THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1922. WHY NOT THE PARKS?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18103, 11 February 1922, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1922. WHY NOT THE PARKS?

The end of the school vacation has raised the annual question of what to do with the children of Auckland during February. It is tacitly admitted that no good purpose is served by compelling full-time attendance during such weather as usually prevails in February in such schools as Auckland is able to offer to its children. Hence for several years the local education authorities have sanctioned a compromise of half-time in February. This is obviously but a rough-and-ready way of escape from an impossible position. If the atmosphere and the temperature in the Auckland schools are such as to threaten health, the evil is not removed but only minimised by cutting down the school time. If the conditions arc such as cannot be tolerated during a second session there is a fairly strong presumption that the morning session is, from the educational point of view, wasted time. It can, indeed, be said with confidence that any attempt to use many of the older city schools during the hot weather is not only useless but positively harmful. Many of them should not be used in any weather, and a, still larger number should not be used witheut a severe restriction upon the attendance. Of 60 schools tabulated by the Auckland Education Board three years ago nearly half were shown to be overcrowded to an inexcusable degree, and though the department has, under difficult circumstances, done its best since then to relieve congestion there is the present evidence that some 70 schools in the province are below the modern standard in floor space and 25 are below the standard already discarded as insufficient.

The remedy obviously is to build more schools, larger schools, and better schools. Particular attention should bo paid in the northern portion of New Zealand to the erection of buildings admitting a maximum of light and fresh air. Such schools have already a considerable vogue in the United States and the United Kingdom, particularly for the instruction of delicate children. There is no part of the Dominion where the climate is too severe to affect their general use, but in the North Island they should prove of particular value from the point of view of public health as well as education. The " fresh-air" school, it should be observed, has passed the experimental stage. Giving evidence before the Hospital Commission recently Dr. Colquhoun, of Otago University, made the following strong statement:—" So long as we continue deliberately to poison children from six to sixteen years in our unhygenic schools so long will we be bringing up an inferior population and helping to fill the hospitals. Experience has shown that in fresh-air schools the children are healthier and develop a higher mentality than in tho ordinary classrooms, and further than that, the schools themselves can be conducted more economically." This summary does not overstate tho case for the fresh-air school. A London pioneer in this development claims tho following advantages for the fresh - air schoollt nips disease in the bud ; it prevents sequential disease; it supplies opportunities for physical repair; it matures debilitated children ; it has .taken the lead in modern methods of education. The first four claims will scarcely be challenged. Lest there be any doubt as to the fifth let the English teacher I elaborate his argument

Learning by doing is making rapid headway in all types of schools; but in fresh-air schools, owing to the small classes, tho environment, and the special needs of the children, teachers have found it not only easier, but absolutely necesBary, to adopt manual methods of education. This has been dono with so much success that inspectors, lecturers in training colleges, teachers of all grades, have come from every quarter to learn the new methods, not only for adoption in other open-air schools, but also to be introduced into 'indoor schools of all kinds.

It is to the credit of the New Zealand Education Department that it has followed this development in school hygiene very closely, and is now constructing some very fine examples of the fresh-air school. It is a question whether the Minister should not go a step further and lay down the policy that all new schools should be on the fresh-air principle. This does not necessarily mean either greater difficulty or cost in erecting schools. Indeed the simpler the design the easier it is to admit a maximum of sunlight and fresh air,

But obviously the new building policy needs time to develop. It will be many years before all the children of New Ze'aland have the privilege of receiving their education in fresh-air schools, and an appreciable number before over-crowding, is a thing of the past, and the errors in lighting, ventilation and heating in the older schools arc remedied. The immediate question is whether anything can be done to improve on the half-time system which is adopted as an unsatisfactory compromise during February. The alternative which the board and committees should seriously consider is the holding of open-air classes in the parks and on the beaches in fine weather—and few days in February are not fine. It would be interesting to know if the schools medical service favours the present system. On the known facts it would appear to be improbable that children can be confined in the older schools of the city for even a few hours daily during the hot weather without injury to health. The board will agree that this is the paramount consideration which should over-rule any question of the syllabus. But on the purely educational side it may be doubted whether Auckland gains anything by the attempt to

impart instruction in foul-air, overcrowded schools during hot weather. Properly handled the children would learn, more in the open. Any resourceful teacher, would find it easy to impart the elements of such subjects as botany, geology, and physical geography in the open spaces of Auckland besides broadening the general knowledge of his pupils. Open-air teaching is being extensively and successfully practised in other countries, and there is a special field for it in Auckland during the first few weeks of tho school year. Will educationists and controlling authorities consider without prejudice and preconceived ideas whether it would not be better to close all but the more modern schools for'the remainder of this month and organise open-air classes, which need not be limited to half the day 1