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NEW FOUNDATIONS. CHAPTER I. THE NEED FOR THE COMMUNITY. The Caldecott Community, the only hoarding school for working men s children, is in its essence an experiment. It is an experiment in education, it is an experiment in democracy, it is an experiment in communal life. All the teaching is carried out in a spirit of research, and the same spirit extends to the daily routine of work and play. If any method proves to he unsuccessful, it is frankly admitted to be a mistake and discarded. The Directors are convinced that in education, as m life, the golden rule is that there is no golden rule. They refuse to treat the children en masse, or even to classify them in types, requiring this or that treatment. It is the core of the Community’s creed that a child is himself a person, to he loved, cherished, and respected for his eyyn sake. The Community originated in St. Pancras ten years ago, under its present directors, Miss Rendel an i M iss Potter, as a free nursery school, and was attended by the children of that district. In 191/ * the School was moved to East Sutton, near Maidstone, in Kent, where it now is. Thirty of the children went with the Directors, and their parents offered to make weekly contributions towards their maintenance. Other children have been admitted ; there are now forty in the school, and there is a long waiting list. The children go home for holidays three times a year, and many parents come down to visit the school during the term. The need for such a school is apparent to anyone who knows anything of the housing conditions in central London. The problem of housing lies at the root of most social and moral evils, an d the outlook for its improvement, though more hopeful, is still far from good. It will not he this generation, nor perhaps the next, that will see a satisfactory solution of the problem. The evils of an unhealthy over-crowded house, with its insufficient sleeping accommodation, tell seriously on health and character. Very few of the Community’s children possess beds to themselves at home. It is not a case of poverty merely, it is a case of inadequate accommodation for the workers of London. One of the parents, himself a skilled artisan and making a fair living, is literally unable to find better accommodation for himself and his family m the neighbourhood of his work, although he is willing to pay for it. In these homes there is practically no escape from the excitement of the accidents of sickness, birth, and death, the gossip about the latest murders, overwork or lack of work, and the presence of parents who are habitually tired and overstrained. In an address on the dangers