The Yale expositor., 1909-03-19
N SCHOOL Roam

Open air treatment for tuberculosis
has extended to the public schools. at
least this is so in Boston, which city
is believed to be the first in this coun-
try to establish such open air schools.
This experiment is being carried on
Jointly through the winter by the Bos-
ton Association for the Relief and
! Control of tuberculosis, which organ
ICED it, and the Boston school board
Besides furnishing the teacher, the
board has recently issued 200 street
car tickets. These are for the children
who are too poor to pay car fare, and
for those who live a long distance
from the school.
The principal reason for starting the
school. says Walter f. Kruesi, secre.
taTy of the Boston Association for
the Relief and Control of Tuberculosis,
was that there were many tuberculous
children and nowhere to send them.
The association hasn't money enough
TO take care of all the children in the
public schools who are affected.
The school board has signified its
willingness to make an appropriation
to increase the size of the school when
assured of the permanent success of
the scheme. and so great has been the
improvement in the children in this
school that the matter has passed be-
yond the experimental stage.
Mr.. Kruesi would like to see the en-
tire building, of which now only the
roof and the dining hall in the base
ment are occupied, made over into an
open-air school. accommodating $50
pupils. This could easily be done if
the library which is maintained in the
building at present were abolished
The progress made by the pupils in
this open-air school Is the same as
that made by normal scholars in the
same grade in the public schools. but
/ II these same children were compelled
to remain in the ordinary school they
would not progress at all.
Since this school was started, letters
have come from Cleveland, Cincinnati
and Columbus, from men interested
in the experiment, the principal ex-
preston from those interested being
surprise that no one had thought of
starting an open air public school be-
1 fore.
There have been for a number Of
years open air schools for the children
of the rich, private schools, and the
one which was established in an aban-
doned schoolhouse in Providence, r. L.,
last fall, the first of its kind in Amer
ica-which is not, however, public
school-another at Glen Gardner, N.
j., while in California is located the
Marienfeld school for boys.
DR.. James j. Minot made a report
to the school board in which he stated
that there were 1000 children who
needed outdoor schooling. more than
$50 of whom should have special nour-
ishment and special attention to n.y.
giene and should be allowed the maxi
mum of fresh air.
Mayor Hubbard will be remembered
for one thing" declared Mr.. Kruesi,
"and that is because he recommended
to the schoolhouse commission the ad-
visibility of providing a fresh air
room for tuberculous children to be
built in the new Abraham Lincoln
school, and in the architects plans
this provision has been made. although
the plans have not yet been submitted
to the schoolhouse commission"
The superintendent of public
schools, Stratton ID. Brooks, heartily
indorses the experiment, but believes
the children affected by tuberculosis
should be divided into three classes,
as follows:
First, those so iii that their disease
is infectious. Such children shouldn't
be allowed I'm the school room any
more than a child with diphtheria or
measles. or any similar disease. Sec
ondly, those who are weak. and in
such a condition that their diseases
may become dangerous to other pu-
pills; and thirdly, those who are
slightly affected. who might never
have been in that condition If they
had not been confined in stuffy rooms.
This last class of children will be the
ones directly benefited by having an
open air room built in every school.
house.
| Miss Helen M. Mead is the teacher
OF this interesting class OF fresh air