are sons of English boys here whose parents living in America wish to have them educated in a British Colony near at hand. And there are American boys whose

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9 THAT — N. Williams, who trained our representatives, is In no small way responsible for this success. THAT — reading the lesson in the Hall has proved to be a unique initiating ceremony for our newly appointed prefects. THAT — the Editor is to be congratulated on producing this fir t issue of the Saltus Year Book. THAT — .thanks are also due to the advertisers for helping to make it a financial success. WHY A BOARDING SCHOOL? No one who has been closely associated with a day school and a boarding school can have any doubt which benefitsi a child the most. No article on such a subject would be of any interest in England, for it would be proclaiming the obvious. There day schools are for those whose parents cannot afford a boarding school. No one with an in- come of six hundred pounds would consider himself unable to send a child away. But this side of the Atlantic a preparatory school for boys between the ages of nine and fourteen is a new thing and seems to require justification, or, at any rate, an explanation. Nine has been found to be the critical age for absorbing the ideas and ideals that the preparatory school endeavours to instil in young boys. An older boy arrives with other ideas already formed, most of them wrong, and isi a different proposition. At nine a child has left the nurstery routine and yet is not of an age to fit into the adult life of parents or others at home. It would only be parents with great wisdom and, above all, time and patience, who could create a routine at home which would continue and not counteract the benefits of the day school discipline; and correct discipline is beneficial although the word has a harsh meaning to the uninitiated. Parents whose lives are normal have not the time to supervise con- sistently a routine which will at this formative age establish habits of study, tidiness, punctuality and good table manners. There is not a mother who is not distressed daily by feeling a boy is being neglect- ed in one of these respects ' . Small boys conform without any resis- tence to reasonable rulesi which are being obeyed by their contem- poraries. They grouse if older, b ' ut the nine or ten year old will ac- cept the interdict of a master and the inevitable parental argument is not in the picture. It is so diffcult to write of the disadvantages of living at home without seeming to put the affection and intelligence of parents sadly

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11 parents prefer the established BriLish ideas of education and disci- pline to experimental schools for wealthy boys in America. With these sources of supply it is hoped that the Saltus Boarding School may expand and be able to continue to give an opportunity to those who are in siympathy and agreement with its aims and objectives. EMPIRE DAY AT SALTUS GRAMMAR SCHOOL. STIRRING ADDRESS BY THE VICE-ADMIRAL., COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. Empire Day was celebrated at Saltus Grammar School on Mon- day morning by a service conducted by the Headmaster, Mr. R. E. E. Booker, in the School Hall. Vice-Admiral S. Meyrick was present, and gave a stirring address to the boys. Mrs. Meyrick was also pres- ent with the Flag-Lieutenant and Mrs. Lawrence, and Mrs. C. G. G. Gilbert represtented the I. O. D. E. The service opened with the singing of the School hymn, and the Lesson, Let us now praise famous men. . . . was read by the Head of the School, N. H. Williams. The School then joined in singing two verses of the song, Land of Hope and Glory. In the cours e of his introductory remarks the Headmaster paid special tribute to the valuable work done by the I. O. D. E. He believed that the Islands owed a great debt to the I. O. D. E. for instituting in 1911 the observance of Empire Day in their schools, and for keeping it alive since. The Admiral said that it gave him very great pleasure to be once again in an atmosphere of youth; though they might be inclined to look upon him as an admiral, he would like to remind them that he had recently occupied for thiree years a position very similar to that of their own Headmaster: he referred to his appointment as Captain of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. And so hoys were no strangers to him, and he hooped that he had benefitted a little by a study of their point of view. The future of the British Empire would very soon be in the hands of youth, of the boys of today, and he believed that it would be a great lapse of duty on the part of their elders if they did not take every opportunity of passing on their own experiences of life, which might be useful to those boys when the time came for them to choose the direction in which their duty should lie. When they thought of the British Empire, let them turn their