The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-04-21

Summer-PIen Approved by Supertn-
 tcndent KendaII-PIay Grounds for
 Poor Children Urged ns an Almost Ab-
 soIute Necessity.
 The committee on vacation and pub lie playgrounds have addr assed the fol- lowing circular to the public: It is self explanatory:
 With the ending of the school year, hundreds of children in the poorer dis trlcts of our city are thrown into the streets. From the unclean, over crowd- ed roadways, there come physical dis ease and moral deterioration. To meet this resulting demoralization of child life, by providing clean, airy surround lngs, and healthful occupation, the larger cities are opening their public school buildings and grounds for the use of the vacation school and the pub Ilc playground. During July and Au- gust, the schools are open for half-d day sessions, five times a week; the play grounds are open, both morning and afternoon, six days a week. In charge Of these are experienced teachers who instruct 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 children and their improved condition give eloquent testimony of the success of the measure. In New York, the board of education has adopted this va pcs or+ nf +1o 1o,, school system Philadelphia is follow ing her example, while in Chicago, Brooklyn, and elsewhere it is as yet sup ported by private subscription.
 In New Haven, through the efforts of a committee from the Woman's School association and by means of the gen. erosity of individuals, similar work was started in July, 1898. Two public playgrounds, those of the Eaton and Zunder schools, were kept open during July and August, with an average at tendance of $50 for the yards. So sat isfactory was the result of this begin ming that it has been deemed best to continue the work during the coming summer, and also to open one of the public schools of the city for vaca- tion school. The location of the school will be in one of the most crowded dis trictS, and remote enough from the playgrounds to reach different set of children.
 The board of education will contri- bute the use of the buildings. grounds and some of the necessary apparatus; for support, the school and playgrounds must, for the present, depend on the generosity of the public
 To maintain one school of ten rooms, allowing forty children to each room, fund of $1.OOO is necessary. To main tain the two public playgrounds, in ad- dition to the amount saved from last years contributions $200 must be rais- ed
 Although this sum seems large, we confidently appeal to your public spirit to respond to this need. It is desirable that subscriptions should be made be- fore to April 1, 1S99 in order that the committee may know what resources are to be at their disposal.
 Mrs. James Kingsey Blake, chairman, for the committee on vacation schools and public playgrounds, New Haven Woman's School association.
 Advisory committee-Eli Whitney, president of the board of education; c. N. Kendall, superintendent of public schools; A. B. Morrill,, principal of Normal Training school; T. W. Mather. principal of Boardman Manual Training school; Professor H. w. Farnam, Yale university.
 Superintendent Kendall is in full ac- cord with the proposed plan and has written the. following letter in support of same: "On June 30 our public schools close and will reopen in Sep tember. More than 14,000 children will have a vacation of ten weeks or sev- enty days Some of these children will go to the country some to the shore, and still others will, in their own city homes, find recreation or employment. There are, however, hundreds of chill dren in certain crowded parts of the city who will be forced to spend most of their daylight hours during the sum- mer in the street, because their homes are small or crowded 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 practically the only playground for these children. What life in city street does for a CHllu IL IS HUI ICSSSociy tc ooS lS teaches little that is good or helpful l These children go back to school in early September, perhaps the worse in morals because of a vacation of en- forced idleness.
 The school buildings are exclusively | for children, and for all children, yet these buildings erected by the city for the use of children are under present financial conditions necessarily closed | and idle during the summer months. The funds at the command of the board | of education are insufficient to keep | them open and, therefore, in use, for | such children as would make use of | them.
 The vacation school is a movement 1 to better this condition of affairs by orening for three hours day, during six weeks in the summer, schools to | those children who may choose or wish 1 to attend. Such schools have been car ried oin with success in New York, Chi cago, Philadelphia, Newark and other cities. I believe there is need of vaca ton schools in few congested dis tricts of New Haven. This was per haps not true here a, quarter of a cen tury ago, but now our city has become in part both cosmopolitan and crowded. In the vacation school the regular work