PLANNING SCHOOL BUILDINGS. When new buildings are to be constructed it is desirable that a committee of teachers, with the superintendent as its chairman, be selected to cooperate with the architect in working out every detail of the plans. The architect should make pencil sketches for preliminary studies until full agreement is reached between the committee, the board, and the architect. Before final plans are made it would be well to submit the preliminary plans to specialists in this field, and then, of course, to the State authorities for approval. The architect should never be allowed to make final drawings until these preliminary studies are carefully made and approved by all concerned. Teachers know, or should know, what conditions are demanded for comfort, convenience, and health in school buildings, and they have a perfect right to be heard. They know more about schoolhouses from the standpoint of function than architects do. Architects should be held responsible for safety in construction, for honesty in workmanship, for wise specifications, and for knowledge of markets and labor, and for planning to meet a given budget and to eliminate waste space. An honest and capable architect can always save more than the amount of his fees. School architecture is unlike any other line of building, and demands special preparation and a true conception of the purpose of education. SIZE OF CLASSROOMS. The classrooms in many of the older buildings of Elyria are unnecessarily large. The policy seems to be to set the number of pupils for classes in the elementary school at about 40. Naturally, highschool classes will vary with the subjects taught and with the advancement of the classes. A classroom 31 feet long, 23 feet wide, and 12 feet high is large enough for a class of 40 elementary pupils; to make it larger than this not only increases the initial cost, but adds to the expense for upkeep, heating, and cleaning. A room of this size is easily lighted from one side, brings the teachers and pupils sufficiently near together for easy instruction and good control, and tends to prevent the mistake sometimes made of burdening the teacher with too large a class. Classrooms in high-school buildings should be of varying sizes, for it is poor economy to teach a small class in advanced Latin, for example, in a large room. On the other hand, classes in first-year English, mathematics, and history require a room large enough for from 20 to 30 students, which should be the maximum size of a class. High-school children usually pass from room to room for their recitations, and programs can be made so that the smaller rooms can be used for the smaller classes and the large rooms for the larger classes. It is a mistake to make classrooms higher than 12 feet from finished floor to finished ceiling. With rooms of the size indicated good light and ventilation can be obtained with a ceiling of that height, money can be saved in construction, and the fewer steps in the stairways would lessen the danger in case of fire and relieve adolescent girls in a measure from what might be a severe strain. The newer buildings are approximately correct in this particular, and no further emphasis need be placed on this point. CLOAKROOMS. The various methods employed in providing cloakrooms are in general satisfactory and no suggestion or criticism seems necessary. Usually it is better to open cloakrooms for the elementary classes into the classroom only. Where fans are used, an exhaust duct should be set well above the clothing, so that these rooms may be ventilated directly outward and not into the classrooms. The plan of opening cloakrooms into classrooms makes it possible for teachers to prevent many mistakes in clothing, umbrellas, lunch boxes, etc. It must be remembered that moral standards of children are in the making, and unnecessary temptation, to say the least, is a useless risk. COLOR OF WALLS. Walls or wainscoting below the level of the children's eyes when seated should be of some nonreflecting color, as a neutral brown. This harmonizes well with any other coloring and is unoffensive and not easily marred. The walls above the level of the eyes of children, save, of course, the blackboard spaces, should be a light shade of gray or slightly buff gray. The color of the ceiling should be somewhat lighter, but so applied as to eliminate blotches of high light that might cause trouble. Hallways should always be of a lighter color, in order to prevent the absorption of light. A good plan is to use white-enameled brick for a rather high wainscoting and white plaster for the walls and ceilings above. The halls of the McKinley School are too dark. The wainscoting is made of glazed brownish brick and the ceiling and walls of other shades of brown or green. The small rooms back of the landings of the stairways shut out much of the light. The condition would be improved at little expense by painting the walls and ceilings a clear white. If that is not sufficient, more windows should be placed in the wall between the landings and the small rooms back of them. It is not advisable to use wall paper, especially dark paper, in classrooms. Such rooms are more wholesome with the proper plastering, refinished when necessary with a good quality of kalsomine. Most wall paper absorbs too much light, is easily defaced or soiled, and in a short time will present an unkempt appearance. FLOORS. In the main, the buildings of Elyria, especially the newer ones, have good maple floors, and with proper care they should prove entirely satisfactory for an indefinite period. Such floors ought to be scrubbed rarely, and then with as little water as possible. If these floors are frequently scrubbed, as now seems to be the practice, the alternate shrinkings and swellings will cause cracks to open and fill with dirt, the boards to cup and to loosen from the joists below. The pores of the wood should be closed with some unobjectionable filler and the floor should be surfaced with floor wax to prevent undue wear and tear. It appears that the Ohio law does not prohibit the use of hot linseed oil in such quantity as the floors will fully and readily absorb. After this is dry the floor should be waxed and polished and daily swept with some acceptable sweeping compound or with a combination of clean, fresh sawdust properly dampened with water and wax or a light nonodorous oil. To this mixture may be added also a portion of salt or clean, white sand. Good brushes should be supplied to all janitors with which to do the sweeping. They are now complaining of lack of these. Sticky oil as a floor dressing is objectionable in many ways and it is not to be recommended. The wood floors in general, under the present method of treatment, are rapidly deteriorating and will soon be unsightly and more and more difficult to keep sanitary. It is always poor economy to neglect the floors of school buildings, for they at best receive hard usage and are a vital element in the health of children as well as in the general appearance of the building. The method of treatment which has been suggested will not only preserve the floors but will prevent much of the fine dust from lifting into the air and falling again on desks, books, and all the furnishings of a schoolroom. While it is impossible to keep down all dust, it is very important to reduce this menace to health to the lowest possible point. Dusting should be done with so-called dustless mops and brushes, rather than with rags or any sort of a feather duster; for these latter only scatter the dust, again to cause trouble. Much wear and tear on floors can be prevented by well-cared-for playgrounds, especially if cement walks are constructed all about school buildings. The children would gather less mud on their shoes and carry in less sand and fine gravel to cut and grind out the floors. Plenty of scrapers should be furnished, and the children. should be trained to clean their shoes carefully. This habit will be useful through life. Without some device to hold and balance themselves, children can not clean their shoes well. Stakes or rods or a pipe railing properly placed for the children to hold would be very useful. 61564°-18- 5 LIGHTING OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS. The best natural illumination for classrooms is obtained through windows opening toward the east or west. Offices, libraries, laboratories, manual training rooms, domestic science rooms, and other rooms for similar purposes may have south light, while drawingrooms and art rooms in general are well situated when receiving north side light or north skylight. There are several reasons for preferring east or west light for classrooms, and two of the most important of these may be stated as follows: East exposure on clear days affords opportunity for the warming and purifying influences of sunshine in the rooms before school time, and also allows shades to be completely rolled up as soon as the sun is high enough for the direct rays of the sun to leave the desks nearest the windows. A west exposure receives the direct rays in the afternoons for only a short time before school closes and on sunny days shades will have to be used at most about an hour and a half. Immediately after school adjourns for the day these shades should be rolled up and left so until the direct rays of sunlight come the next day. Such management of shades will greatly aid in keeping classrooms wholesome. In this discussion it has been assumed that classrooms are provided with unilateral lighting; that sufficient glass area is provided; that the windows are set in the correct place, and that the classroom is of the proper size and proportion. Most of the old buildings were constructed with windows on two sides of classrooms, and this was done more for the sake of outward appearance than for the comfort and health of pupils and teachers. Architects have been compelled to set themselves to the task of planning, first for usefulness and for the best outside appearance afterwards. A good illustration of unilateral lighting is the Gates School. Unfortunately, the windows in this building while properly grouped are set so low that in most of the classes the children's eyes are in a strain because the reflected light from without shines directly into their eyes. The lower part of the sash of all classroom windows should be above the level of the eyes of the children when they are seated at their desks. The windows in the rooms for the first grades should never be set lower than 3 feet above the floor, and those for all the higher classes should be set at least 4 feet above the floor. The windows of most of the buildings are long enough to reach near the ceilings, and this plan should be consistently followed. In unilatéral lighting the ratio of glass to floor surface is usually stated as one to four, one to five, or one to six. The variation is dependent on latitude, local environment, and general weather condi tions. In Elyria where there is apparently not enough smoke to be troublesome and no hills to raise the horizon line, properly set glazing in the ratio of one to five ought to be sufficient. We suggest that a room 31 by 23 by 12 feet, which is large enough for 40 elementary school pupils, would be well lighted by five windows 8 feet long and 3 feet wide, set 4 feet above the floor. SEATING. Bilateral lighting of classrooms makes the problem of seating much more difficult than with unilateral lighting. The law of Ohio specifies the width of the aisles, both next the window side and between desks. Possibly this is in general a wise precaution, and yet the specification for the aisles next the window seems to be unnecessarily large. When buildings are properly constructed and windows set as they should be, an aisle 18 inches wide next the windows, free from all obstructions, is sufficient. Of course if buildings are poorly constructed and the windows are badly fitted, so that much cold air blows through, it is better for the children to be at a greater distance from the windows. It is better to arrange the desks in rows parallel to the longer axis of the room, provided, of course, this does not compel the children to face the windows. The reason for this demand is to prevent the children furthest from the windows from having to work in poor illumination. The main light should come from the left of the children when seated at their desks, so that they will not be troubled with the shadows of their own bodies or hands on their books or paper. If children were generally left-handed, it would be proper for the light to come from the right side. In a corner room with windows on both outer walls, it is extremely difficult either for the teacher or the pupils to be placed so that one or the other will not be forced to face glaring windows, for usually in such rooms the windows on one side are insufficient for light when the others are closed. Moreover, cross shadows are produced, and these are unnecessary distractions. Generally speaking, no seat should be further from the main source of illumination than a distance equal to twice. the height of the top of the window above the floor. For example, if windows 12 feet high are placed in one side only and with the longer axis of the room, then the room may be 24 feet wide. It is better, however, to group the desks as close to the window side of the classroom as possible, taking into account all conditions. Where 40 children are to be accommodated in one classroom, usually the best arrangement is five rows of desks with eight in each row. This will give sufficient space near the blackboard for workers and will also bring the children into the best light available. In some of the primary classrooms where the desks are small they are grouped far to the rear of the classroom, with a very large |