driven off because he is playing truant. Obviously, the playgrounds exist for the use of the children, and yet children have the opportunity to use them only a few hours a day, because they must be in school seats from 9 to 12 and 1 to 3. Thousands of dollars are invested in school shops and science laboratories, and yet practically no child in the elementary schools has the opportunity to enter them until the seventh grade, and then for only a few minutes a week. Half the children in the country leave school before they reach the seventh grade. There would, after all, seem to be no good reason why the principle of other public service institutions, i. e., multiple use of facilities all the time, should not apply to the school, nor any reason why all children should be in classrooms at the same time, nor why the special facilities should be used only a fraction of the day, provided, of course, that the children receive during the day the required amount of academic work: In fact, it is difficult to see how the problem of providing enough classrooms or playgrounds or auditoriums for the mass of children is ever to be met if all children have to be in classrooms at the same time and if all children have to play at once. Moreover, there seems to be no good reason from an educational standpoint why children should all have to do the same thing at the same time. Fortunately, if the principle of multiple use is applied to public school facilities it is financially possible to provide not only adequate classroom accommodations, but also auditoriums, gymnasiums, laboratories, and shops for the mass of children. In fact, accommodations may be provided in all facilities, if they are in use constantly by alternating groups, at less cost than regular classrooms may be provided on the basis of a reserved seat for every child. For example, in a 50-class school, under the traditional plan, 50 classrooms are needed in addition to all other special facilities. Under the workstudy-play plan only 25 classrooms are needed. Therefore, under this plan the cost of 25 additional classrooms is eliminated. The average cost of a classroom at the present time is $12,000. Since only half the usual number of classrooms is required under the work-study-play plan, i. e., 25 classrooms in a 50-class school, the cost of the remainder is released for all the other special facilities. Chart II shows the waste in cubic feet, in cost, and in capacity in a building run on the traditional as compared with the same building organized on the work-study-play plan. EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGE OF THE PLAN- -AN ENRICHED CURRICULUM. The important point about the balanced-load plan, however, is not its economy, but the fact that it makes possible an enriched education for children. Under this plan the children not only have A. TRADITIONAL PLAN OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION. B. WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN - NO WASTE. I Utilization of building. 5 CHART II. Showing the waste of building space under the traditional plan of school organization as compared with the utilization of all space all the time under the work-study-play plan, or balanced load plan. Total number of pupils under either plan, 2,000. Under the work-study-play plan, 1,000 pupils are in classrooms while 1,000 pupils are in special facilities. Under the traditional plan, all pupils are in classrooms at the same time, and when they go to the special facilities, the classrooms lie idle. For example, if any of the 2,000 pupils in classrooms go to the auditorium, the classrooms of those pupils remain vacant. What good is a vacant classroom to a child? What good is an empty playground or auditorium or shop or laboratory to a child? Waste the same amount of time for reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history as formerly, 210 minutes, but also 50 minutes of play every day, 50 minutes of auditorium a day, and 50 minutes of shopwork every day in the week for a third of the year; science every day for a third of a year; and drawing and music every day for a third of a year. At present, children get in most schools a 10-minute recess period for play, a few minutes for opening exercises in the auditorium, and little or no time for special activities. CHART III.-Daily allotments of time for academic work, special work, auditorium, and play, under the traditional plan and under the work-study-play plan of school organization. Academic Work: EXPLANATION OF CHART III. In the traditional school, 210 minutes are given to reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history every day. In the work-study-play school, 210 minutes are given to reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history every day. Play: In the traditional school, 25 minutes are given every day to recess, physical training, physiology, and hygiene. In the work-study-play school, 50 minutes a day every day are given to play. Special Activities: In the traditional school 50 minutes are divided between 4 or 5 special subjects-drawing, music, shop, sewing, etc.-2 periods a week to some special subjects, and a few minutes a day to others. In the work-study-play school, the year may be divided in 3 parts, and each child receives 50 minutes of science every day for a third of the year; 50 minutes of shopwork every day for a third of the year; and 50 minutes of music and drawing every day for a third of the year. Or these special subjects can be alternated by days, weeks, or months. FLEXIBILITY OF THE PROGRAM MEETS INDIVIDUAL NEEDS OF CHILDREN. A program based upon the multiple use of facilities also makes it possible to have a flexible program. After all, schools were created for children and not children for the schools, and it should be possible to adapt the program to meet the needs of individual children instead of making children conform to the program, as is too often the case. A study of the different types of work-study-play schools in different parts of the country shows that it is possible to adapt the program to the needs of different types of children and different types of communities. 10 See Chart III showing allotment of time for academic work, play, auditorium, and special work. For example, a child who is backward in a special subject, such as arithmetic, and is being held back in a grade because he can not master that subject, and is growing discouraged because he has to repeat the whole year's work, can double up in arithmetic for a number of weeks by omitting the auditorium period until he has made up the work and is ready to go on with his grade in that subject. In the meantime he has not been held back in other subjects, but has progressed as rapidly in them as he is able to. Or if a child has a particular talent in some subject, he can, under this program, double his time in that subject by omitting his auditorium period a number of times a week and yet not lose any time from his regular work. Again, it is possible to adjust the time of beginning or leaving school to meet the desires of parents. For example, it is possible to arrange to have the school begin at 8.30, 8.45, or 9 a. m., or any other hour desired. Or if the school begins at 8.30 and certain parents object to having their children leave for school so early, it is possible to put these children in the "B School," which begins the day with special activities; in this case the children can omit the play period or auditorium from 8.30 to 9.20 and arrive at school at 9.20. Or, again, many parents prefer to have their children take special music lessons after school. It often happens that home work or staying after school interferes with these lessons. Under the workstudy-play plan it is possible to put such children in the "A School" and let them omit the play period or the auditorium in the afternoon from 2.40 to 3.30 p. m.11 There is, of course, no reason why children should not be given credit for these out-of-school activities if so desired. As for the special facilities in school, each community and each section of the city can have the special facilities which the school authorities and the parents desire. THE SCHOOL TAKES OVER THE STREET TIME OF THE CHILD. As has been pointed out, one of the most undesirable elements in the life of city children is the street life in which they have hitherto spent so large a part of their time. The average city school is in session about 180 days in the year. Obviously, because of conditions of modern city life, it is necessary that the school take over some of the time now spent by the child on the city streets, especially during the school year. At present if 10 hours of the 24 are allowed for sleep and 6 for meals and home duties, there still remain 8 hours to "The school day in Athens-9 a. m. to 2 p. m.-is altogether too short, for it leaves the children on the streets for practically half of every day. It is questionable whether it would be desirable to lengthen the day if it meant keeping children in school seats any longer, but in a work-study-play school the additional hours are spent in playgrounds, shops, laboratories, and auditoriums, which means that wholesome activity in play and in work is substituted for desultory loafing upon the city streets. the same amount of time for reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history as formerly, 210 minutes, but also 50 minutes of play every day, 50 minutes of auditorium a day, and 50 minutes of shopwork every day in the week for a third of the year; science every day for a third of a year; and drawing and music every day for a third of a year.10 At present, children get in most schools a 10-minute recess period for play, a few minutes for opening exercises in the auditorium, and little or no time for special activities. CHART III.-Daily allotments of time for academic work, special work, auditorium, and play, under the traditional plan and under the work-study-play plan of school organization. Academic Work: EXPLANATION OF CHART III. In the traditional school, 210 minutes are given to reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history every day. In the work-study-play school, 210 minutes are given to reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history every day. Play: In the traditional school, 25 minutes are given every day to recess, physical training, physiology, and hygiene. In the work-study-play school, 50 minutes a day every day are given to play. Special Activities: In the traditional school 50 minutes are divided between 4 or 5 special subjects-drawing, music, shop, sewing, etc.-2 periods a week to some special subjects, and a few minutes a day to others. In the work-study-play school, the year may be divided in 3 parts, and each child receives 50 minutes of science every day for a third of the year; 50 minutes of shopwork every day for a third of the year: and 50 minutes of music and drawing every day for a third of the year. Or these special subjects can be alternated by days, weeks, or months. FLEXIBILITY OF THE PROGRAM MEETS INDIVIDUAL NEEDS OF CHILDREN. A program based upon the multiple use of facilities also makes it possible to have a flexible program. After all, schools were created for children and not children for the schools, and it should be possible to adapt the program to meet the needs of individual children instead of making children conform to the program, as is too often the case. A study of the different types of work-study-play schools in different parts of the country shows that it is possible to adapt the program to the needs of different types of children and different types of communities. 10 See Chart III showing allotment of time for academic work, play, auditorium, and special work. |