OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5300, 16 July 1928, Page 3

OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS.

ADVANTAGES OF COLD.

BRACED BRAIN AND SINEW.

Some people ip 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, or even elderly, and have forgotten what it is to be young. They think that the environment which they themfeclves prefer must be the best for everyone, including children. Never was there a greater mistake ; the warm debilitating atmosphere of a closed room, which to so many of the middle-aged is grateful and comforting, is pernicious to the young. The healthy child desires, and needs a life of activity out, of doors,, and to shut him up in a, closed room is to violate hs nature.

Provided children are. well-fed and given sufficient exercise they will not suffer from, but be benefited by, a reasonable amount of cold.

Cold, “bracing brain and id-new,” as Chayles Kingsley sang qf the noreaster, is one of the best stimulantsThis is recognised in tihe treatment of •tubercular disease. It is the combination of sunlight and cold, that makesthe climate of Leysi.n, in the Swiss Alps, where Dr. Rolli/s has his clinic, sb suitable' for the treatment of bone apd joint tuberculosis.

At Hayling Island, ip the south of England, cold >s also used in the treatment of this disease, and at this modern Bethsada bed-ridden children are placed in nets and. bathed in the sea.

•Many of the open-air, schools for sick children In England are entirely unprovided with means for artificial heating of rooms or, shelter-sheds. In these schools the children, are kept warm on Cold days by frequent exercise and a liberal diet ; also the curriculum -is. so devised as to include much physical activity.

In St. James,’ Park, close to Buckingham 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 tfie use of the school is only used when .'t-is too wet to be outside. This school was carried on in the park right through last winter, ;ap exceptionally severe' one. TEACHER’S EXPERIENCES. The head teacher, Miss Corin, E.A., writes about her experiences during the first half of the winte'r.: “I was in the school till Christmas, and I certainly think we had the' worst of the weather before I left (although I must say the 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 works and taking advantage of the hut-shutters, -in very wiindy weather. And we continued to have our hour’s sleep out in the open, unless the (Jay happened to be really wet. We all used to feel so superior, running about, on the open lawn, without overcoats, while shivering, furwrapped ordinary mortals surveyed us from the path beside the lawn. Of course we had got acclimatised, so to speak, having been out since Easter, but I was so glad that the parents, and the children, we're proud about the children being ‘open-airs.’ We managed to get quite a good deal of work done, too ; a rug round theknees seemed quite effective when sitting still for any length of time. This brings me on to the second point,— EDUCATION.

“I am quite sure that the way in wliich we ran the school in the park should be as, far as possible the ordinarily used method of running a school for ordinary, ,and not only delicate, children. I had to satisfy, in the park,-not only those educationists whose interpretation of the term ‘education’ was' a broad, wide one, but those to whom ‘education’ means a more narrow thing—more mere ‘booklearning.’ After all, I was expecting to have to return our children in the autumn to take their places in the various ordinary schools, from which they had been withdrawn. And. their went on quite y ell. I am convinced that if the education of ‘ordinary’ children proceeded along the lines we worked upon in the park with the delicate children far better result's would be obtained.' than are at present with regard to both interpretations of the term ‘education.’ ” Our New Zealand open-air classrooms of the Fendalton (Christchurch) type can be turned into closed rooms by closing-the sliding door.s, ami they have a. fireplace where a good fire can be kept up. Till the open-air method is more thoroughly understood and appreciated this is an advantage, but think what it means t'o be able to throw one side of the class- room right open on fine, sunny days I Even to be able to do this much is to entirely justify the Openair Schools Campaign.—(Contributed by the Open Air Schools’ League. Christchurch.)