NOTES ON EDUCATION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 308, 22 September 1908, Page 4

NOTES ON EDUCATION.

(By Socrates.) OUR SCHOOL BUILDINCS. LIGHTING, HEATING, AND VENTILATION. During the last few years, educational questions have, boon very much in tho public eye. There has been a great deal of talk, and not a little ink , used, in determining what our children should bo taught, and liow it shall bo taught; in'making the teaching profession more attractive by evolving better conditions of service, and in clearing away certain anomalies in the administration of the system. AH these things have, in a more or less degree, been acfcomplished. Wo have now a now education BylUbus, which has received from the teaching profession much adverse criticism; tho' teachers have been provided with a colonial scale of salaries and a superannuation fund; and it has now occurred to at least one member of the teaching profession to raise;a note of inquiry as to the daily conditions under which tho work of education is now being carried on; in other words, to ask: Are'our school buildings, in their lighting, heating, and ventilating arrangements, all that could be desired? Those who incline to the opinion that they are will find much food for sober reflection in the following article, which wqs read by its author, Miss.E. M.' Rowley, M.A. (Newtown District High School), at a meeting of the. Wellington branch of tbeiNew Zealand' Educational Institute on Friday last. .The articlo has-'al-ready been referred to in our columns, but muoji'.interesting matter had, for reasons of space, to', bo deleted. It appears here practically in extenso. The Heating Arrangements.

Miss Puowley first refers to the present methods of warming the classrooms in cold weather. In many of them, slie-says, tho only heating apparatus is a small register grate; a fire is lit, perhaps a few minutes before the children assemble. Tliey conic in, some of them glowing from a good walk or a run, others already cold through coming by tram; and they are required to sit ill this chilly Toom for-an hour or an hour and a half'reading or writing at their desks. It would not be so had if they could movo about, or do active work, but they aro required to sit still, working at their books. The little fire in the grate is, no doubt, a boon to the children immediately, in front, but those in the back row and in the far corners of the room must be content with the visual proof of its. existence, and endeavouring to imagine the warmth it ■ should be giving, In these circumstances one cannot open the windows, lest the temperature bo still-moro Toduced, and so there is tho added, disadvan-; tage of a badly-ventilated room. Harm is done by keeping children in such a room, and there is a great strain on their strength iiv keeping up their ■ normal temperatures; in consequence, they have less energy to give to their work. Ventilation. A serious defect in accommodation becomes prominent on rainy days. On a wet day, during the interval between their'arrival at school and the hour of assembly time, during recess for play, and during the lunch hour, should we .send the childien outside to the shelter-sheds'or allow them to use tho classrooms?" If we choose'the latter alternative we are met with the difficulty of ventilation, for it is during these periods of recess, when the- children' are outside, that we have the opportunity of getting a fresh supply of air into the rooms. We cannot over-estimate the importance of ventilation. It is.a well-known fact that impure air.;iiidu'ces fatigue, both physical-and mental, .which 'might be almost entirely avoided by prdper ventilation. The atmosphere of a room where there are many porsoift rapidly temperature, because expire air,.is alqipst, as warm as the .blood, in a livingTiody; iMlsb cbutains>'great'pf-d-' portion of water-vapour, and the atmosphere therefore becomes bbtli leated and saturated with "moisture, causing a sense'of discomfort, as. the -moisture on the surface of the body is upablo to escape. If this evaporation is much .retarded t'the internal..temperature of tho;body rises, interfering -with the chemical action,': in-, the tissues: Besides water, the skin excretes inorganic, salts and fatty acid. -.Some of theso"" are'absorbed by the clothing, and iperbaps undergo decomposition, thus >causing r vitiation of the atmosphere. Then, too, dust is continually rising from the floor, and these particlos form mediums for i convoying bacteria and the means of spread- j ing diseases, such; as diphtheria, and tuberculosis., One of tho most immediate results of a badly voritilated room is headache, and there always is general inability to work. Hence it is absolutely neccssary that opportunity be taken of recess periods to.flush the rooms with fresh air,'and scholars shouldi not be allowed to remain there during that time/ For those children who bring their lunches to-school, is a room which, has been occupied for nearly thrso' hours,' by a .'numner of people a fit place for thdm to eat? in-The law does not allow' such a practice iii a factory. It surely should not be. allowed' in. schools. .

A Chilly Alternative. j The alternative is to send the children outside, and at once we are brought to'the opposite extreme. A certain amount of accom- , modation is, provided by shelter sheds. These \ are only sheds,' and quite open to uie weather along onesiilo; some of. thorn are not- even provided with seats. Would any adults care to eat-thoir lunch in such a place? These sheds are not intended for lunch-rooms. Boys arc often seen at their games out in the wet - playgroundi What else is there for them to do? There is no need to point out tho harm that must arise from this kind of treatment. Something ought to bo done to provide for this need—fair-sized, properly closed-ill rooms, in suitable parts of tho school ground, close to the school; well-lit, properly ventilated, and warmed during cold weather. The access to the shelter outside" should be under cover all the way from tho mpin -building. ' A Few Hints'from America. In America many of the school buildings are three or four stories highj and the basement portion, well-lit, ventilated, and warmed, is used as a playground;, in. fino weather children are allowed to play on the roof. The first thing that would strike an American on visiting our schools is tho poor appearance -of tho buildings. Education in America is considered of so nnich importance that expenso is not spared in constructing schools. According to Professor Shaw, Professor of Pedagogy at New York University, they should bo or stone or brink, and thrco of four-stories high. The walls between tho rooms are often of brick, and tho floors made Bound-proof by means of mortar between the rafters. Th'cro should bo two staircases at tho ends or sides of the buildings, a corridor 10ft. to 12ft. wido leading to tho class-rooms, and a cloak-room to eacli class-room. A cloak-room for a class-room of 400 pupils, should contain 150 squarri feet of floor space. It should be lighted from the outsido, and heated and thoroughly ventilated, so that odours' arising from the clothing mny bo, carried off, and the clothing dried in damp weather.- Professor Shaw condemns tho method of hanging cloaks in corridors, not merely because it is unsightly, but because _ of the odours emanting from tho . clothing, and the danger of infection, from -disease. These cloak-rooms are fitted up • in eithor of two ways: In tho first,,a shelf, 15in. ride, is placed round tho room, sft., from tho; floor, and on the .under. sido, of the shqlf, about 15in. apart, doublo coat-hooks are screwed. "This gives a full circulation of air about tho clothing. Another method is to place boards upright, lOin.. apart, ■ forming compartments. Theso curve' in at the bottom, so as to allow tho room" to bo swept. There aro also shelves placed horizontally round the room, so that -the pupil may put hats or shoes tidily away. In all the rooms, concavo junctions of walls and floors, and walls and ceilings arq in vogue j and' all lodgos, such as mouldings and cornices, that might collect dust are ' carefully avoided. Heating Temporatures. For warming the school buildings, steam radiators and hot-water radiators are both used. Tho steam radiators are said to be less expensive to instal than the others, but

the latter are more satisfactory in that tho heat can .be more evenly distributed, and they coat ; less for fueh :; Another method is tlio-hot-air system. Dr; Lincoln says that children, can bo made conifortablo at a tomperaturo of 66 degrees ■ in. well-aired rooms. In England and Scotland tho standard of heat is 65'dogteosl some schoolmasters in Scotland! maintain tliat.C6 degrees is warm enough. • Many teachct's in New Zealand •would', not tliinlc ; it necessary have the fire lit 'unless tho , temperatures wero below 50 degrees. In Aniorica, it is advocated that every room should bo provided with threo or four thermometers hung near the breathing line. Professor Shaw observes"lf from any cause—insufficient radiating surfaco, pressure of high winds, inadequacy of furnace to genorato sufficient steam or heat tho water quickly enough—the temperaturo of the room falls below' 60 degrees Fahr., pupils should be immediately dismissed frorii tho. room." Ideas In Ventilation. • It is enacted by law in Massachusetts that 30 cubic feet of pure air per pupil must bo supplied every minute, and manufacturers of ventilating apparatus adopt thiß as a standard, although sonic authorities maintain that this is not enough. An English authority lays it down tli-.vt 70 square inches of inlet for fresh air should be provided for each child. Of two important systems of ventilation, one—the gravity system —introduces hot air into tho room through an inlet connccted by flues with tho furiaice, or with steam pipes. The vitiated air ikws out of tho rdom through an outlet connected with a separate system of flues. This'system has not been found to bo satisfactory unless tho outside temperature is low, because it depends on tho fact that hot air, being light, rises above cold air. This system is also interfered with by high winds, ''fiio other is known as tho mechanical system of ventilation, of which there arc two separate methods. The "plenum, or prossuro system" is that by which air is faced into tho building by means of a fan. Tho second is tlio "vacuum system," worked by a fun at tlio top of the building, or in tho basement; this draws about of the flues from tho difforent rooms.' It has' been found most Satisfactory «o .force the air into the rooms, and tho sir inside is then lindor greater prossuro than that outside, and so is forced out. ' Caro is taken, in installing these systems, to have several inlets so as to avoid a draught. It is a rulo that "air should never come into a standard school-room rvt a greater velocity than six feet per seco'od." . Professor Shaw says:— "The' plan of' having ono large inlet, and ano large outlet for a room is not in all rei•pects bygienically good. Under' such an arrangement, all the foul air is drawn to one part of tho. room, and pupils sitting near tho outlet whero the vitiated air constantly converges are supplied with air much worse than they would breathe, were there no means of .ventilation but the old-time. manipulation of •windows." Tlio introduction of fresh air should therefore bo distributed at several points along the - sido of tho room, and tho vitiated air also should be exhausted in a similar manner.

In somo of tho. schools of Glasgow, the fresh air-is purified'before being distributed through tho rooms. As tho air is forced by tho fan info tho building, it is drawn betweencords lialf-an-inch apart, _down which water is trickling, and tlio dirty appearance of tho water as it flows away gives some idea of tho impurities that must bo in the air. (Such a plan tried in "Wellington would show tbat the air is not always entirely freo from dust.) In somo'.places, the air is filtered through cloth bev'oro being allowed to pass 'into the class-rooms.

Tho Americans think that good ventilation also requires that the amount of water vapour in tho air should bo regulated, because these 'systems of heating affect the humidity of tho air by raising its capacity for holding moisture. This is apt to make tho skin dry and rough, arid to cause throat trouble and general lassitude. 1 On the other hand, air that contains a high percentago of moisture is very trying. If the room is kept at .a temperature of. ; Godeg.,; with-55 per. cent,; of hiinlidity;';such.^a,.condition- ; as this ;is her •to 'biiXstr'engthtfnnig' to • tho health;'.of• tlio: liupil's',;imd'vthe cause/of colds and throat '■ailments -wilpbV'l removed;;. '. Several -means; have been trad/toisUpply'moisture, together with warmth.'; ,lv '•' •• , i'v.' One^othejx;'point*'With;'regard ■"to ■"ventila-: tion is of interest: In aj&hool 1 in.New: Jersey it; flue; • ; froin the'."fan' under r th'6'"cbllar, 'for sonio distance ''before- tho ' 'air.', was 'distributed;' to', tho'; rooms. :It'was';f6uncl;that by this means, ■ during •:a "period of intense heat, the whole■ building' was-, kept lin ;.a>stato of- comfortable coolness.- ■ In' these systems of ventilation, a' point to be noted, is that, all doors and windows aro 1 kept closed, and noises shut out; tho school is thus kept, to a great extent, free from dust. - These'conditions exist in all'the better class of schools, not only in America, but in Great ..Britain and on tho Continent. Enumerating tho most pressing requirements in school design, Miss Rowley mentions, among others, tlio'following

points: — (1) Means of keeping tho rooms at suitable degrees of 'temperature and humidity, with efficient- ventilation. v

(2) Lighting of class-rooms in such a manner that desks may bo suitably placed as regards light and distance from blackboards. In connection with this it is, iriteresting to note that in France tho'placing of windows 'in a wall which tlio teacher has to faco is a feature of school, design which is absolutely prohibited by law. (3) Many, teachers who havo worked in rooms with sloping floors strongly condemn such an arrangement as injurious to tho children's health, as they cause strain on tho whole body. '