OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 376, 9 June 1928, Page 13

OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS

EDUCATIONISTS DISCUSS VIRTUES FURTHER INFORMATION NEEDED (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The virtues and disadvantages of open-air schools were discussed at to-day’s meeting of the Council of Education, when it was decided to recommend the department thoroughly to investigate the principle when considering its general policy of building new schools. The discussion was opened by Miss E. A. Chaplin, who moved, “That in view of the success that has attended the adoption of the principle of the open-air school in Canterbury and other parts of the Dominion, this council recommends the Education Department to advocate this principle as a general policy in the building of new schools.” Miss Chaplin said that the children attending open-air schools were in better health and were brighter. Mr. W. A. Banks said he was convinced from what he had seen in Christchurch that the open-air school was the school of the future. No teacher once having taught in an open-air school wanted to go back to the oldstyle schools. “The department is not antagonistic to open-air schools,” said Mr. A. Bell, Assistant-Director of Education, “but it is feeling its way, as the open-air school is not beyond the experimental stage. When making health comparisons the newest type of school erected by the department has to be considered. In our modern schools there are windows on both sides, ensuring adequate cross ventilation, and I deny that they are not open-air schools.”

The open-air type of school took up a lot of room, classrooms being dotted all round the place, and taking up several acres of space. In towns there often was not the space available. The central type of heating used in the modern school would not be possible. In bad weather communication between isolated classrooms was not easy. If it was proved there was substantial benefit to the health of the children in open-air schools the department would offer no opposition.

Mr. T. U. Wells, Auckland, said a visit to Christchurch had not convinced him of the virtues of the openair school. The amount of space required was certainly a drawback, as was also the fact that children in such schools seemed to sit in their own light, while the teacher was always facing a glare. He advocated caution and guidance by the results of time. “The experiment was tried in Wellington and was a failure,” said Mr. F. H. Bakewell (Wellington). The motion was lost by 10 votes to 4, the following amendment being carried: “That in view of the success that has attended the adoption of the principle of the open-air school in Canterbury and other parts of the Dominion, this council recommends the Education Department to investigate thoroughly this principle when considering its general policy in the building of new schools.”