OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17447, 6 July 1928, Page 9

OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS.

ADVANTAGES OF COLD. . BRACES BRAIN AND SINEW. A TEACHER’S TESTIMONY. Some people in New Zealand seem to think that our climate is too cold for open-air schools. Most of these people must, I fancy, be middle-aged, j or even elderly, and have forgotten i what it is to be young. They think j that the environment which they ■ themselves prefer must he the best j for everyone, including children. Never was there a greater mistake; the warm debilitating atmosphere of a closed room, which to so many of the middleaged is grateful and comforting, is per- ! nicious to the young. The healthy i child desires, and needs, a life of acti- ! vily out of doors, and to shut, him up . in a closed room is to violate his' nature. Provided children are well fed and j given sufficient exercise they will not '■ suffer from, but be benefited by, a rea- 1 sonablc amount of cold. Gold, “bracing brain and sinew,” as Charles Kingsley sang of the nor’easter, is one of the best stimulants, j This is recognised in the treatment 01 » tubercular disease. It is ltie eombin-i ut-ion of I Sunlight and Cold j . i that makes the climalc of Leysm, m' the Swiss Alps, where Dr- Roilies ha-' his clinic, so suitable for the treat-' merit of bone and joint tuberculosis. ; At Haylirig Island, in the South of; England, cold is also used in the treat- j merit of this disease, and at this modern Betlisada bed-ridden children are placed in nets and bathed in the j sea i Many of ihe open-air schools for sick children in England are entirely unprovided with. Ineans for artificial heating of rooms or shelter-sheds, in these schools the children are kepi wa-rn on cold days by frequent exercise and a liberal diet; also the curriculum is so devised as lo include much physical activity. in St- James’ Park, close io Buck- | ingham Palace, there is a school for delicate children, in this school, unless it is actually raining, or snowing, all work is done right out of doors. The pretty little bungalow shed which has been built for .the use of the school is only used when it, is 100 wet to be outside. This school was carried on in the Park right through last j winter, an exceptionally severe one. j Head Teacher's Experiences. j The head teacher. Miss Gorin, B_A.-

writes about her experiences during the first half of the winter: —"I was in the school till Christinas, and 1 certainly think we had the worst of the weather before 1 left (although 1 must say Ihe bad snowstorms came in the Christmas vacation). No heating or lighting apparatus was provided—we just went on, quite happily, through all the fogs and frosts with more physical work and taking advantage of the hut-shutters in very windy wca--1 ther. And we continued to have our ! hour's sleep out in the open, unless | the clay happened to be really wet: I We all used to feel so superior, runj ning about on the open lawn without : overcoats, while shivering, l’ur-wrap- | pod ordinary mortals surveyed us from : tin; path beside the lawn. Of course we had got acclimatised so to speak, having been out since Easter, hut J was so glad that the parents, and 1 lie | children, were proud about Ihe ehildi ren being ‘open-airs.’ We managed to : get quite a good deal of work done, I too; a rug round the knees seemed ‘ quite effeclive when sitting still for : any length of time. This brings me | on to tlie second point— EducationI am quite sure that the way in which we ran the school in the Park 1 should he as far as possible the ordl- j j narily used method of running it school 1 j for ordinary, not only delicate children, i I had to satisfy, in the Park, not only those educationists whoso inlerpretaI lion of the term ‘education’ was a I broad, wide one, hut those to whom I 'education' means a more narrow * thing—more mere ‘book-learning.’ I After all, J was expecting to have to : return our children in I,lie autumn to > take their places in the various ordiI nary schools, from which they had I been withdrawn. And their ‘bookI learning' went on quite well- 1 ain convinced that if the education of ‘ordinary’ children proceeded along the lines we worked upon in the Park with Hie delicate children far better results would he obtained (ban are at present with regard to both interpretations of life term ‘education.’ ” Our New Zealand open-air classrooms of the Kendal ton (Christchurch) type can bo turned into closed rooms j by closing the sliding doors, and they have a fireplace where a good lire can he kept up. Till Ihe open-air method is more thoroughly understood and appreciated Ibis is an advantage. Hut think what it means to be able t< throw one side of the classroom right open on fine, sunshiny days! Even lo he able to do Ibis much is to entirely j justify the Open-air Schools’ Cam- ; paign.— (Contributed by the Open Air S Schools’ League, P.O. box 1177, j Christchurch},