OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18617, 12 July 1930, Page 9

OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS

INTEREST SPREADING. THE LEAGUE’S REPORT. “The advent of the open-air school is. we believe, destined to have a profound effect on the whole educational system. The open-air school stands for nurture—the development of the child in all parts of his nature, body, mind, and spirit. It heralds, too. a great chance in our schools; a change from passivity to activity, from listening to doing, from discipline impose<f without to discipline directed from within, from the distasteful tasks to joyous undertakings, from simultaneous work to individual study, from closed classrooms to the open-air and the sunshine; in fine, from an atmosphere of restriction and toil to an atmosphere of reasonable freedom, cheerful work, and childish happiness.”

These words by the secretary (Miss J. S. Dawe) serve to introduce the report of the Open-air Schools League. This league, which has been in existence now for five years, was preceded by an Open-air Schools' Council, which held its first meeting in 1924. Of those present a number are still actively enraged in the work of the league. Fa some time Christchurch was the only centre in New Zealand where active propaganda was carried on, but as time went by. first Auckland, and later Hamilton and Oamaru formed branches.

“All this is very encouraging.” says the report, “and it is undoubtedly to che excellence of the first open-air elassioom, erected at the Fendalton School, that we owe this spread of interest in open-air schools in New Zealand. There are now about thirty Fendalton-type classrooms in New Zealand, and in places as far apart as Marton and Dunedin examples of this type are to be found. The Canterbury Education Board is trying experiments with modifications of this design. but they appear to be more expensive than the original Fendalton plan. A ‘Fendalton’ classroom has just been built in Melbourne.

“Progress Too Slow.” “While we are glad that so much progress has been made, yet we feel that the rate of progress is all too slow. New Zealand has an ideal climate for open-air schools, ana the success of the Fendalton and other openair schools and the amount of public interest already aroused, warrants a modification in the still sceptical attitude of education authorities. The Open-air Schools’ League is in a very happy position for continuing its activities with renewed vigour, and its propaganda work should be of the greatest service to the cause of education in the Dominion. No Government can afford to neglect a popular movement, especially one which, like the

open-air schools’ movement, appeals so strongly to the common-sense of the electorate.” t

At the recent annual conference of the Dominion branch of the British Medical Association in Christchurch a meeting of the executive of the league and a visit of delegates to the Fendalton open-air school formed part of the official programme. “We look upon this visit as unique.” says the report, “for never before, we imagine, has a visit to a school formed part of the programme of a medical conference in any part of the world. . . . The openair schools’ movement in New Zealand already owes much to the medical profession, and we confidently look to it for further asistance. To have th# goodwill of the profession means much; to have its active co-operation means more; and the league wishes again to express its very real appreciation of the help so freely given to it by the medical profession as a whole.”

International Congress. The report refers to the increasing interest in open-air schools in England, and to the proposal to hold an International Congress of Open-air Schools in Brussels during the year after Easter, 1931. This proposed congress would be the second of its kind, the flrst having been held in Paris in 1922. Reports of league branches in Auckland. Christchurch. Hamilton, and Oamaru all show evidence of increased interest in the movement, and it is stated that Victoria and West Australia have each a champion of open-air schools in Dr. Vera Scantlebury (Director of Infant Welfare) and Dr. E. H. Strang (senior school medical officer), respectively.