Healthful schools; how to build, equip, and maintain them

Front matter

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CHAPTER I. Choosing the Schoolhouse Site . . . 1

Locating a building — Accessibility — The school census and building plans — Relation to public highways — Removal from disturbing influences — Size of plot — Lighting — High ground — ■ Soil — Improving sites of old buildings — Summary.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER II. The School Building 13

The architect — The plan — Apportionment of space — Unit plans — Height of building — Orientation — Foundations — • Basements — Roofs — Floors and floor coverings — Walls — Doors.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER ni. Rooms in the School Building . . 31

Classroom dunensions — High ceilings — Wardrobes — Special classrooms — Kindergarten — Open-air classrooms — Auditoriums — • The gymnasium — ■ Libraries — Lunchrooms — Dispensary — Office — Teachers' room — The janitor's room — Storerooms.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER IV. Classroom Equipment 51

Platform — Blackboards — Placing and heights — Dust and erasers — Desks and chairs; rules for placing — Adjustment

— Inspection — Should be single — Feet and floor — Rounded corners — Shape of seat — Tilting of seat — Support for back

— The "minus distance" — Desk height — Desk-top slant — Movable top — Pedestal chairs — Movable furniture — Workroom furniture.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER V. Lighting 66

1. Natural lighting — Unilateral — Breeze windows — Orientation — ■ Glass area — Placing — Square tops — Height from floor — Frames and supports — Circulating window space — Prism glass — Overhead lighting — Window shades — Color schemes — Lighting in old buildings.

viii CONTENTS

2. Artificial lighting — Recent use of light at night — Direct glare — Indirect glare — Flickering — ■ Intensity — Shadows — Contrasts — Kerosene — Acetylene gas — Installing an acetylene plant — Direct lighting — Indirect lighting — Semi-indirect lighting.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER VI. Water Supply 88

Springs and wells — Carrying water by hand — • The school well — Water pressure — The individual cup — Bubbling fountains — Home-made fountains — Cooler attachments — ■ Height of fountains — The habit of cleanliness — Lavatories — Hot water — ■ Soap — Towels — Baths as punishment — Group showers — Dressing-rooms — Rural bathing — Tubs and pools — Construction of pools — Keeping the water pure — Rules and regulations for pools.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER VII. Toilets 105

Typical toilet-rooms — Location and lighting — Walls, ceilings, and floors — Equipment per number of pupils — ■ Location of equipment — Urinals — Latrines — Individual flush — Automatic flush and nerve strain — Partitions — 'Doors — 'Seats — Lavatories near toilets — Ventilation — Extra toilet-rooms — Toilet-rooms in high schools — The rural-school problem — Hookworm disease — Rural sanitary surveys — ' Rural -school toilets — 'The septic tank — Location of rural toilets — The L.S.R. privy — Dry privies — Outhouses.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER VIII. Heating and Ventilation . . .125

The lesson of contagious disease — Survey findings — Early theories concerning ventilation — Some recent experiments — The Springfield Y.M.C A. experiment — Work of the New York State Ventilating Commission — ' Five principles of ventilation — The ventilating engineer — Legislation — Stoves — Furnaces — Hot-water heating — Steam heating — Heating and ventilating schemes — ■ Flues; use of windows — Fans — Air cleaning — Air-moisteners — ' Thermometers — Thermograph — Thermostats — Humidostats — Re- circulation — What shall schoolmen do?

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER IX. Protecting Schoolhouses from Fire . 160

Fire protection unpopular — Fire-retarding — Attics — Corridors — Assembly rooms — Doors — Stairs — Width and hand-

CONTENTS ix

rails — Landings — Exits — Railroad doors — Fire escapes — The inclined-plane fire escape — Essentials of a fire escape — Basement — Cupboards — ■ Manual training and domestic science — Pipes and wires — Sprinklers — • Fire extinguishers — • Signals — Fire drills — Fire protection pays.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER X. Keeping THE Schoolhouse Clean . . 181

The janitor — How diseases are transmitted — Prevention of contagious diseases — Cleaning of schoolroom floors — Sweeping and dusting — Scrubbing and care of floors — Use of oil and tar — ■ Cleaning walls and blackboards — Keeping toilets clean — Other parts of the building — Cleaning the windows — Vacuum cleaners — ■ Types of vacuum cleaners — Tools for vacuum cleaning — • Suggestions for improving service — Daily cleaning schedule — Conferences and study courses for janitor — The janitor as a teacher.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER XI. Medical Inspection 208

Medical inspection and compulsory education — Origin of medical inspection — Present scope of medical inspection — Arguments against medical inspection — ■ Administration of a department of school hygiene — Physicians — Nurses — Inspection — Records — Clinics — ■ Follow-up work — Staff attitude — Textbooks on school hygiene.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER XII. Physical Training and Recreation . 227

Recreation surveys — Commercial amusements — Space for play — Part of hygiene teaching — Cooperation of medical inspectors — Posture work — Physiological age — Classroom exercises — Recess —7 Teachers and games — Activities outside school hours — Athletics — The athletic-badge test — Group athletics — Public School Athletic League — Educational sports

— Wider use of school plant — Survey suggestions — Springfield

— Ipswich — Cleveland.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER XIII. Exceptional Children .... 257

Two groups — Different educational treatment — The socially competent — The socially incompetent — • Assignment to classes

— Open-air schools and fresh-air classes — The three essentials

— Montclair's experiment.

\ Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

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CHAPTER XIV. School Feeding 268

The argument for school feeding — The Philadelphia experiment — What school lunches are — Theory of school feeding — ■ The concessionnaire — The supervisor — Saleswomen — Pupil workers — Centralization of the school lunch — Hygienic requirements — Records and forms — Costs — Equipment — Supervision — Preparation and service — The Philadelphia Report.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

INDEX 285

ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1. The Mount Morris High School, in New York

City Frontispiece

Fig. 2. Three Generations of School Buildings, Saj^

Francisco, California 10

Fig. 3. Three Generations of a School Building, East

Orange, New Jersey 11

Fig. 4. The New Empire School at Cleveland ... 14

Fig. 5. First-Floor Plan for the Empire School, Cleveland 15

Fig. 6. Typical Manual-Training Department Rooms . 41

Fig. 7. Typical Household-Economy Rooms . . . .42

Fig. 8. The Evolution of the Schoolroom Seat . . 56

Fig. 9. A Movable Schoolroom Chair 57

Fig. 10. Types of Adjustable Seats and Desks ... 60

Fig. 11. Adjustable Seats properly Adjusted . . .61

Fig. 12. Remodeling a School Building to improve the

Lighting 68

Fig. 13. Overhead Lighting in an Elementary-School

Assembly Hall at Holly, Michigan ... 69

Fig. 14. Indirect Artificial Lighting 84 xii ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 15. Semi-Indirect Artificial Lighting .... 85

Fig. 16. A School Swimming-Pool 108

Fig. 17. Toilets 109

Fig. 18. Fire Dangers which need Attention . . . 164 (a) A Dangerous Basement (6) A Fire Trap of a Stairway

Fig. 19. An Incline as a Substitute for a Stairway . . 165

Fig. 20. Medical Inspection 210

Fig. 21. A Dental Clinic in Rochester, New York . .211

Fig. 22. Physical Training — Girls 234

Fig. 23. Physical Training — Boys 235

Fig. 24. An Open-Air Class in Chicago in Winter . . 262

Fig. 25. An Open-Air School at San Diego, California . 263

Chapter I

Locating a building. In the small town or rural community the location of the new school building is not infrequently a burning issue. Superintendents have lost their places and school boards have failed of reelection because of the unpopularity of their decisions. Occasionally this is a desirable result; but far too often the pressure brought to bear upon educational authorities has been due to the interests of local factions, rather than to an appreciation of the needs of school children. Sometimes trouble arises over the distribution of population. Parents on one side of town are unwilling that their children should be obliged to walk a quarter of a mile farther than those at the other side of the district; and a plot of land is chosen as nearly as possible at equal distances from both, and fought for bitterly. Sometimes the school is desired as a show building, and leading citizens demand its location on the main street near the railroad station, police headquarters, and the fire-engine house; or a plot of land near the marshes on the lower part of town can be used for nothing else, and is urged upon the school board because it is for sale cheap.

It is thoroughly desirable that the people of the community should feel this active interest in the erection of their new school building, and it is but natural that they should wish to have a part in the final decision. Yet local people must remember, and school men must forcefully remind them, when necessary, that the schoolhouse is intended primarily for children; and the location chosen must be, not that which most pleases fathers and mothers, but that which will provide most fully the educational opportunities their children need.

Accessibility. The location chosen should be within reach of all the children; but this does not necessarily mean at the center of the district. No child should have to walk more than a mile and a half to school; and where the building is at a greater distance some means of transportation should be provided at public expense. Where city schools are placed several miles away in the country, as has frequently been suggested, for example, in New York, transportation facilities should be under careful supervision, with special cars and through service, so that parents may feel no anxiety concerning the children's safety. Parents are inclined to object strongly to any arrangement which takes their children more than a few blocks away from home. Attempts to do so must be tactfully and gradually introduced.

In some of the more sparsely settled States, school buildings have been erected on plain or mountain-side without reference to any public highway. Naturally teacher and pupils could only reach the spot with difficulty, and it is now not uncommon to find legal provision made against such isolation.

The school census and building plans. It is important in choosing new sites for school buildings to keep in mind the chances of a growing and shifting population. In the Cleveland Education Survey Report on Buildings and Equipment we find : —

The change in location of the Otis Steel Company's plant to the southwestern part of the city has resulted in a sudden overflow of pupils in the Tremont School. Hundreds of families are moviog

CHOOSING THE SCHOOL SITE S

into the vicinity of the new works, and demanding school accommodation for their children. Temporary quarters have been arranged in basement or "ground-floor" rooms and portables; but now the Board is facing the necessity of erecting an annex to Tremont and will probably soon need to build a new building in the near vicinity. The Harmon School, which has until now been seriously overcrowded, is just on the boundary line of what will shortly be an immense freight yard. Over one thousand families have been forced to leave their homes in order to make room for the new tracks. Their children are no longer in the Harmon District; but where they are going no one yet knows. They may scatter over the city or migrate in a body. The Board is anxiously concerned as to their destination; for it may seriously affect the school-building policy.

Besides such sudden changes from one part of the city to another, there is the more steady growth and shifting which takes place year by year, and which must be taken into account in mapping out the school-building policy. The school census, which is required by law in many places, and which is a regular feature of school administration in most progressive communities, furnishes excellent means for judging changes and trends in population. The Cleveland Report continues : — ■

By comparing results from year to year future growth can be predicted and new buildings planned accordingly, while smaller unexpected shifts can be handled through emergency measures during the summer vacation immediately following the census returns. The school census should be one basis for shaping the future building policy of the Board.

Relation to public highways. The schoolhouse should be near the public highway, but not too near. A hundred years ago it was the common thing for buildings to be erected on the road itself, not infrequently placed in the center of the crossroads, so that vehicles passed on all four sides, and the highway served as the only playground. To-day we try to secure sites large enough so that the building may be placed at some distance back from the street, or, when this is not possible, we plan to have all classrooms face away from the street and thus escape part of the noise and dust of travel. It is rarely wise to place a school building directly on the main thoroughfare, because such a location is apt to bring with it, either at the time of building or in the near future, the noise of cars and other vehicles, shouts of newsboys and peddlers, clanging of police, ambulance, and fire-engine gongs, and other disturbances which render teaching and learning difficult. Moreover, property values on such a street are apt to be so high that the schools feel extra grounds an extravagance, and little space is secured for playgrounds, athletic fields, or gardens. Tall buildings crowd in on every side, and there is difficulty in securing proper lighting. Instead of following the rule that "Each child at his seat must see the sky," we often furnish the pupil with an uninspiring view of brick walls and iron fire escapes.

In cities and towns the school building should be placed on a quiet side street, away from dangerous crossings and car tracks. Where it is necessary for all or most of the pupils to cross the car tracks, it is probably wise to place the school near enough to the crossing so that the teachers may exercise supervision. In the larger cities such supervision is taken in charge by the police force; but in many of the smaller places crossings are unprotected and furnish a real danger. A zone of quiet should be established around every school building.

Removed from disturbing influences. In both urban and rural districts care should be taken to select a school site which is at a distance from annoying or improper influences. Many States have by legislative act established zones around each schoolhouse within which certain activities are prohibited. For example, in Iowa no bills, posters, or other matter advertising liquor or tobacco may be distributed, posted, or circulated within four hundred feet of premises used for school purposes. Many States provide similar zones in which liquor cannot be sold. A regulation of the Delaware State Board of Health forbids the placing of any stable, pigpen, or other building liable to become a nuisance within two hundred feet of any schoolhouse, or within one hundred feet of the school yard. The Indiana law says there must be no steam railroads, livery stables, barns used for breeding purposes, noisy industries, or unhealthful conditions within five hundred feet of schools, and the State Board of Health has defined these "unhealthful conditions" by demanding that a zone of five hundred feet radius about the school site be free from swampy ground, body of stagnant water, cemetery, slaughterhouse, fertilizer-reduction plant, or any business or manufacturing establishment which engenders noxious odors or vapors or that pollutes the surrounding atmosphere by smoke or dust.

Size of plot. The site must not only be well located with reference to accessibility, freedom from noise, odors, and the like, but it must also be large enough to make possible newer methods in education. In the old days, when all learning was book learning, and pupils were expected to sit still during the entire school period, there was comparatively little need for large school grounds. Even to-day, if the teacher is willing to confine his activities to this narrow and less fatiguing conception of education, he need concern himself little with playgrounds and gardens. But public opinion is gradually changing, and the thoroughly up-todate community is scarcely willing to submit its children to the outworn methods of a hundred years ago. Modern schooling takes place outdoors as well as in; and large grounds are necessary if children are to be properly cared for.

That this is a new conception in education may be gathered from reading the various State laws, many of which must inevitably be changed in the near future. For example, William A. Cook, of the University of Colorado, in his study of laws and regulations governing the hygiene and sanitation of schoolhouses, published by the United States Bureau of Education in 1915, gives as the absolute maxima for the size of school sites in certain States, "Delaware, one half acre; Kentucky and New Hampshire, one acre; Kansas, one and a half acres; Massachusetts and South Dakota, two acres (although in South Dakota schools giving courses in agriculture may purchase ten acres for site and demonstration purposes); Maine, three acres; Maryland and North Dakota, five acres."

While the actual number of square feet in each school site must of necessity vary, the grounds selected should be large enough to allow for the erection of low buildings — not more than two stories high — with an auditorium and other special rooms. In addition there should be plenty of playground space. The common recommendation of fifty square feet per child allows him only about two and a half times as much space as he is allotted in the average fortypupil classroom. Such an arrangement is well fitted to quiet games of marbles, mumble-peg, or jackstones; but if children are to join in active sports with running and jumping they must be provided with at least two hundred square feet of playground space for every pupil enrolled.

In addition to the regular playground space there should be some provision for special games, such as handball, volley-ball, tennis, or basket-ball. Each country school should be provided with a good baseball field, and all of the larger schools should have running-tracks. Where land is cheap, space for an outdoor theater is a good investment. The school grounds should also include ample space for individual or group gardening. The rural school should never occupy less than three acres of land; the city school should be provided with from three to ten acres, depending upon the number of children cared for. It is unfortunate that many of our city schools are located where land is so expensive that little more than enough ground to support the building can be purchased.

Lighting. The school board must look, then, for a plot of ground of several acres, easily accessible, and protected from noise and nuisances. In addition, the location must be such that plenty of sunlight is available throughout the year. In mountainous districts the horizon line is often high, so that schools built in the valley or on the side hill are during a large part of the day in shadow. Sometimes suggested sites are too close to thick groves of trees, or in city districts tall buildings cut off much of the light. There are various rules for deciding upon the location of buildings with respect to light. One is that every child should be able, sitting at his seat, to see the sky. Another is that no tree or building should be nearer to the school windows than twice its own height. Where obstructions occur on one side of the location only, the difficulty may frequently be met by placing the windows of the classrooms on the opposite side of the building.

High ground. In rural districts it is frequently necessary to provide protection against strong winds and storms. The State Board of Health of Vermont refuses to approve a site for a rural school unless it is so protected. The common practice of locating the school building at the summit of the highest hill in town is strongly to be condemned on this and several other counts. Not only is a building so situated exposed to all the rigors of the climate (which frequently render heating problems serious), but the location demands unnecessary exertion on the part of teachers and pupils in reaching the school, and effectually prevents many parents from ever visiting it. Moreover, such a site is poorly adapted to playground use, because there are very few games which can be played on a slanting surface; and school gardens so located are apt to be of poor soil, and easily washed away by violent rains. It is well to build the schoolhouse on land higher than that around it, but this should not mean at the top of a hill.

Soil. One of the most important points to be considered in the selection of a site for the new school building is the character of the soil. Swampy land, clay, or made ground are all to be avoided, because of the danger of ground air and ground damp. Probably a sandy loam is the most desirable soil for building purposes. For many feet below the surface the earth is honeycombed with little crannies and interstices, each filled with air which flows from one to the next. During a long summer's day the earth, together with the earth-bound air, becomes warmed. At the end of the day, when the sun goes down, the upper air becomes chilled and heavy; it sinks down into the ground and forces out the lighter warmed air which has been hidden below the surface. This ground air, as it is commonly called, is heavily laden with impurities. Bits of vegetable and animal matter, as they decompose, give off gases which are carried to the outer air. Ground air is heavily charged with moisture. It is rich in carbon dioxide, and frequently contains marsh gas, hydrogen sulphide, and ammonia.

When at night the chilled air presses down upon the earth's surface, the ground air seeks the easiest means of escape. The soil directly beneath the building is apt to be dry and warm, and since the pressure of air in the cellar is slight, the natural result is that the ground air rushes up from the earth through the cellar, as though drawn through a huge chimney. In sandy soils it is easy for the air to escape directly to the surface, and a gradual shifting takes place all day long, but where the surface is hard-baked clay or frozen ground, the danger of ground air escaping by way of the cellar is very great. The sweating so commonly noticed on cellar walls and the musty cellar odor are sure signs of the presence of ground air. When ground water rises too near the surface and is not quickly evaporated by the sun's rays, — where, that is, the soil is impervious and forms a thick crust through which air and water move but slowly, — the under soil is kept damp and decomposition of organic matter is greatly accelerated. As a result, escaping ground air is heavily laden with impurities. In choosing a school site, therefore, we must avoid low, marshy land where there is likely to be a constant supply of moisture below the surface, or clay soil which forms a hard crust and prevents thorough ventilation of the earth.

We must also — and this is especially true in the case of town and city schools — avoid erecting buildings on made ground, because, where lots have been jBlled in by using them as dumping grounds, there is usually an excess of organic and corrupting materials. Where possible, if such a site must be used, the contaminating material should be scraped up and carted away. To cover up such refuse by sandy loam is of little value. In certain regions, such as the Fenway of Boston, for example, where the salt marshes of twenty years ago have been converted into solid ground and are now being utilized as sites for a remarkable gathering of educational institutions, such a carting away is entirely out of the question; and the only remedy is to abandon the site or else protect the buildings so far as may be by the most carefully built drains and foundations.

In rural schools it is especially important, in addition to the foregoing considerations, to select a location where the surrounding land may be successfully cultivated. The teacher who seeks to conduct classes in agriculture cannot hope to gain the cooperation of near-by farmers unless the school gardens are worth working over.

Improving sites of old buildings. Old schools badly located may often be improved by a few simple measures. Bleak, windy hilltops may sometimes be rendered more comfortable by building a surrounding wall, or planting sturdy evergreen trees so as to form a windbreak.

Busses may be hired to carry children to and from school to outlying homes.

In cities, zones of quiet may be established through cooperation with the police department, and sometimes a cobbled street may be repaved with asphalt or creosote blocks.

Where the school grounds are inadequate, adjacent plots may sometimes be bought or hired; and school gardens have been successfully operated at some distance from the building. Not infrequently a vacant lot will be temporarily donated for school purposes.

The lighting problem is less easily handled. Where obstructions are on one side only, it is sometimes possible to increase the number of windows on the opposite side, and one-story schools are frequently provided with skylights. Prism glass is frequently recommended. Artificial lighting during regular school hours is not desirable, and where the natural illumination remains insufficient the building should be abandoned for school purposes.

Where an old school shows the effects of ground damp and ground air, it is sometimes possible to carry away the ground water by means of drains outside the building and thus somewhat retard the process of organic decomposition. Occasionally the outer part of the foundation walls may be rendered impervious to water by coating with hot tar below the earth line. Swamps may sometimes be drained, and stagnant pools given an outlet without exorbitant expense.

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Fig. 2. Three Generations of School Buildings San Francisco, California

(o) The first schoolhouse in the city. Erected on the plaza in 1847 (6) Type of grammar-school buildings of the seventies. Wood; capacity, one thousand pupils; cost, $30,000

(c) The Sarah B. Cooper School. Built in 1914-15, at a cost of $103,112

Fig. 3. Three Generations of a School Building

East Orange, New Jersey (a) First Franklin School, 20x34 feet. Built in 1825; cost, $233.91 (6) Second Franklin School. Built in 1873; cost, $10,304.87 (c) Third Franklin School. Built in 1886-1914; cost, $107,442

To summarize : In deciding what constitutes a satisfactory school site, we shall often find it helpful to think of plots of land as being of equal value in every other particular, and then weighing the one against the other with reference to the point in question. For example, other things being equal, that site is preferable which is more centrally located. So we may also say: Other things being equal, that site is preferable which —

is more likely to fit future needs;

is more accessible to the public highway;

is located on the more quiet street;

is more free from noise;

is more free from dust;

is more free from unpleasant odors;

is more free from immoral or disturbing influences;

is less likely to be hemmed in by surrounding buildings;

is more remote from dangerous street or railroad crossings;

has the larger area;

receives more sunlight;

is more protected from winds;

is on higher ground;

is not on hilltop or hillside;

has the more permeable soil;

has less decaying organic matter in the soil;

has the dryer soil;

is more easily cultivated.

1. Outline in detail a method for using census figures to guide building policy.

2. Make a survey of the school buildings of your town. Suppose they all were to be rebuilt, what would be the best sites for them? Why? How could their present sites be improved?

3. Who should be consulted in selecting the school site?

4. Suppose that only one site is available. What treatment should be given the soil if it is of clay? Of sand? Swampy?

5. How can the school board know what kind of soil underlies a proposed site?

6. Make a plan showing the site of an eight-room elementary school building. Indicate points of the compass, size and shape of plot, location of building, location and number of trees, gardens, playgrounds, and other desirable features.

7. Suppose that a side hill is the only site available, what is the desirable treatment?

Ayres, Leonard P., and May. School Buildings and Equipment. Cleveland Education Survey. (1916.) Russell Sage Foundation.

Discusses relation of school census to building policy. Barnard, Henry. School Architecture (various dates).

Of historical interest. Contains quotations from school reports.

Cook, William A. Schoolhouse Sanitation. United States Bureau of Education, Bulletin no. 21. (1915).

Study of laws and regulations governing the hygiene and sanitation of schoolhouses.

Cubberley, E. P. School Organization and Administration. World Book Company (1916), chap. v.

Value of a school census in locating new school buildings.

Dresslar, Fletcher B. American Schoolhouses. United States Bureau of Education, Bulletin no. 5. (1910.)