* april 27, 1929 Mr Baldwin intimated that if the Conservative party comes back “one of our first acts will be to form a committee of inquiry into the whole subject of child welfare to advise us what would be the best way of treating it”. Mr Baldwin frankly faced the fact that there is in the country not a great deal of experience on the subject of the “under-fives”. In fact, the want of experience is not due to the backwardness of those who can speak with special knowledge. They have been preaching in and out of season for years, as the columns of the Educational Supplement will testify. Mr Baldwin’s special interest was aroused by Miss McMillan’s school at Deptford...But there are too few schools that are doing the same work. It is very difficult to induce local education authorities to start nursery schools.

50 years ago

* April 30, 1954 Mr LJ Drew, director of education for Swansea, has had some salutary things to say to his education committee about the part that schools can play in improving the speech of their pupils. When bad speech is heard, he has pointed out in a report on the subject, unthinking people blame the schools just as they blame the schools for juvenile delinquency, empty pews in church, and much else besides. Mr Drew maintains that the influence of the home on a child’s speech will always be more potent than that of his day school. It is no bad thing that an educationist should occasionally toss the ball back to the parent. Too many of them have been ready to assume that parents should stay on the touchline.