Open-Air Schools.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18423, 2 July 1925, Page 8

Open-Air Schools.

We do no!; quite, know what the Director of Education means by saying that "the information which had been "gained from oilier parts of the world " [about .open-air schools] is not applicable to Xew Zealand.'" The information that has been gained from other parts of the world is that openair schools are as successful in snowy Canada as in sunny California, that they keep teachers and pupils fresh and bright, and permit of those educational methods which, every expert in every country knows to be adapted to the child mind. If Mr Caughley thinks that the circulation of such knowledge is ''leading people astray" he is the iirsfc Director of Education in history who has been bold enough to think such thoughts aloud. But Mr Caughley does not think that, capable though he is of thinking the strangest things, or he -would not object to the comparison of open-au* schools with the Department's '•' older buildings." He believes in fresh air in limited quantities, or realises at least that he must appear to believe in it, and has actually been making tests to prove that " sufficient "' (air) from a hygienic point of view " can be got into buildings which are not constructed on the open-air principle, but have cost twice as much money as they would have cost if it had not been thought desirable to shut superfluous air out. And it is apparently true also that Mr Caughley is not wholly opposed to sunlight, or again, is not prepared to say that he is wholly opposed to it. He says merely that " the stimulating effects of "sunlight have been much exaggerated," -which, though it must be a comforting thought to a man who has encouraged the spending of vast sums of money to neutralise the sun's rays, docs not absolutely exclude him from the world of to-day. As Director of Education he is clearly not going to forbid light and air if they do not enter the schools in extravagant quantities, so that the open-air question resolves itself into one of finance. On its own confession the Department is putting up schools costing thousands of pounds which still admit three times as much air as is necessary "from a "hygienic point of view" even when " the wind is not strong enough to blow "out a match"; and since that must mean ten or twenty times too much air when the Wind gathers enough force to blow out a candle, and an appalling waste (or risk) when it plays such tricks as it lias shown this -week, the Department may yet decide to save half its money and let the children drink in air till they are drunk.