OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS

Evening Star, Issue 19273, 11 June 1926, Page 10

OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS

ADDRESS BY DR R, B. PHiLUPPS Hr R. B. Philiipps, school medical officer, Christchurch, gave an address before tho School Committees’ Association last evening on ‘Open-air Schools.’ The speaker, in opening his address, quoted a statement made by Hr H. C. Mulhollnnd, in his report to the Swinto n and Pendlebnry Education Committee to tho effect that it was not sufficient that a school should bo proved to do no harm to tho children a.s every school should be expected to positively provide health as well ns education. “ To-day,” he said, “ tho medical profession, as a whole, does not oppose the idea of open-air schools. Far from it. The profession is wholeheartedly in favor and ih sympathy with tho open-air school movement, but among many of the laity there is need for much education on the subject, and a good deal of opposition is still mot with.” Ho emphasised that it was the scholar and not the school that was of the real importance, and tho more they studied the children in the schools the more likely it was that they would try and make the schools and schooling adapted to tho needs of the children and not as at present, force the children to adapt themselves to the schools and the curriculum. Many of the children in their schools showed signs of malnutrition. Sunshine and open air had a tremendous effect upon the nutrition of the body, and with a plain diet and a free exposure to the suli and air veritable miracles might be wrought in those cases. It must not be thought that children who had become acclimatised suffered from cold. They did not. Huring the visit of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show to London one of the Indian warriors vho was clad only in a pair of trousers, was asked by nn onlooker whether he felt cold. “is white man’s faco cold?” queried the warrior. “No,” was the reply. “Ah,” said the Indian, “Soaring Eagle all lace.” If the body was over-clothed, said _ the speaker, and tho individual lived in a stale indoor atmosphere there was no stimulation of tho skin and the bodily processes were in consequence depressed. A lightly-clothed person living an out-of-door life had the skin continually stimulated by the wind and sun, and bis bodily processes went on vigorously. There was a prevalent idea that in tho open-air school the ordinary school curriculum was not taken seriously, but ho quoted the testimony of head masters who did not, agree with such a, view. The original open-air schools were for sick children! but there was a tvpo of mind who did not seem to understand that if fresh air and .sunshine were good for the sick and ailing, they were also good for the normal child. p , In conclusion. Hr Philiipps said that when thov considered the unanimous opinion of’ the medical profession as to tiio desirability of open-air schools, and when they remembered that those schools were adapted to newer and better methods of education, they would not but feel that a very heavy responsibility rested upon any one connected with 'education who did not wholeheartedly trv to overcome the present difficulties and secure tho general adoption throughout the country of those newer methods. The lecturer, who illustrated his remarks with a number of lantern slides, was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.