The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-04-11
FOR 4 FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL.
Appeal of WomaM's School Association
 for BeMent of Poor Children.

Haven Womans School association
 asking for funds to maintain during
 the months of July and August a sum
 mer school for poor children who may
 prefer school to the hot, dusty streets
 during the warm weather. Thes
 schools have fourished in other cities
 and last summer the two vacation
 playgrounds opened under the auspices
 of the Woman's School association
 were so well attended that this year il
 has been decided, if possible, to open
 vacation school in addition to the va
 cation playgrounds. The project ha!
 the endorsement of Superintendent o1
 Schools c. N. Kendall, and S1,200 in al
 is asked of the citizens of New Ha-
 ven.
 The appeal reads:
 With the ending of the school year hundreds of children in the poorer dis
 tricts of our city are thrown into the
 streets. From the unclean, overcrowd'
 ed roadways, there come physical dis
 ease and moral deterioration. To meet
 this resulting demoralization of child
 life, by providing clean, airy surround ings and healthful occupation, the
 larger cities are opening their public
 school buildings and grounds for the use of the vacation school and the pub- lie playground During July and Au- gust, the schools are open for halliday sessions, five times, week. The play ' grounds, six days a week In charge of these are experienced teachers who in- l struct the children in nature study, manual training and similar branches which supplement, rather than dupli- cate the work of the winter. All at tendance is voluntary. The approval of the parents the eagerness of the chill dren and their improved condition give eloquent testimony of the success of the measure.
 { Through the efforts of a committee from the Woman's School association and by means of the generosity of in- i dividuals, this work was started In July, 1898. Two public playgrounds, those of the Eaton and Zunder schools, ! were kept open during July and Au- gust, with an average daily attend- ance of $50 for the two yards. So satis- 1 factory was the result of this begin ming that it has been deemed best to continue the work during the coming l summer. and to open one of the public schools of the. city for a vacation school. The location of this school will be in one of the most crowded districts and remote enough from the play ground to reach a different set of chl- dren The board of education will con- tribute the use of the buildings, grounds and some of the necessary ap- paratus; for support, the school and playground must, for the present. de- pend on the generosity of the public. To maintain one school of ten rooms allowing forty children to each room, a fund of $1,000 is necessary. To main tain the Zunder school playground in addition to the amount saved from last years contributions, $200 must be rais- ed. Although this sum seems large, we confidently appeal to your public siprit spirit to respond to this need. It is desirable that subscrip- tions should be made before April goth, 1899, in order that the committee may know what resources are to be at their disposal.
 MRS. JAMES KINGSLEY BLAKE, Chairman, for the Committee on Vaca-
 tion and Public Fairgrounds.
 Advisory Committee--Mr Eli Whit ney, president of the board of educa- tion; MT. c. N Kendall, superintendent of public schools; MT A. B. Morrill,, principal of Norman Training school; MT. T. w. Mather, principal of Board- man Manual Training school; Professor H. w. Farnam, Yale university.
 MT. Kendall's letter of endorsement of the movement is as follows:
 "On June 30th our public schools close and will reopen in September. More than fourteen thousand children will have vacation of ten weeks or seventy days. Some of these children will go to the country, some to the shore, and still others will, in their city homes. find re- creation or employment. There are, however, hundreds of children in certain crowded parts of the city who will be forced to spend most of their daylight hours during the summer in the street, because their homes are small or crowd ed or unattractive. The street is the only 'out-doors known to many New Haven children. All through the long, warm months of July and August it is lile Dlliy pldy SlOuIlu lpl these children. What life in a city street does for q child it is not necessa- ry to say; it teaches little that is good or helpful. These children go back to school in early September, perhaps the worse in morals because of a vacation of enforced idleness.
 "The vacation school is movement to better this condition of affairs by open ing for three hours day, during six weeks in the summer, schools to those children who may choose to wish to at tend. Such schools have been carried on with success in New York, Chicago, Newark and other cities. | In the vacation school the regular work | of an ordinary school is not carried on, | but such subjects as music, reading, ! drawing, nature study manual training, | sewing, etc., all of which as rule ap- peal greatly to the interests of the chill dren, constitute the exercises of the day | With such programme there is no diff ficulty In securing the attendance of | children. On the contrary, although the is voluntary, embarrassment | arises in turning away children who would like to attend and who cannot be accommodated; such has been the expe- rience in other cities.
 "The plan of the Woman's School as- sociation to establish and maintain school here during the coming