2.
98
question whether music and the other arts and crafts should
be taught in Hong Kong schools to Chinese children in
European or Chinese form. The Board resolved that in its
opinion in Government and Grant-in-aid schools in
principle it is desirable that every boy and every girl
should be taught some for
arts and crafts as a part of the ordinary curriculum.
The Board further resolved that a Sub-Committee should
form/0? music and some form of
be appointed to advise the Board of the nature and form
of the subjects to be introduced, the method by which
they should be introduced, and as to an appropriate time
for their introduction. The Director of Education himself
expressed the view that, by distinction from physical
training which should be, and is, compulsory, such
subjects as music and the arts and crafts should be
the sub-committer!, voluntary. The Board of Education accepted this report,
and I append a copy of it for your information. When
submitting it the Director of Education minuted that it
was adopted 'nemine contradicente' by the Board but that
he himself abstained from voting: presumably his view,
expressed above, remained unaltered. I myself concur
generally with its recommendations, provided that funds
for the not inconsiderable additional expenditure entailed
can be made available in due course.
4. All schools devote some period in the
curriculum to the teaching of hygiene, and whereas three
or four years ago hardly a single Chinese boy received
any physical training, to-day every pupil in all urban
English schools is receiving two periods of half an hour
each week at least, and several vernacular schools have
followed suit. Under the system of training special
instructors through the agency of the physical training
supervisor
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