FRESH AIR SCHOOLS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18058, 28 April 1924, Page 11

FRESH AIR SCHOOLS.

10 THE. EDITOR OJ "THE PRESS." Sir—l am delighted to see the interest you are showing in the movement for open-air schools, for it is a movement that I feel very strongly should be supported by everyone. It is surprising that there appears to. be still a few educationists who have yet to learn the value of fresh air, despite the convincing demonstrations of -the benefits received by the children in open-air schools already in existence. The experience of the war clearly showed the value of the open-air life in the relative immunity of troops serving at the front from ordinary diseases in the face of every kind of hardship; in other words, the average soldier was in splendid health; but more remarkable still was the transformation of the drooping city clerk into a man of muscles, health, and vigour, all due to the open-air life. Most people admit the necessity of fresh air for the consumptive, fewer realise its value for the potential consumptive, and still fewer regard it as essential for the healthy child. This comes from looking at the matter from the standpoint of diseased This is a mistake; we should think rather of. health. The healthy individual becomes healthier by living in the ope'n air because it is a necessity for him as much as for the rich, and if we looked to the promotion of. robust health rather than to the