School hygiene

Preface

In this work the author has endeavored to set forth the conditions which should surround pupils at school, in order that their mental and physical health may be thoroughly protected. He holds that it is in the highest degree incumbent upon school authorities to provide the best attainable conditions, not only to protect, but also to promote the health of pupils committed to their care. The school exists for the betterment of the state of society. In its equipment and management the newest and best recommendations which are approved by science should at once find their way into adoption and use. The home may be educated to a great extent through the school. As the school, therefore, reacts closely upon the home, a knowledge of that which is lygienically best can in no other way be so quickly and thoroughly diffused. The author desires to express his thanks to Supt. Charles E. Gorton of Yonkers, N.Y., for valuable suggestions and careful reading of a large part of the work, and also to his colleague, Linnaeus E. La F^tra, M.D., for suggestions and additions to the chapter on Diseases which Concern the School.

Chapter I Page

The Schoolroom ........ i

CHAPTER n The School Building 30

CHAPTER HI School Grounds • 5^

CHAPTER IV Warming and Ventilating -65

CHAPTER V Sanitation no

CHAPTER VI School Baths 128

CHAPTER VII School Furniture 135

CHAPTER VIII vii viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX

rAGB

CHAPTER *X Handwriting 200

CHAPTER XI Conditions conducive to Healthful Mental Work . 227

CHAPTER XII Diseases which concern the School . . . .235

Bibliography 253

Index 257

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

The most grievous single obstacle in the way of the spread of sound educational principles is the popular view that the essentials of education are limited to instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic. It might fairly be argued, and with no small force, that the possession of so much knowledge alone is a positive detriment to a human being, especially if that knowledge has been gained at the expense of physical and moral habits which in educational value far outweigh such meagre intellectual attainment. The story of the way in which this misconception has imbedded itself in the popular consciousness, together with the larger confusion of education with instruction, is a long one and need not be recounted here; it is sufficient to say that sound educational theory to-day finds no place for any mental training which overlooks the relation of mind and body and its hygienic and ethical import.

It is not too much to say that health, its provision and protection, is all-controlling in present day educational theory, although it is unfortunately far from being so in practice. The chief reason for this discrepancy between the ideal and the real is simple ignorance. Teachers and parents do not recognize that eyesight is being impaired, normal growth prevented, blood poisoned, and

X EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

the body starved, because the hours of school life are so often unhealthy and abnormal hours. School buildings are constantly erected with a view to exterior effect alone, and an adequate system of ventilation and a proper site are pronounced too costly. Years of useful, happy life for scores of human beings count as nothing in comparison with the opportunity for immediate saving of a few hundred dollars. School boards and school architects would not, of course, consciously pass any such judgment; it is lack of knowledge and lack of appreciation of the facts which make it possible.

Just so it is utterly fallacious to urge the compulsory attendance of children at school, regardless of the school conditions. It is not true that a child is always and everywhere better off in any school than running at large in any village or city. If the class-room is already overcrowded, if there are already far too many pupils assigned to a teacher, then every additional pupil who is brought in injures those who are already there and receives injury himself. For this reason our compulsory attendance laws need to be enforced with great discretion, so long as present conditions exist, lest they defeat their own purpose.

In the present volume the author brings the essential facts of school hygiene or school health within the reach of any inquiring parent or tea.cher. He has done a special service in examining with particular care the hygienic aspects of instruction in handwriting, and in passing in review the general conditions favorable to mental work.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xi

We have come to realize that the connection between physical health and the power of voluntary control, and consequently of conduct, is very close. Preservation of health is therefore an aid to character building, and the subject of school health makes a double appeal to us.

Nicholas Murray Butler

Columbia University, New York April 25, 1 90 1

CHAPTER I

The schoolroom the unit in planning a school building — In this book we shall first enter upon a consideration of the schoolroom from the point of view of hygienic requirements, in order to direct attention more strongly to its fundamental requisites. We hold that the schoolroom should be the unit first to be considered in planning a school building, and that the building should be a number of schoolrooms, properly disposed, and not a whole cut up into schoolrooms, whose size and arrangement are dependent upon the size and shape of the building. If the hygienic requirements of a schoolroom are first clearly and fully understood, and then firmly held in mind, the building is much more likely to be considered as the grouping of the number of schoolrooms required, with halls and other auxiliaries, and is, therefore, much more likely to be so planned as to give each unit, or schoolroom, what the laws of health demand for the pupils who are to occupy it.

B I

The general form of the schoolroom should be that of an oblong, with the aisles between the desks running the long way of the room. One advantage of this shape is the better lighting of the schoolroom which it affords. Another advantage is that the pupils are able to see more clearly and with less effort, whatever apparatus the teacher finds it necessary to present, be it chart, globe, map, physical apparatus, or exercises written on the blackboard behind the teacher's desk. Under such conditions, these objects receive the least possible foreshortening to pupils who happen to be sitting on the teacher's extreme right or left.

The size of the schoolroom is dependent upon several factors. Certain conclusions with reference to its size have at last been reached, and these conclusions have been so thoroughly tested and sanctioned by the most careful school men as to warrant their being regarded as standards. These standards are the results of investigations and repeated experiments, in which- lighting, heating, ventilating, the needs of the child as to eye, and ear and other physical requirements, have been considered. They are the outcome of the special knowledge and recommendations of physicians, architects, and engineers, and of the practical judgment of school men, after repeated test and modification.

These standards demand, in the first place, 15 sq. ft. of floor space and 200 cu. ft. of air space for each pupil, as the least amount of floor space and air space permissible for a schoolroom, when all the needs of health are fairly considered. In the second place, they demand that the size of the schoolroom should be 30 ft. in length, 25 ft. in width, and 13 ft. in height, to accommodate not more than 48 pupils.

It will be seen that with a schoolroom 30 ft. long, 2$ ft. wide, and 13 ft. high, for 48 pupils, each pupil will have a little more than 15 sq. ft. of floor space, and a Httle more than 200 cu. ft. of air space. If such a room can be Umited to 40 pupils, there would be i8| sq. ft. of floor space and 243I cu. ft. of air space to each pupil. Such conditions are in this case preferable to 15 sq. ft. of floor space and 200 cu. ft. of air space. But an increase of square feet of floor space per pupil which would increase the dimensions of the room in length and breadth is not permissible ; for the distance light will carry, admitted at the side of the room, or at the side and back of the room, the distance pupils can see without strain upon the eye, and the distance the words of the average teacher are clearly audible, are determining factors as to the length and width of the schoolroom.

One writer on school hygiene gives 32 x 24 ft. as the length and width of a schoolroom. With a proper amount of glass surface to admit sufficient hght, the room may safely be made one foot wider than this, that is, 25 ft. wide, when the ceiling is 13 ft. in height. But if the room is 32 ft. in length, and Hghted from the side and the rear, the desks of some pupils, in order to receive the greatest amount of Hght, must be placed too far away from the front blackboard r

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straining the eyes.

Schoolrooms

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Fig. I.

mary grades, on the ground that primary desks and chairs occupy less space than chairs and desks for higher grades. It will be seen that making the room smaller reduces the number of cubic feet of air space to each pupil. In Fig. i is shown a schoolroom 25 x 30 ft, seated to accommodate 48 primary pupils. By comparing Fig. i with Fig. 2, a room seated for 48 grammar pupils, the gain in space not required by primary seats and desks will be seen. This additional space is especially needed in primary schoolrooms, to give opportunity to conduct different exercises and activities at the same time, a practice which has now become, through division of children into groups, an important one in primary teaching.

Besides, more floor space is needed in n n r n n

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Fig. 2.

a p r 1 mary room, in order

that the teacher may provide for the greater motor necessities of primary pupils. Primary pupils should not spend more than one-third of the time at school in their seats. Exercises of various kinds that call into play muscular activity are most imperative at this age, not only for mental growth, but also for physical growth, as well as for relief from the fatigue which sitting at desks occasions in children.

Let those who recommend the smaller schoolroom for primary pupils consider the change which a child experiences when he begins school life. He enters an environment radically different from the life of varied activity and freedom from confinement which was his before school days began. Let it be also remembered that so severely does the new environment tax the child that he usually falls off in weight, his nervous system becomes affected, and certain physical functions become more or less disordered.

More air space and floor space are imperative in primary grades, because activity for the child is vital. The lack of floor space to give the child the physical activity his rapidly developing organism requires, the lack of floor space to afford him relief from the fatigue which even the most approved school desk causes, may be set down as a condition which fosters habits of defective posture that end in permanent distortion of the body. Faulty habits of sitting result from fatigue and inactivity even with hygienic desks. An abundance of space, therefore, for physical activity, making this a contributing part or an accompaniment of the mental exercises, would save many a child from falling into postures that at last become permanent and, in later years, so pronounced that all attempts to correct them prove futile.

Instead, then, of decreasing the size of primary rooms, we would keep them the size of the standard schoolroom, 25 x 30 ft., and absolutely limit the number of pupils to 40.

A primary schoolroom, therefore, of 25 x 30 ft, for even 40 pupils, is none too large, if the teacher is to be given opportunity to provide for the healthy development of the child in its mental and"^ physical nature.

In Fig. 3 is shown the plan of a primary room seated for 40 pupils.

When it is remembered that a part of the space unoccupied by the desks and n n n □ □

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Fig. 3.

desk chairs must be given up to teacher's desk, to sand table, and to number table which also serves for certain kinds of manual work, it will be seen that there is no more space than is necessary to meet the hygienic demands of the pupils for physical activity. If it is desired to furnish more than 15 sq. ft.

of floor space to each pupil, it can be done, provided a sufficient amount of light is admitted. A higher ceiling, with the windows reaching up to it, will give more Hght, but the higher ceiling necessitates the climbing of longer stairways by pupils going to all floors above the first. There are, also, other objections to high ceilings which will be pointed out in the next chapter.

It may be said, however, that with i8 sq. ft. of floor space to each pupil, all class-room exercises are made easier for teacher and pupil.

Lighting of the schoolroom — The schoolroom cannot be too well Hghted. Writers upon school hygiene uniformly agree that the amount of transparent glass surface admitting Hght should be from one-fourth to one-sixth of the floor space of the room. The amount of glass surface, therefore, in the windows of a standard schoolroom, 30 x 25 ft., would be 187.5 or 125 sq. ft., as we adopt the larger or the smaller ratio. In building schoolhouses the lower ratio is too frequently adopted. There is perhaps no other matter in school equipment so deceptive as the adequate Hghting of the schoolroom. It is a very simple matter to measure exactly the ventilation of a schoolroom, or the humidity of the air at any given time. But the measurement of the degree of illumination is much more complicated and difficult. Empirical or practical judgment is of little account as to whether a room is sufficiently lighted. A room may seem well lighted, and may be pronounced well lighted, when only the general illumination of the room is considered. When, however, tests are instituted, it will Hkely be found that there are desks where the lowest illumination is below the permissible minimum. On clear days, when there is an abundance of sunlight, a room with the lowest ratio of transparent glass surface conceded by writers on lighting will be strongly lighted, provided, of course, the sky as seen from the pupils' desks is not partially obstructed by buildings or trees.

But the amount of transparent glass surface required for proper illumination must not be determined by the illumination such area will give on clear and bright days. The amount of transparent glass surface must be great enough to afford sufficient illumination on rainy, overcast, and otherwise dark days. During the first week in November the illumination on a desk 5 ft. from a large window was measured early in the afternoon, with the sun shining. The window had a clear sky exposure. The illumination of the same desk was measured ten minutes later, but when the sun was obscured by heavy passing clouds. The illumination with the sun obscured was, according to the measurement, one-third of the illumination when the sun wa,s shining. It should be stated that the window faced a west-northwest direction, and that at the time of the measurement the sun had not reached a position to shine into the room.

During the part of the year from the middle of October to the first of March, the sun is running low in the heavens, and the illumination it affords is not so great as during the part of the year when the sun is higher in the heavens. If, further, we take the time from the first of November to the middle of April, there is a large proportion of rainy a.nd dark days. The amount of glass surface must, therefore, be great enough to admit sufficient light on cloudy days, and also on the dark days of the part of the year just mentioned.

The point to be emphasized is that in determining the amount of transparent glass surface necessary for the lighting of a schoolroom, provision for sufficient illumination on dull days is likely to be overlooked. Could all school days be clear days, with bright sunshine, a standard schoolroom with clear sky exposure would be well lighted in every part if the transparent glass surface was one-eighth of the area of floor space.

The amount of illumination for the desk in the most unfavorable part of the room should not be less than fifty candle metres. This is greater than the amount required by Cohn, which it seems to the writer is too low. Cohn's requirement is based on measurements with Weber's photometer, and the various reductions of Hght made necessary by the method which this instrument necessitates, lead to underestimation.

By a candle metre is meant the illumination

THE SCHOOLROOM II

afforded by a standard candle at one metre's distance. If the illumination falls below fifty candle metres, the pupil's eyes are subjected to an undue strain in ordinary work at his desk.

For rooms, then, having a southern exposure and clear sky line, the amount of transparent glass surface should be one-fourth of the amount of floor space, in order to insure a sufficient illumination on dull days. It is always an easy matter to exclude light by means of shades, if in bright weather so much enters as to produce a dazzling effect. For rooms having a northern exposure, th® amount of glass surface should be somewhat greater than one-fourth of the floor space.

Rooms with windows having obstructed sky line — If the expanse of sky is partially obstructed by buildings or trees, provision must be made to counteract this. Tests on the diffusion of light through windows set with prismatic, maze, and factory ribbed glass, made at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September, 1900, by Charles L. Norton at the suggestion of Edward Atkinson, have an important bearing on the Hghting of schoolrooms. The conclusions reached are of especial value, and the application of the knowledge resulting from these experiments will solve the problem of increasing the illumination of schoolrooms, where the expanse of sky is largely cut off by the proximity of buildings.

In Fig. 4 an enlarged section of the factory ribbed glass which gave the best results is shown. The factory ribbed glass, plane on one side, and having twenty-one ribs to the inch in true curves, concave and convex, proved to be the most effective. It is made in large sheets for glazing, and costs about the same as good double thick glass. For schoolrooms 20 to 30 ft. in width or length, as the direction may run from the windows, and with a sky angle of sixty degrees or less, the effective lighting can be increased on bright days fifty per cent, and on dark days more than fifty per cent if the upper sash is glazed ^^" ^' with factory ribbed glass. If in addition to this the upper half of the lower sash is glazed with the ribbed glass, the increase in the illumination of the room will be much greater. The glass should be set with the ribs running horizontally, and if the sun's rays fall upon it, it should be protected by a thin white shade.

Sometimes glazing with factory ribbed glass will give more effective lighting if it is set with the ribs running vertically ; as for instance, when there is a narrow vertical opening exposing a low sky line between buildings opposite the schoolroom windows, and which otherwise obstruct the expanse of sky.

The illumination of schoolrooms may also be very greatly increased by employing sashes or canopies made up of Luxfer prisms, especially when the windows open upon narrow streets, courts, or alleys. These prisms gather direct light from the expanse of sky above the tops of buildings, and reflect and diffuse it with imperceptible loss into the schoolroom.

The Luxfer prism is simply a thick small pane of glass with raised prisms on one side, a photograph of which is shown in Fig. 5 (facing p. loi). The panes of glass are each four inches square, and the angles of the raised prisms vary in different panes, so as to gather hght from any expanse of sky from fortyfive degrees of exposure to the zenith, and also to refract the light gathered to any part of the room desired. The great value of these prisms lies in the fact that they may be so placed as to take the strong light from the clear expanse of sky, and by refraction and reflection throw it back into the parts of the room where hght is needed.

When the angle from the zenith to the limit of sky expanse as seen from the window is known, and also the direction in which the Hght must be distributed in the room, proper prism panes are selected, copper strips are placed between them, and then the panes are firmly glazed by means of electricity into one large pane. This is inserted in the sash if the angle of the sky exposure will permit, or it is placed outside the window at an angle as a canopy if the angle of sky exposure is small. Light is thereby equally distributed to all parts of the room.

Much relief for the eyes of children would be afforded by providing factory ribbed glass or Luxfer frames or canopies for the windows of all schoolrooms insufficiently Hghted. And it may be remarked that the number of such schoolrooms in our cities is exceedingly large.

Mr. Edward Atkinson, in a statement prefacing the investigations referred to above, points out that the upper sash of schoolroom windows might be glazed with prisms to deflect the light to the white ceiling, from which it would be reflected to the desks. Cloth shades would then not be needed, even on the sunny side of the building, and the danger of any bright lines of Hght injurious to the eyes of. pupils being thrown on the desk would be obviated.

Direction from which light may enter — Having considered the amount of light necessary for a schoolroom, we pass to a consideration of the direction from which the Hght should enter, and also the disposition of the windows of a schoolroom.

There are two directions from which all authorities are agreed the light should not enter. First, from the front of the room, as the light comes directly into the eyes of the pupils ; secondly, from the right, as this causes the pupil in all exercises with pen or pencil to look at his writing or ciphering in the shadow cast by his hand. Shadows and half shadows are always to be avoided. Persons whose sight is beginning to be impaired are first made aware of it by their inability to see to read in half shadows.

There is a unanimity of opinion that light may enter from the left. Under these conditions the pupil in writing and drawing sees his work clearly, there being no half shadow of the hand to obscure it.

There is, however, a difference of opinion as to whether light should be admitted from the rear of the room. The main points in lighting are that there shall be an abundance of light and that it shall be so distributed and diffused as to avoid half shadows, as partial shadows are very injurious to eyesight.

Some authorities recommend that windows be placed in the rear of the schoolroom. Windows admitting light from the rear of the room can be so arranged that the light coming from them will be well distributed and well diffused. Such windows, however, must not admit so much or so strong light as to overpower that coming from the left, otherwise the pupil would be working in a partial shadow. Windows in the rear of the room also often afford a means of lighting a room with diffused light, when the shades on the left side of the room are drawn to shut out the direct rays of the sun.

There is, however, one objection to placing windows in the rear of the room. The teacher's eyes are likely to be weakened and injured by facing the light from windows so placed. There is rehable testimony to warrant the statement that the eyes of at least seventyfive per cent of teachers would be injured by facing such light. It may be added that in France windows in the wall opposite the teacher's desk are expressly forbidden.

On the other hand, it has been said that the teacher may change her place frequently, or, if provided with a swivel chair, may change her position with relation to the light.

There are some conditions under which windows may be placed on the right side in order that a schoolroom shall be sufficiently lighted. This statement may at first appear to be in contradiction of the requirement already set forth, that light should come from the left. Although light should never fall on the pupil's desk directly from the right, yet windows may be placed, if absolutely necessary to secure sufficient light, on the right side of the room, provided great care is exercised as to their size and position. In case, then, a schoolroom is insufficiently lighted and more light cannot be admitted from the left or rear, the windows placed on the right should have their sills 8 ft. above the floor, and the amount of light admitted by such windows should in no instance be strong enough to overpower the light admitted from the left. Otherwise the stronger light from the right would cast a partial

THE SCHOOLROOM ,^\y

shadow of the pupil's hand on the paper, and in writing, drawing, or ciphering, this partial shadow would shade the part of the paper to which he is directing his vision. The accommodation of the eye, therefore, would be constantly taxed to adjust itself to the different degrees of illumination on the paper, and the eye would suffer injury.

The suggestion made by Javal, and seconded by Cohn, that the schoolroom be lighted from above, is to be approved theoretically, but when the suggestion is considered with reference to its practical aspects, it is not feasible in the building of school houses.

Spaces between windows — As has already been stated, bands of light in alternation with shadows are injurious to the eye. It is plain, then, that the windows should be set with the least possible space between them; for if set with a large distance between them, the light is admitted in bands, and there are deep shadows between these bands. Such alternate zones of light and shadow are injurious to the eye. The piers between windows should be as narrow as possible. Cohn recommended that the piers between the windows, instead of being rectangular, should be bevelled. Mr. Warren R. Briggs has used, in school buildings constructed by him, a cast-iron mullion between windows. By this means he has avoided ordinary piers of brickwork i8 in. wide, and has reduced the distance between windows to but little more than that required for the window frames and weight boxes.

Height of windows — The windows should extend as near the ceiling as possible, leaving no wall space between the trim of the window and the ceiling ; that is, the glass should reach to within 6 in. of the ceiling. The higher the window extends, the better is the illumination, as the Hght coming in at the top of the window is reflected from the ceiling, and" is therefore better diffused, while a considerable amount of the light coming in at the bottom of the window is absorbed by the floor, desks, and wainscoting. Actual measurements show that the upper fourth of the window furnishes one-third of the Hght coming through the whole window. In a well- lighted school building recently erected at Zurich, the glass surface, by a peculiar device in construction, extends up to the ceiling.

It will be obvious, therefore, that windows arched at the top decrease the admission of light at its most valuable point, and are not to be sanctioned for a schoolroom, unless the ceiHng is so high that the lower points of the arch are at least 13 ft. above the floor, the windows wide, and the requisite amount of transparent glass surface is provided.

Nor should the windows have a transom at the top. The bar separating the transom from the remaining

THE SCHOOLROOM I9

part of the window excludes light, and also produces a half shadow. The transom, moreover, is Hkely to be covered with a fixed shade, and thus light is excluded at the most valuable part of the window opening.

The sills of the window should be of such a height from the floor that the Hght entering the lowest part of the window will not produce reflections from the tops of the desks, or be on a level with the eyes of pupils when they are seated at their desks. If the window sills are 4 ft. from the floor, both these injurious effects of lighting will be clearly avoided. Window sills, however, may be safely made 3J ft. above the floor. Robson, an Enghsh authority, gives 5 ft. as the height of window sills from the floor. If window sills are 5 ft. from the floor, the amount of glass surface is considerably decreased, provided the height of ceiHng is kept at 13 ft. With windows having a width of 40 in. of glass, there is a loss of 5 sq. ft. of light opening to each window. If there are six windows on the side of the room, there is a loss of 30 sq. ft. of opening — or 6|- sq. ft. more than the opening afforded by a window under the assumed conditions; namely, 7 x 3J ft. With sills 5 ft. from the floor, therefore, rooms which must be Hghted from the left side only would fall considerably below the amount of transparent glass surface necessary to light them properly. But with the sills 3j ft. from the floor, the window may be 9 ft. in length. Making the width of glass 42 in., the window would afford 31.5 sq. ft. of glass surface. With six windows on a side, there would be 189 sq. ft. of glass surface, or rather more than one-fourth the area of floor space.