Arizona republican., 1909-02-24
CLUB WOMEN DISCUSS
 CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
NOT NEARLY ROOM ENOUGH FOR
 SCHOOL CHILDREN.
Suggestions for the Improvement of the Schools Offered in a Discussion at the Woman's Club.

An interesting and instructive dis
 cussion of the needs of the public
 schools was the feature of the meet
 ing of the Woman's club yesterday afternoon. The meeting was in charge
 of the department of civics and educa-
 ton of which Mrs. B. A Fowler is
 chairman
 The theme was divided between six
 speakers, who were limited to ten min
 utes each. The speakers had taken pains to investigate thoroughly the
 public school system of Phoenix They dwelt on its deficiencies in the differ ent branches and suggested improve ments. The rapid growth of the schools and the consequent need for more room was brought out in strong terms.
 Mrs. R. M. Tafel, who was the first speaker. had as a sub-topic, "The Need of More School Buildings" She pointed out that the Central school, with it's sixteen rooms, has 274 more pupils enrolled this year than last, and that the rooms are crowded beyond their capacity. She said the building is unsanitary, that it is heated by
 
 quate and the light bad. A new build ing with larger grounds is sorely need ed. Or, at the least, an entire remod- cling of the old building with an exten- sive addition should be made. Mrs. Tafel suggested also a new building for grammar grades at the east side of town and another for the west side. The school space will have to be en- larged very soon to accommodate the rapidly increasing enrolment of pu pills.
 The outdoor gymnasium was the chief subject of Mrs. Emery Rays. She said that every school should be fur nished with an outdoor playground equipped with a gymnasium such as the osborn school has. She spoke of the interest the school children take in this and cited as an instance the Churchill school where the pupils raised s60 for the improvement of the grounds The outdoor playground is now a feature of nearly every large school in the greater cities and its benefits to the health of the child are generally recognized. The ground sur rounding the Central school is not nearly large enough and more land should be acquired for playground pur- poses.
 General School Work" was the sub ject allotted to Mrs. F H. Parker Her talk was chiefly on the grading of the pupils. She said that Phoenix chil- dren were considered a half grade ahead of those coming here from Cali fornia schools. At this point Mrs. Wal ter Talbot inquired if the Phoenix scholars were considered to be just as far ahead in. writing as in other branches, intimating that she had great difficulty in reading her own grandson's chirography.
 Mrs. T. M. Elder talked about man. ual training. She said there but 700 feet of floor space in the school devoted to this useful branch. whereas 5000 were needed. The benches used to teach the boys carpentering were made to accommodate two pupils, but were used by four. The children are fond of manual training and domestic science, yet only a few of them are permitted to take these studies for lack of accommodations The standard of scholarship has been raised since these branches were introduced into the school.
 The kindred subject of domestic science, with music and drawing, was Mrs. TalbOts theme. Lack of room for the girls to do their sewing. knitting and patching was again brought out Mrs. Talbot exhibited some of the work done by the pupils which included cro- cheting. patching. aprons. caps. and even examples of the somewhat intri- cate biased tucks.
 After Mrs Talbot's talk the house hold economies department of the club voted to present the school with cot so that the girls may learn the useful art of making a bed as part 6f the course in domestic science.
 Mrs Charles Christy, who is the art instructor in the public schools, was present with an exhibition of the work done by the pupils. The work repre- sented a wide variety of subject. from landscape and drawings of animals to decorative designing for tapestry. tiles and china ware The drawings and designs were either purely imaSina- tive or based on some motive such as or fruits. Many of the designs showed quite remarkable talent and in general were far ahead of similar work seen in tn public schools of other cities.
 Mrs. Fowler then gave a resume of the bills now pending before the legis-