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RIVERSIDE TEXTBOOKS
IN EDUCATION

EDITED BY ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION
LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY



DIVISION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

UNDER THE EDITORIAL DIRECTION

OF ALEXANDER INGLIS

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION
HARVARD UNIVERSITY




Photograph, Brown Brothers

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

An excellent example of a large and well-lighted building. C. B. J. Snyder, architect



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HEALTHFUL SCHOOLS

How to Build, Equip, and Maintain Them

BY

MAY AYRES

AUTHOR OF " FIRE PROTECTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS," AND CO-
AUTHOR OF "SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT"
"HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN," AND
" SAFEGUARDING SCHOOL HOUSES



FROM FIRE



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JESSE F. WILLIAMS, A.B., M.D.

PROFESSOR OF HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

AND

THOMAS D. WOOD, A.M., M.D.

PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION, TEACHERS COLLEGE

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY; CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON

HEALTH PROBLEMS, NATIONAL COUNCIL

OF EDUCATION




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COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY MAY AYRES BURGESS, JESSE F. WILLIAMS, AND

THOMAS D. WOOD

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED



*






CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
U . S . A



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

The subject of school hygiene comprises two general
fields. First, the provision of healthful physical environment
for school children, and second, the conduct of healthful
school activities. Under the first head we have to do with
such matters as schoolhouse construction, fire protection,
lighting, and sanitation; uncfer the second, we* deal with
medical inspection and supervision, playground activities,
outdoor classes, and the like.

These two main groups have been subdivided into smaller
branches, each growing up almost independently of the
other, and it is only recently that school men have recog-
j nized their essential unity and grouped them all together
' under the general heading of school hygiene. It is not at all
unusual even now to find large and fairly well-organized
school systems where the division of physical training has
little to do with the division of medical inspection; where
the medical inspection is under the control of a city or
county board of health; and where the provision of school
lunches, open-air classes, classes for exceptional children,
fire protection, and the cleaning of school buildings are all
matters which concern separate departments within the
school system. The appointment of an assistant superin-
tendent of schools in charge of child hygiene and child wel-
fare, who shall have all such matters under his supervision,
has only recently been accepted in educational theory, and
is still a new and not frequently found feature of school
administration.

Because the question of school hygiene has never until
recently been thought of as a whole by educators, but has

384974



vi INTRODUCTION

been split up into a score of apparently unrelated minor
problems, its progress has been erratic. Minimum require-
ments in some cases are laid down by the State, with im-
mense detail ; in others the State makes hardly any demands
upon the local school authorities, but leaves them free to
carry on whatever experiments they will. In general those
phases of school hygiene which deal with school buildings

iand the material welfare have been given large emphasis,
while those which deal with child welfare have been neglected.
The natural result is that in most school systems important
features of school hygiene are largely overlooked or entirely
ignored; and that the school superintendent frequently fails
to have any clear conception of what is demanded by the
situation. The school authorities, both board and superin-
tendent, too frequently fail to grasp the subject as a unified
whole.

To treat the subject as a unified whole, and in condensed
form, has been the purpose of the authors of this volume in
the series. The authors have tried to set forth the essentials,
under each subdivision of the subject, which the school
administrator needs to know in order to safeguard the
. health of the children under his care; to show what forms of
organization the different branches of the subject involve;
and to give a brief statement of the accepted standards in
each branch. The volume should prove very useful as a text-
book in; school hygiene in colleges and normal schools, and
should furnish a basis for intelligent discussion and con-
structive action by teachers, supervisors, superintendents,
and school board members.

Ellwood P. Cubberley



CONTENTS

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 III. Rooms in the School Building . . 31

Classroom dimensions — High ceilings — Wardrobes — Spe-
cial classrooms — Kindergarten — Open-air classrooms — Audi-
toriums — The gymnasium — Libraries — Lunchrooms — Dis-
pensary — 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 — Work-
room furniture.

Questions for study and discussion — Selected references.

CHAPTER V. Lighting 66

1. Natural lighting — Unilateral — Breeze windows — Orien-
tation — 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 acety-
lene 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 foun-
tains — Home-made fountains — Cooler attachments — Height
of fountains — ■ The habit of cleanliness — Lavatories — Hot
water — Soap — Towels — Baths as punishment — Group show-
ers — 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, ceil-
ings, and floors — Equipment per number of pupils — Location
of equipment — Urinals — Latrines — Individual flush — Auto-
matic 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 — Corri-
dors — 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 sci-
ence — 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 — Sweep-
ing 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 — Inspec-
tion — 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 in-
spectors — Posture work — Physiological age — Classroom exer-
cises — Recess — 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 . u . . . 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.



/



x CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIV. School Feeding



26£



The argument for school feeding — The Philadelphia experi-
ment — What school lunches are — Theory of school feeding —
The concessionaire — The supervisor — Saleswomen — Pupil
workers — Centralization of the school lunch — Hygienic re-
quirements — Records and forms — Costs — Equipment —
Supervision — Preparation and service — The Philadelphia Re-
port.

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, San

Francisco, Californla 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, Cleve-
land 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 ... CO

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

Fig. 12. Remodeling a School Building to improve the

Lighting 68

Fig. 13. Overhead Lighting ln an Elementary-School

Assembly Hall at Holly, Michigan . . . C9

Fig. 14. Indirect Artificial Lighting 84



Xll

Fig. 15.
Fig. 16.
Fig. 17.
Fig. 18.



Fig. 19.
Fig. 20.
Fig. 21.
Fig. 22.
Fig. 23.
Fig. 24.
Fig. 25.



ILLUSTRATIONS

Semi-Indirect Artificial Lighting .... 85

A School Swimming-Pool 108

Toilets 109

Fire Dangers which need Attention . . .164

(a) A Dangerous Basement

(b) A Fire Trap of a Stairway

An Incline as a Substitute for a Stairway



Medical Inspection

A Dental Clinic in Rochester, New York
Physical Training — Girls ....
Physical Training — Boys ....
An Open-Air Class in Chicago in Winter



. 165
. 210
. 211

. 234
. 235

. 262



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






HEALTHFUL SCHOOLS

CHAPTER I

CHOOSING THE SCHOOL SITE

Locating a building. In the small town or rural com-
munity the location of the new school building is not infre-
quently 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 inter-
ests 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. Some-
times the school is desired as a show building, and leading
citizens demand its location on the main street near the rail-
road 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 com-
munity 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



2 HEALTHFUL SCHOOLS

them, whe,n necessary, ihat the schoolhouse is intended pri-
marily for children; and the location chosen must be, not
that which most pleases fathers and toothers, 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 build-
ing 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 fre-
quently been suggested, for example, in New York, trans-
portation 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 in-
clined 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 intro-
duced.

In some of the more sparsely settled States, school build-
ings 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 moving



CHOOSING THE SCHOOL SITE 3

into the vicinity of the new works, and demanding school accom-
modation for their children. Temporary quarters have been ar-
ranged 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



4 HEALTHFUL SCHOOLS

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-en-
gine gongs, and (it her 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. In-
stead of following t he rule that "Each child at his seat must
sec 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 exer-
cise 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 pro-
hibited. For example, in Iowa no bills, posters, or other
matter advertising liquor or tobacco may be distributed,



CHOOSING THE SCHOOL SITE 5

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 Dela-
ware 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-to-
date community is scarcely willing to submit its children
to the outworn methods of a hundred years ago. Mod-
ern 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



6 HEALTHFUL SCHOOLS

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, "Dela-
ware, 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; Mary-
land and North Dakota, five acres."

While the actual number of square feet in each school