SKY-SCRAPING SCHOOLHOUSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2672, 31 May 1905, Page 79

SKY-SCRAPING SCHOOLHOUSES.

ILcrw would you like to attend a- school of 10 or more storeys, divided into over ISO rooms, and accommodating about 7500 pupils? -Read this extract from a paper sent to .m&j: — Many -of the older readers of The Companion, and not a few of the younger, began -their -education in a small, one-storey wooden "building. There was plenty of land around, had these lieeh any need to enlarge it, hut small as the building was, the pupils -were mot" cramped' ior Tepaee. 'Conditions "are diffeient aiow in -the great cities. Children are - numerous, land-is vsary costly. The school- , house >td flae- future in anany such crowded sections wilL be -a- V sky-scraper "—and New IToik.'faas already planned- -the ifirst. Tie-public school ■which is. now being built on- a -site Abounded -.by* Sester, Essex, And JSflr- - folk streets >was .originally intended to be a sky-scraper; "but -the school authorities, fearing that -.the .public had not yet been educated up ±o such an innovation, -checked its growth. at the sixth, storey. The first sky-scraper, 10 or more storeys in height, will be built on Grand street, between IBssex and Ludlow. It will cover a lot ITSft long by 80ft wide, and 'will Jiave 15 classrooms to each storey and accommodation fox 50 pupils in each room. j&othing in -this big building but tlie furni-tur-e will be combustible. If a fire starts in » room, the room can be closed, and the fire left to burn itself out. To enter or leave will be easy, too. There will -be four exits, one on each side, and the structure will have four elevator shafts, besides numerous stairways and -escalators, or moving stairways. At dismissal tlie pupils on the lower floors -will go out by ihe stairways, and those on the upper* floors will use the elevators. The new schoolhouse is designed to acconijnodate the upper classes of all the schools •in tlie neighbourhood, leaving the smaller buildings for the small children. The Grand street sky-scraper will not only be the first echool building of its type, but with its 7500 or j more pupils ' Public School No. 137" will ' "be tte largest public elementary school in the ■world. A Boy Police Foece. | In such a school, of course, there must bo means of preserving order such as we are not jnuch acquainted with here. The following is the first instalment of an article describing how discipline is maintained in some of the large schools. In another paper sent to me I read that one sentence passed i>y a juvenile court of justice in one school was that the offender was not to speak a Trord during fhe recess hour! In another case a truant player was made truant officer, and he became so enthusiastic in fulfilling liis duties that he forgot to play truant ihimself! How to manage 1600 school boys, many ot ■Jliem brim full of life and prone to miscliief, SB a schcoljiouse where they arc fiec from ika restraint oi their xegulas class teaciieißj

is one of the many boy problems the school authorities of Greater New York have to meet. In ona school this problem has been most successfully solved Where this school is and how tho problem -was solved, the readers of The American Boy will now be told. The school is Ho. IG6 in JEighly-ninth street, between Amsterdam and CoJumbus avenues, a district of the city which has so many rich, very rich, nien in it, that is often spoken of as the " millionaires* -section.*' Thomas Moore, a man with a personality that makes for success in any work, is the principal. He has 37 teachers as assistants. One of these assistants is Thomas C. Hailigan, a young American of Irish, parentage, -who is bright and lesoureeful to a high degree. Mr Hailigan, some six years ago felt that in America, a country which boasts of its government by the people, the schools ought to do their part in promoting the spirit of self-government. Ho saw, too, that there was great need of a change in the method -of taking care oi the boys of his school at times when they are obliged to be in the schcol-hcrase but cannot be readily brought under the restraint of the teacher. There was too much disorder on the streets, in the playground, and on the stairways. How to get the boys who were guilty of this disorder — that was the vexing question. The teachei'o had enough to do to look after their boys after they hed them in the class room. It would not do to add to their numerous duties, but some one must be found for the task. It was then that ne decided to let the boys govern themselves. At first this w-as done by appointing a few monitors to watch at points where they conld see the movements of all the boys. Each term, more monitors were added, and with the .growth of the force came th-e need of organisation. The city police department, -which handles so successfully New York's great population, became the model, and now there is in this school a. system in miniature, which, in all essentials, is an exact copy of that wliieh has its headquarters on Mulberry street. The success of th.« organisation proves conclusively that .those boys are best governed" who govern themselves. As in the police department of the greater city, there is here a commissioner at the head of the force, -with an inspector next in authority. Tie school is divided into eight precincts, each in charge of a captain. Each captain -has a sergeant whom he places in charge of a detail of patrolmen sufficiently large to do the -patrolling require*!. The present head of the force is Master Joseph M'Linden. He is 14 years of age, and is built on the lines of a fighter. As a talker lie ?loes not rank high, but he acts with a rapidity and a determination that makes his fellows .show him the respect due a leader. "I will have discipline, even if I have to fight for it," he says. Thare is the best kind of •evidences that he will do just what he says, but it seldom becomes necessary to resort to ' force in subduing the boys in this school now ■that it is so well policed. Commissioner Miiirulen has .a . staff of subordinates who loyally support him in all his plans and theories. Every one on the force understands that, to hold his- place, he must attend-strictly "to business. The boy who shows a disposition to shirk or shows an inclination to take the whole affair as joke soon -finds himself Telieved of "his badge. "He's been chncked," the boye say, and say it in a manner that makes the delinquent feel keenly his shortcomings. Since "the members of the force take their work seriously, all the boys in the • school .respect their authority. Next to the commissioner is the inspector. This office is here filled -by Don Momand, a sturdy young American, 14 years of age. .Don is not only popular on the force, but, on account of his .cheerful disposition and quick wit, is a favourite in his class. He has charge of the late patrol — a special detail, — which looks after the boys who come to the school late. Coining to school after the time set for the opening exercises is considered a breach of school discipline. It is necessary, therefor«. to keep a record of those -who enter the building after that time. This duty falls to Master Momand and his associates on the detail. The street patrol is an important Dart of the department, and Commissioner M'Liuden takes good care to place only the finest under his command on duty there. He knows that io be on the street makes many otherwise meek and submissive boys feel fr-ee to break the rules — this" getting out into the open seems to arouse the fighting spirit, and to successfully quell all disturbances due to this spirit takes a set of boys who dare to interfere when the odds are against them. John liepko, a boy who in fearlessness is second only to his superior officer, is in command here as captain. His " beat " covers the whole block on which the school building stands, and a very busy officer is he when those 1600 lusty-lunged youngsters swarm, like bees from a hive, through the gates at noon. It speaks well for the discipline he maintains that on days when the street is filled with snow not one of these boys will dare to throw a snowball while on the block. All the commands are expected to be on duty in the school playground on the ground floor at 8.35 o'clock in the morning. At that time the principal, from his flesk on the fourth ileor, sounds an eloctric hell, p»nd. all wlxo

have entered the building fall in line and obey these commands :

West stairs, first division : Captain Mostyn Drake; Sergeant F. Kemp. West stairs, second division : Captain Walter Fromme; Sergeant A. Wilmurt. East stairs : Captain Frank Schlosser ; Sergeant William Price. West yard: Captain Albert Confield; Sergeant Edward Little. East yard: Captain Clyde Samuel; Sergeant Mortimer Steinhardt.

Each class, from the first primary to the eighth grammar, has a special place in the yard marked by a, number on the floor. At the- signal every boy in the yard makes haste to find his place either in line or as an officer detailed to look after his beat. AH talking stops, and what was a noisy crowd quickly becomes an orderly formation of lines — the head boy of each toeing a mark and his classmates arranged, in size rank, behind him. Another signal starts the lines up the four stairways, passing a patrolman at each landing, to the classroom.

(To be concluded next w«ek.)