300529 ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 10 CENTS PER COPY Educational advantage of the plan-an enriched curriculum.. Flexibility of the program meets individual needs of children... Recommendations for a permanent building program for white schools..... Recommendations for a permanent building program for negro schools........... Athens has the wealth to carry out the permanent building program proposed. Recommendations for a building program planned on the basis of a bond issue Appendix I.-The work-study-play plan in some cities.... Appendix II. Schedule showing capacity of complete school per class period, Appendix III.-Description of type building of which a diagram is submitted. Appendix IV.-Enrollment in public schools, Athens, Ga., 1913-14 to 1919 20, A SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM FOR ATHENS, GEORGIA. Athens was the pioneer in bringing higher education to the youth of Georgia. Will it lead in reconstructing its public school, plant so as to bring modern educational advantages to the children of the public schools? This question states the real significance of a school building program for Athens at the present time.1 ATHENS AN EDUCATIONAL CENTER. When the visitor to Athens asks what is the chief industry of the city, the answer is "Education." And the answer is not far wrong, as yet. Athens did not start as an industrial center. Education, not industry, was the cause of the founding of the town. In 1801 a grant of 600 acres was given to the State by John Milledge for the purpose of establishing "a seat of learning" in Georgia. A site was chosen for the State University of Georgia, said to be one of the oldest State universities in the country; and the town grew up around the university. This fact has conditioned the character of the town in a number of interesting ways. In the first place, if the town had started as an industrial center, the first building would probably have been erected along the flats by the Oconee River, and then as the town grew the more well-to-do members of the community would have climbed to higher ground, leaving about the river the usual unsightly mixture of old insanitary dwellings jostled by encroaching factories. But the town started with the university, and it started on the heights. The municipal buildings, the post-office, the city hall, and the University of Georgia were all built on a high plateau. Later, the city spread out into four wards. The second ward, running through the city northwest and southeast, represents the original settlement. The first ward, where the factories follow the river, climbs up the east bank of the Oconee River; the fourth ward, now the congested part of the city, extends almost due west from the Oconee River; while the third ward, the newer residential section, spreads out to the south. Athens is different in spirit from the usual industrial town. Like its namesake, it is beautiful. It has the variety of landscape, the 1At the request of the Board of Education of Athens, Ga., the Commissioner of Education detailed Alice Barrows Fernandez, specialist in the United States Bureau of Education, to make a survey of the public schools of Athens, Ga., with a view to working out a building program for the schools of the city. The survey was made in March, 1921. Mrs. Fernandez was assisted in working out the plans of buildings and building costs by Mr. William B. Ittner, consulting architect. |