Is it a part of the work of the public elementary school to provide food for the pupils? (Should it provide a dwelling? Even those whose demands are most extensive ask merely that the elementary schools should provide a home for the child during the day time, on the one hand during school hours, on the other during the intervals.) The question of the feeding of school children was first mooted by the teachers about thirty years ago. It was evident that a smaller or larger proportion of the children attending urban schools (in wealthier towns from 3 to 10 per cent., in the suburbs of large towns even as many as 90 per cent.) were unable to derive adequate benefit from their teaching because they were underfed. The proletarian mother lacks sufficient time to prepare food for her children, especially the midday meal. Few workmen earn enough to provide a dietary in conformity with hygienic demands. The school is often far from the home, and the children have neither time nor desire to return home to dinner. The need is especially striking during the winter months, inasmuch as at this time there is more unemployment, whilst it is precisely at this season of the year that hot meals are most necessary. Moreover, whilst it is simply cruel to force half-fed children to learn, they hinder the progress of the others. It is objected that the feeding of school children conflicts with the principle of parental responsibility, and that it impairs the intimacy of family life, which demands, as all will admit, that the members of the family shall meet one another at least at meals. Our aim, we are told, should therefore be to do away with the poverty which is the cause of so many children coming to school underfed. But school feeding may be so arranged that the parents are charged for the meals at cost. Moreover, it is proposed to supply only breakfast and dinner--meals which many proletarian parents are in any case unable to take at home. School feeding can be combined with instruction for the girls in cooking and domestic economy. The meals may be given in the school, which is the best plan, or in special institutions. The feeding of school children must be kept entirely in the hands of the education authorities; it has nothing to do with the poor-law, and it is absolutely necessary that it should be kept completely distinct from poor-law administration. (Who is to determine the children’s need--the poor-law authorities or the school? The latter, in my opinion; but this cannot always be done off-hand--in doubtful cases a house-to-house visitation will be necessary.)