SCHOOL TYPES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 121, 28 November 1928, Page 6

SCHOOL TYPES

OPEN AIR OR BLOCK IMPORTANT QUESTION [VIEWS OF DIRECTOR Open-air schools' aTO admittedly benoficial to the health of tho children, but the question which is tho best type of school to adopt has been exercising the minds of education authorities and others in. Canterbury. for .some .time past. For the purpose of obtaining advice on the point the Minister of Education (tho Hon. R. A. Wright) recently called a conference of representatives of the Canterbury Education Board and the Canterbury Open-air Schools League. The Director of.Edu-' cation and the Senior - Inspector of Schools wero present, and tho report of the Director of Education (Mr. T.^rß. Strong) on the proceedings has been forwarded to the Minister. The conference opened with a discussion of a report on an investigation made by Mr. Penlington, tho Canterbury Board's architect. This showed that, as. -cgards average temperaturo inside the schoolroom, the temperature at West Spreydon and Papanui, which are the Department's standard type of building, moro nearly approached the ideal working temperature, namely, CO degrees, than any of tho open-air schools. After considerable discussion on the question of temperature, during which it was established that the children close to the open side of an openair classroom were, during.tho winter months, occasionally very cold, the medical men present affirmed that temperature made very little difference to the conditions of working, provided it was sufficiently low and provided also that the pupils on cold days engaged frequently in active pursuits. The discussion then turned on tho question of heating open-air classrooms. It was not contradicted that the open fireplace did not provide the best means of heating the room with any degree of evenness; the pupils near the front of the class were warm and those near the open side wero cold. It was stated that on breezy days the fire was apt to smoke badly. Heating by electricity was considered but judged to be too costly. "HEATING NOT NECESSARY.'* "Apparently," says Mr. Strong, Vthe most satisfactory experiment in heating the open-air classroom is that carried out at Elrnwaod, where two open-air classrooms form one block with a small central room in which a coke heater operating hot-wator radiators is placed. The Open-air League, however, considered that no form of heating was really necessary, provided the pupils had sufficient exercise. Apart from the question of fresh air, the league, asserted that the open-air type of classrooms brought the teacher and pupils iuto closer contact with the outside world than was the case with the onclosed classrooms. Closeness to the open air had a psychological effect, so it was said, on the mind of the teacher and affected his. methods of - teaching. In other words, tho open-air classroom' was the. nearest approach to teaching without any classrooms at all, and this the league held was the ideal. The Senior Inspector, Mr. M'Leod, in answer to a question put by myself, stated that neither ho nor his colleagues had observed any tendency ou the part.of . the teacher in an open-air classroom" to make his teaching moro practical and more related to the environment than

did tho teacher in tho ordinary type of classroom." Mr. Strong.says that in answer to a question put to. ; the medical men by himself, the opinion was elicited that from the health point of view there was no difference between the open-air classroom 'and -ihe. Department^ "• modernblock typo of school. "It was insisted by; the league, -and i'particulai'lv by Profes-' sor Shelley, that' the' enclosed -classroom, although well'ventilated, tended to encourage the'i-teacher to. givo a bookish type.,,of, education. . There was! too .']ittle;-rjmoyenient of the children in tho enclosed, classrooms, and the openair room gavo greater encouragement to freedom of movement. I acknowledged that this was the case, but that it appeared to be mainly on the question of the best method of teaching that th« leaguo based its support of tho open-air room as opposed to the ordinary modern fresh air typo of classroom. BREAKING UP PLAYING AREA. "I pointed out to,the conference that .apparently Mt was, not denied that the. 'Department's ordinary type of building, was a fresh air building, and that -ifthejJoa&ue based its.support of "the .sep-: ■arate open-air room- solely on the importance of bringing teacher and_ pupils into.as1 'close relationship, as possible to the outside world, members' would be ignoring other, important -factors that had to be considered in connection with the problem. I pointed out that in the case of a large school the method of accommodating tho classes in separate buildings scattered about the playground had the effect of breaking up the playing area. As an instance'of this I described what had been done at Bangiora, where a site of over four acres had been so broken up that tho school committee wero pressing the Department to assist materially in the purchase of additional land. It was apparent, therefore, that in the case of large schools very big areas were essential. Organised games played an important part in the education of the children and-the adoption of the separate open-air classrooms in the case of a largo school with small ground would have the effect of making organised games impossible. I referred to the difficulty; of the headmaster supervising his school whero there was no convenient .inter-communication between tho units. This difficulty .would be in-, tensified in the case of schools up to grade five since the headmaster in those schools was himself responsible for teaching a class. STAFF ORGANISATION. "The difficulty of' organising when tho staff was depleted by sickness must "also be recognised. In the block type of school it was quito possible, in any emorgeacy, for ono teacher to supervise two- classes. . This arrangement would be quite impossible if the classes were entirely separate. Then, again, it was not unusual in a large school for an experienced teacher to have certain responsibilities with respect to a weak member of the staff or a comparatively inexperienced teacher such -as a probationary assistant. -.. The open-air type of school would mako it impossible for orie teacher' to give assistance to another. Further, unless a central hall were provided there was no possibility except in the open of gathering tho school together as a. community and all modern teachers recognised the importance of gatherings of this kind. In fact s in a number of the. most up-to-dato ■schools the morning assembly is a most impressive - ceremony r often patriotic in 'character."' " The housing 'of a large school in separate buildings destroys the sense of unity. "A further difficulty would arise when a large school was in transition between one grade and another. It was easy in the block type of school to employ an additional assistant and to find some corner where such a teacher, could take a draft from.a'largo class. In the case of a large school housed in

open-air rooms this could not be done. It would bo necessary to erect another classroom .for the additional assistant. If the rise in attendance did not materialise and the additional assistant was withdrawn, the classroom would thon be empty, and could not bo con- . veni'ently: utilised by other classes as' would be the case- if a room in a block typo of building wero for the same rea-: .son-, rendered, vacant. .Further, the open-air room would present considerable difficulty if it wero found neces-, sary to change the character of the school, say, from primary to postprimary." SPECIALIST TEACHERS. Mr. Strong says that he pointed out that the primary school system was moving in the direction of employing specialist teachers, and that consequently, the universal adoption of tho separate open-air classroom would hinder the advance of education in the direction ho indicated. In post-primary schools the work was in the hands f specialist teachers, and the pupils went to the teacher, not the. teacher to tho ' .pupils. Classes were differently divid-j ed for different subjects, and they had. to move from room to room, irrcspee-; tive of tho weather; thus it would be, inconvenient for a post-primary schoolto be housed in separate rooms. Mr. Strong thinks it quite fair. to', say that there was no effective reply to his statement showing the obvious disadvantages of housing large schools in separate open-air rooms.