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Free time or lack thereof
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Author:  Emma A [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 6:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Free time or lack thereof
The girls at the Chalet School (at least after the first couple of years) seem to have very little free time that we know about. Free time being periods of the day when the girls can more or less do what they like, as long as they speak in the language of the day and don't break any school rules. We often read of new girls so tired or kept so busy by all the different and new experiences and activities that they have no time to feel homesick or think up new pranks! Compared to most school-set GO literature, this seems quite unusual. Do you think that the girls are kept too busy, or their lives regimented by activities? Or do you think that this would be normal in a school where the majority of pupils are boarders? Do we often see girls just reading or walking for their own pleasure - rather than it being a compulsory activity?

I've been reading a few of Clare Mallory's books lately, and the girls seem to do a lot of things "off their own bat" - perform plays, organise concerts, arrange teas with other girls, and so on, whereas we seldom see that kind of initiative rewarded at the CS (the St Clare's band comes to mind, for example, where the girls are almost punished - or at least gently ridiculed - for their efforts).

Any other thoughts, please join in... :D
Author:  JayB [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
They seem to go from one extreme to the other. Sometimes they seem excessively regimented; would anyone have been allowed to opt out of the Saturday evening entertainment, I wonder, and stay in her common room to pursue a hobby or write letters? And Guides, when they had tem, were virtually compulsory since the alternative was sewing with Matey.

In particular, on the Platz they're very restricted in when they can go out. Even the prefects can't go anywhere unless they're specifically sent on an errand by someone. One would think the Sixths at least would be able to go for a walk on a Saturday without supervision. They were much freer in that respect in the Tyrol.

Yet at other times the younger girls seem to be left with too little to occupy them, so that Mary Lou and Co end up with a full scale fight over a card game, and Jack Lambert more than once is so bored she wanders the corridors and gets into trouble.

Other than Hobbies (which again seems to be virtually compulsory), we don't hear of any activities run by the girls themselves, and which they can choose to belong to or not - chess or music (as in listening to records) or debating or drama or anything else that doesn't require the use of special equipment and thus would need to be supervised by a mistress.
Author:  Nightwing [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
It does seem to me that as the school grows the girls have less time to themselves. In the Tirol the girls have a lot of time when they are left to themselves, although of course there are a lot less girls actually boarding at that stage. And I think that one of the problems Miss Bubb has with the school is that the girls are given a lot of freedom - too much, in her opinion.

It makes sense that more pupils means less freedom for the students. When there are only fifty or so girls to look after it's going to be relatively easy to work out if someone has gone missing, as opposed to when there are a couple of hundred.

I think it's probably safe to assume that the girls get more free time than we actually see - after all, they all have their own Common Rooms, and if they really did have such a strict schedule of meal/lessons/meal/lessons/meal/prep/prayers/bed the Comms would never see any use...
Author:  JB [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
Isn't this something on which a new pupil comments (poss to the Gang)? Someone else says they have games lessons and the new pupil (reasonably enough) says that isn't free time, only to be assured by horrified girls that "games aren't lessons".

Even things which could be seen as recreational are regimented - you will go to Guides and have a hobby. Switzerland seems much stricter - as JB says, even senior girls aren't allowed to walk around the Platz -whereas on St Briavels, groups of them are allowed to go into Carnbach.

ETA -this must have tough on the staff too (all those Swiss rambles).

I think i'd have liked to go to Tremaynes but i'd have been a very bad Chalet girl. I am very good at pottering around, doing very little. Just like I am now .... :reading:

Kingscote, too, gives its girls much more freedom. They're free to organise early morning cricket practices (dread to think what Matey would say), wander around the grounds or go into town with an older girl.

I have a friend who went to boarding school for a while (in the late 70s/early 80s) but left because there was nothing to do in her spare time.
Author:  Alison H [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
It does all seem very regimented, certainly in the Swiss years. Hobbies Club, as has been said, seems to've been pretty much compulsory. In the evenings, they seem to've spent a lot of time doing things like dancing: it may have been fun but no choice was given about whether or not to take part. At weekends, church attendance, rambles and things like paper games were all compulsory, and at some stages there were compulsory times for letter-writing. Maybe Hilda and Nell liked to know that all the girls were where someone could keep an eye on them, but those who had to supervise it all must've got very fed up!

They must have had some free time - people who weren't in the choir, orchestra or sports teams must have been free when practices were taking place, and presumably the numerous visits to Freudesheim took place at a time when they wouldn't clash with anything else - but we never see any of it. And, as JB said, in Switzerland the girls aren't even allowed to go out for walks on their own.
Author:  Cazo3788 [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 10:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
In my 'occassional' free time I've been writing a drabble set during the Swiss years and come to the conclusion that EBD never actually thought about structuring the timetable. I drew up a hypothetical timetable for all the classes (including St Mildred's) with her available staff and found I needed to (hypothetically) hire two more teachers (language mistresses for German and Latin). The timetable also doesn't correspond to the hours that the girls keep in the books - but is fairly accurate and the teachers and classes all mesh. However, I did increase the prep hours depending on the age group. So in an average day they got about two hours free not including meals, the rest period or prep. Does that sound about right?

[By the way, yes I do know that it's odd to spend hours on fictional timetables :D ]
Author:  MJKB [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
I don't think it's odd at all, Cazo, and I wish you'd post it.
Re the free time issue, I went to a convent boarding school in the late sixties and there was virtually no unsupervised activity allowed throughout the day. I was in the Junior school then, but the same regime applied to the older girls too, some of whom were already eighteen. You couldn't walk from one end of the school to the other without an accompanying nun. The school was situated beside the sea and just 5 minutes walk from one of the prettiest towns in South Dublin. and yet no one was allowed outside the gate during term time.
The first CS book I read was set during the English period and the day to day routine it described appeared very realistic to me, certainly by comparison with other GO books. Of course it was ten times more fun than my school, yet I could still identify with things like the mad scramble in the morning and the crowded timetable.
Author:  Alison H [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
Just thinking about it, maybe they deliberately minimised the amount of free time that the girls had in the later years because of what'd happened early on. Within about four years of the school opening, Juliet & co'd gone off to be filmed, Grizel and Joey had nearly died on the Tiernjoch, several people had gone to the ice carnival against explicit instructions, Joey had got soaking wet rescuing Rufus, Simone had run off to cut her hair, Elisaveta had gone off with Cosimo and Joey had followed her, Robin and Cornelia had both been kidnapped by the man who lived in the caves, Joey had nearly died after rescuing Maureen, and Stacie had suffered a serious injury whilst running away.

It's a wonder they didn't keep the doors locked and bolted!
Author:  Catherine [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
But then things seem to happen even when they are supervised!

I've always wondered what you would do for a Hobby if you weren't a crafts type person. I know there's things like postcard and stamp collecting but the majority of girls seemed to do something like knitting or sewing or making jigsaws. And what happens when girls (as they frequently do!) break a collar bone or something? Are they allowed just to sit and read or expected to find some other sort of hobby?

We sometimes hear of the Sixths being allowed on a walk without supervision but it always seems to be an organised walk - not just a stroll along the Platz for the sake of it and they're allowed to race round the gardens 'to shake the fidgets out of them' or something but they have to ask permission first.

I always found it odd that letter writing was compulsory. Yes, I can see the sense in a postcard or something to say they've arrived but surely it's between the girl and her parents whether they receive a letter every week.
Author:  RroseSelavy [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 12:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
Catherine wrote:
I always found it odd that letter writing was compulsory. Yes, I can see the sense in a postcard or something to say they've arrived but surely it's between the girl and her parents whether they receive a letter every week.


Was the art of letter-writing thought to be something a well-brought-up middle-class girl should know?
Author:  MaryR [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
Oh, I don't know. I wrote to my parents every week when away at college in the Sixties. We had no phone at home. I didn't find it onerous and no more did my parents. :D And the girls wouldn't only be writing to their parents - there would be granparents and friends etc.

As to free time, I suspect they had more than we realise. There was a huge gap between the end of prep and Abendessen, for example. Then there are Satuday afternoons when they were free, and presumably Sunday, as well. And no one tells us if they all HAD to attend the dancing or evening entertainment - we just assume it. Talking of the entertainments, the form whose job it was in any one week to do the entertaining would need lots of free time to arrange it, especially if they were doing plays etc.

I do agree about there being no clubs etc, and it's one of the things I am trying to redress in ND. Most schools, even at that time, had lots of activities going on. Perhaps it was felt that staff and prefects were already doing enough.
Author:  Mel [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 4:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
I agree about the clubs, especially a Drama Club. They needed something a bit more meaty than the everlasting Nativity plays and the Millies panto.
Author:  Emma A [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
This is something which has surprised me constantly reading the CS books, speaking as a singer who was in choirs all the way through school days (and given that EBD was such a musician herself), that there's very little spontaneous musical activity - chamber choirs or small instrumental groups - in the days when the school is larger and presumably not all of the girls learn only the piano. In the Tyrol days, for example, none of the girls appear to learn a stringed or woodwind instrument, and one can't imagine a sanctioned concert with nothing but piano music... It's a shame we don't see more of Corney's instruments after the St Clare's concert - I wonder if Stacie learned to play the zither properly, or whether Corney still had the saxophone when she left school?
Author:  Chelsea [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
RroseSelavy wrote:
Catherine wrote:
I always found it odd that letter writing was compulsory. Yes, I can see the sense in a postcard or something to say they've arrived but surely it's between the girl and her parents whether they receive a letter every week.


Was the art of letter-writing thought to be something a well-brought-up middle-class girl should know?


We had to write weekly letters home when I was at camp and the camp I worked at had the same rule.

The camp actually called my parents one year and reminded them that that I would probably like to receive a letter (I think I was about 11 that summer), so they monitored in-coming letters as well (they didn't read them or anything, just noted who wasn't getting any). That would be the same year my parents forgot to get me from the bus when we came back into town. :shock:
Author:  Jenefer [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
Like Mary, I wrote to my parents weekly when I was at college. They had a phone but I only rang if it was important or urgent.

There seems to be a lack of optional activities at the CS. Hobbies which is compulsory, seems to consist of making things for the Sale. I loved Guides but it is not for everyone. The orchestra only appears at the Christmas concert. There is no debating or drama club or any other special interest group.

What is the point of rest time? They had been sitting down in lessons all morning. I would have thought some free time when they could socialise and move about would have been better
Author:  MJKB [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
I work as a guidance counsellor in a co ed community (comprehensive) school and there is even less scope for unsupervised activies these days because of insurance implications. At all times of the day there is teacher supervision even for those over 18. I have a career library opposite my office and even though there is a computer there for the use of the senior students they can only have access to it when I am in the area. Trips out now are on the decline, again because of insurance concerns.
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Author:  Sunglass [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 11:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
Jenefer wrote:
Hobbies which is compulsory, seems to consist of making things for the Sale.


Yes, I remember when I first read the CS books, in the full flush of the 1970s/early 80s craze for children's craft kits, things like Plastercasters and raffia basket-weaving kits, being absolutely astonished that not even the worst type of CS girl resented spending lots of her winter free time making craft objects that she didn't them get to keep or give away as presents. I felt like a right selfish toerag for being terribly proud of my lumpy bits of pottery and wonky baskets (which no one would have bought, not for the best charity in the world!)

We see Margot Maynard at one point complaining about having a holiday task of sewing a nightdress for a poor child, no one ever complains about Hobbies, which is basically more of the same, just presented as a club (but as you say, compulsory) - though you can choose jigsaws or painting on wood rather than sewing, I suppose. I mean, I applaud the selflessness of the ethos, and EBD's social conscience, but also feel slightly for those girls whose hobbies didn't produce anything saleable, but who presumably had to knit baby clothes or make dolls' house furniture on the side, rather than identify flowers or collect filmstar photos.

Jenefer wrote:

What is the point of rest time? They had been sitting down in lessons all morning. I would have thought some free time when they could socialise and move about would have been better


I vaguely assumed something ladylike to do with digestion? I always wonder why there aren't some fairly unstructured physical activities on winter weekday evenings, like having a few table tennis tables in the hall or gym that the girls could use in free time , rather than always having only dancing - given there's so much stress on how twitchy they get from lack of exercise.
Author:  Pat [ Sat Jan 31, 2009 12:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
At my school we had dancing every Saturday night. It was ballroom dancing, but we got no lessons on how to do it! We were supposed to pick it up from those who knew. I hated it, and used to smuggle a book across to the school building - dancing was in the hall - and lock myself in the loo all evening. I was never caught in the 3 years I was there. Not at that anyway! :twisted:
Author:  MaryR [ Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
Sunglass, in one book which I can't remember, there is a description of a commonroom and there was one table set up for table-tennis as well as other tables for jigsaws, etc - so it was allowed.

Emma, I agree we don't hear about any music clubs/lessons apart from piano, but there must have been some as they have a school orchestra. Didn't Nina keep them playing when the fire broke out? An orchestra takes quite a lot of training.
Author:  Emma A [ Mon Feb 02, 2009 10:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
MaryR wrote:
Emma, I agree we don't hear about any music clubs/lessons apart from piano, but there must have been some as they have a school orchestra. Didn't Nina keep them playing when the fire broke out? An orchestra takes quite a lot of training.

You're right, Mary, but we don't hear about the orchestra outside of these brief mentions when they're playing at pantos or for the nativity plays/pageants. This surprises me, since I now know how musical EBD was, and it would be interesting to see incidents of orchestral rehearsals or auditions from time to time.

In the early, Tyrol, years, most of the instrumentalists appear to be staff, not pupils - this may be a reflection on the idea that girls were routinely taught to play the piano or harp (Frieda plays the harp, I think), but no other instrument.

I'd also liked to have seen a school choir occasionally, rather than class singing lessons, out of school productions, or perhaps putting on a concert for a Saturday evening amusement, or similar. There's no reason to suppose that these things didn't happen, but given the detail that EBD writes about day-to-day activities, it's rather a shame that she didn't give rein to her musical background more often.
Author:  judithR [ Mon Feb 02, 2009 12:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
Jenefer wrote:
Like Mary, I wrote to my parents weekly when I was at college. They had a phone but I only rang if it was important or urgent.


Me too - also in the sixtes. I've always thought that the Chalet supervision must have been hell on earth for an anti-social hermit such as myself but I did rather like the sixth represented in Joanna Lloyd's Catherine Head of House.
More seriously, I do remember ex-boarding school undergrads being unable to cope because not every minute was organised for them.
Author:  MaryR [ Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free time or lack thereof
Emma A wrote:
or perhaps putting on a concert for a Saturday evening amusement, or similar.

I thought they did in one or two of the books? But as I can't remember which books, that may just be an aberration of mine! :D
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