OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS.

Evening Star, Issue 19273, 11 June 1926, Page 6

OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS.

The open-air school that was opened at Caversham yesterday as a memorial to the late Mrs Cohen forms a new development for Otago. The school has been provided by subscriptions, augmented by a Government subsidy, fer the backward children of three schools in its vicinity—children who, through illness, accident, or some like cause, have fallen behindhand in their studies. But there is no reason why the open-air principle of construction, which makes one wall removable at will to admit the sunshine, should be limited to such special schools. It is to be expected that, when the benefits of the system for less vigorous children have once proved themselves at Caversham, it will bo extended to the construction of future schools of all descriptions, and the earnest pleas of Dr D. Colquhoun, who was the earliest advocate of this departure in Otago, will then at last have their fulfilment. Apart from construction, the principle has been adopted already to no small extent. Recognising-the value of fresh air and Nature’s sun to health, a great many head masters in Otago do all the teaching that they can outside, and some of them have had forms erected in their playgrounds for the purpose. The new schools are being built also with a concern for pure air which only stops short of this open principle. There are rooms which are all windows on one side, with the ventilation so adjusted that the used air is carried over, and not into corridors. The department has been loth to admit that anything more is required or is worth considering. Many parents probably have been inclined to doubt whether the climate of this district is not too rigorous to be well suited to open-air schools. But those are encouraged in Glasgow, as well as in colder climates, and, provided that the children are warmly without being too much clothed, the objections to them seem to rest solely .on prejudice. Air in the

newest schools, Mr -Caughloy lias said, can be changed forty to fifty times an hour. Why make them with a removable wall? One answer is that schools on this latest pattern can bo built much more cheaply for the department, and, at. the rate at which education costs are now mounting, that in itself should be a consideration.