‘Open plan’ defended

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33804, 29 March 1975, Page 16

‘Open plan’ defended

A teacher in an open-plan school has expressed amazeinent at the issues raised by some writers of letters to “The Press” regarding the building of an open-plan classroom block at the Cashmere Primary School.

Mr M. R. Greig, a teacher in one of the open-plan classrooms at Rowley Primary i School, said that some of the* correspondence which had ( criticised the open-plan; method of teaching mightl give rise to misleading im-j pressions about the method. ( “One could infer from some of the correspondence I that children are forced to lie| on the carpet in open-plan* schools and that spinal de-j fortuities are an occupational; hazard, along with lungs stifled with dust,” Mr Greig said. “I must assure these letterwriters that cur children do not become chiropratic delights. nor does the Education Beard supply domesticsy’e expensive carpets for an', school." he said. “The; carpet in open-plan schools is a dense, hard-wearing syn-

■ thetic tile with no pile to • catch dust. Because it is synthetic, it is resistant to culdturing any germs, and any i precipitation of dust is dealt J with by nightly vacuuming.” * Working on the floor enabled much more flexibility |of movement into a comfortable position, whether kneeling, squatting, or sitting. The (percentage of children arriving with spinal deformities ( could be catered for with ;desks and tables, which were; not “outlawed” at all. “Gone is the problem of a .child being given a desk-chair combination designed for a different-sized person,” Mr Greig said. Children working in an open-plan classroom were not forced to work from a ; normal blackboard while sitting on the floor Teaching blackboards varied from the

.normal height to one starting ifive centimetres from the floor. “Yes, and I work on the floor too.” Mr Greig said. Lighting conditions in the Rowley Primary School openplan classrooms were the best that he had encountered

in a school, he said. "R. H. Coates says that the open-plan concept must be seriously questioned in the light of overseas experience. Where is the published evidence of this?” said Mr Greig. “What experiences is it? — of one person, one unit, or one school? What percentage of the total open-plan units have failed? Is it the new system, per se, the people who run it, or the people who attack it? How many traditional schools are operating as ‘failures'? Broad statements must be backed up with a wide-ranging bibliography. “Finally, our school was visited in 1974 by Dr Glennie •of the Health Department, who was more than satisfied with both the posture and deportment of the children,” Mr Greig said.