THE OPEN-AIR SCHOOL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9189, 8 September 1908, Page 3

THE OPEN-AIR SCHOOL.

The campaign for open-air schools is being pushed forward with some vigour at Home. Three ot these institutions are now in full swing in London. Dr Frederick Rose, of the London County Council, who seems to be the leading spirit in the movement, says that open-air schools are a crying necessity in large towns, .and declares that from three to five per cent, of London school children should not be taught indoors. Only by having their instruction given them under the eye of Nature can their minds and bodies be made healthy. The outdoor school is designed primarily for backward and defective children. "Give no more than 25 children to one teacher," says an English writer on the subject, "cut down the hours of formal instruction by cna-half, .Rive the remainder of tho instruction in an informal way, in touch with outdoor conditions, let each child have individual attention, banish all ordinary -forms of discipline and punishment in favour of good influence, and pick love children and teaching"—such is the ideal system aimed at by the advocates of the open-air school. Dr Rose has constructed a wonderful model of an ideal school. The buildings stand in a kind of forest glade. In cold weather the children are taught indoors, ten saanxj feet being allowed for each 'Jafild, in warm but wet weather on verandahs, and in fine warm weather in the open. The sleeping sheds for the children are open in front, with sail-cloths for use in bad weather. Such a school can be made of portable material; Germany has a portable sjhool o£ twenty-five class-roons and a gymnasium. "The outdoor methods of teaching appeal very strongly. Ths arithmetic class is provided with tape-measures, and the children base their sums on their own measurements, instead of juggling with abstract figures. They learn geography with relief maps made to scale in sand, and are taught history by acting historical episodes. They are trained to study bird and animal life, but not to destroy it; plants and insects are watched through all stages of development, the decomposition of rocks and the formation ot" soils is explained by the light of Nature and endless lessons are ' drawn from the sun, the moon, and the stars in their course?." It has been found in Germany that most backward children are able to resume work in ordinary schools after one term of such a curriculum.