Such provision is, however, quite exceptional. As a rule no provision whatever is made. "I have only once seen any supervision of the meal on the part of the teachers," writes a late Assistant School Medical Officer for East Sussex; "in fine weather the children generally eat [their dinner] out of doors; in bad weather it is taken in the school or cloak-room in what are often very unhygienic surroundings."[365] "There is no doubt," writes another School Medical Officer, "that at some of the schools the conditions in which the children get their midday meal are deplorable."[366] "It is only too common a sight," reports the School Medical Officer for Derbyshire, "to see little children sitting in a corner of the class-room, cloak-room or even the playground, munching at thick slices of bread and butter. Under these circumstances," he continues, "it cannot be wondered at that children below the normal development are to be found in our schools."[367] In Anglesey the School Medical Officer finds more children badly nourished in the rural areas than in the urban areas; this he attributes mainly to the long walk to school every day, the inadequacy of the midday meal and the hurried manner in which it is eaten.[368] Footnote 365: "The Diet of Elementary School Children in Country Districts," by Dr. George Finch, in _Rearing an Imperial Race_, edited by C. E. Hecht, 1913, p. 109. Footnote 366: Report of the School Medical Officer for Hampshire, 1910, p. 24. Footnote 367: Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education for 1911, p. 284. Footnote 368: _Ibid._, pp. 283-4. It is indeed essential that in all country schools to which children come from a distance, provision should be made for the serving of a midday meal under proper supervision.[369] As Dr. George Finch points out, "the authority which requires the child to spend its day away from home might not unreasonably be expected by the parents to make some provision that its midday meal might be taken under not unfavourable conditions. The parent, however conscientious, cannot adequately deal with the problem, and the provision of suitable cold food is not an easy matter, even in the more well-to-do family."[370] The meals should be served as part of the school curriculum and might well be combined with the teaching of cookery as is done at Grassington. Footnote 369: As we have seen, the Inter-Departmental Committee on Medical Inspection and Feeding in 1905 recommended that managers of country schools should arrange, during the winter at any rate, to provide either a hot dinner or soup or cocoa for children who lived too far away to go home at mid-day. (See ante, p. 38.) Footnote 370: "The Diet of Elementary School Children in Country Districts," by Dr. George Finch, in _Rearing an Imperial Race_, edited by C. E. Hecht, 1913, p. 109. Conclusions.