PRINCE CHARLES will soon be able to get rid of some of his youthful spirits when he starts at Cheam School next month. He will come under the care of Miss Margaret Cowlishaw, who uses the teaching methods of FRIEDRICH FROEBEL, the German educational reformer who died in 1852. One aspect of this system is the emphasis on what is called "free movement."
It could be interpreted as letting children do what they like during this period so that they can develop their natural talents. It might be a talent for chalking on walls, tearing up books, fighting in a rough and tumble, or devising a constructive game.
I talked last night to a Froebel expert at the Roehampton Training College.
She told me: "The child that tends to fight is probably feeling his physical strength and wants to try it out. We wouldn't punish him. He probably need more climbing, scrambling, and racing not controlled exercise like P.T."
"We wouldn't punish a child that takes someone else's things. We would try to find the reason and explain to him that he must respect other people's property. Discipline is gentle, but punishment is sometimes necessary."
Miss Cowlishaw is the youngest of four daughters of Mr. Percy Cowlishaw, who was clerk to Taunton Council before he retired. A soft-spoken, slim woman in her early thirties, she is on holiday at her parents' home. Her sister, Mary, is deputy clerk to the council. She told me last night, "Margaret was a pupil at Bishop's Fox School in Taunton before going to the South-West University College, Exeter, for her teaching diploma. She is very highly trained and is well thought of at the school."
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