OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—It was with lively interest and great pleasure I read the two articles on Open-Air Schools, and the interest is quickened by the letter of Dr. Mulholland. It is only by the insistence of School Medical Officers and others in bringing the benefits and joys of the open-air school to the attention of the public that advance will be made.
School Medical Officers—I am speaking of Scotland—have a long row to hoe before we have even the open-window school, since the majority of teachers to-day look upon fresh air as synonymous with colds, influenza, or even sudden death. Were they to sleep with wide-open bedroom windows and teach with wide-open classroom windows, there would not only be a healthier atmosphere in the school, but a happier one : though the complete open-air school in Scotland, except in exceptionally favoured situations, I fear is almost impossible, due to the uncertainty of weather conditions.
Lanarkshire Education Authority would have been building open-air schools for the last five or six years had such been considered practicable ; as it is, no two-storey school has been considered where available ground space could be acquired for the greater spread of a one-storey building. In these, every classroom has a full side to the south almost entirely window, and a continuous opening clerestory on the north side. Furthermore, the open-air and sunlight atmosphere is enhanced by schemes of interior decoration. In addition to playgrounds, pleasure grounds are laid out where all kinds of flowering shrubs, bulbs, and flowers in their season are grown. Such schools with " Vita " glass substituted for the common glass at present in use, the cleanliness and hygiene of school and pupil on lines comparable with that of a hospital, would go a long way to attain the results of the more desirable and alluring open-air school.
With regard to Recovery Schools, this Authority has erected in post-War years three modernly equipped open-air schools. The latest, completed at Drumpark, on the outskirts of Glas- gow, is like a large butterfly set in a garden, each room opening its full length to an open verandah on the south, and each room with furnishings and equipment depicting a wayside flower. Before this year is out, in Motherwell (probably in busier times one of the most smoke-beclouded towns in Scot- land) the will be opened a Recovery School designed on the most modern principles, having an open-air and sunlit lying-out pavilion, " Vita " glazed windows, remedial gymnasium, baths, dining and recreation rooms. This building is set in wooded grounds of eleven acres in extent, with asphalte- floored open-air classrooms roofed by beech trees, walled by daffodils, foxgloves, herbwillow, and such like ; open spaces for sheep and lambs, poultry, pigeons, a bird sanctuary, and also rock and water gardens.—I am, Sir, &c., J. STEWART,
Architect to Lanarkshire Education Authority. 20 Albert Street, Motherwell.
[We are delighted that the articles and correspondence in The Spectator on " open-air " schools are creating so much -.interest. We hope our correspondent is unduly pessimistic _when he says that in Scotland—the country to which we always look for inspiration—the era of the open-window school has not yet been reached! Despite the British climate, we think that open-air schools are practicable right through the year. We shall return to this subject.—En. Spectator.]
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