Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-25
SCHOOL ON THE ROOF
Suggestion Made by Health
Officer Woodward.
CHILDREN IN THE OPEN AIR
Experiment Proposed to Be Made at
New Thompson Building-Ad-
vantages Outlined.

teaching weak and anemic children as
| far as Washington Is concerned, Is rec
commended by DR.. William C. Woodward,
health officer, and is nothing more nor
| less than that there should be estab-
| lished roof garden school on top
| of the new Strong John Thompson School
| building, at 18th and L streets north
| west. The open-air school is not at
| all new in other localities. and DR..
Woodward says it embodies the very
| latest ideas as to how weak children
may grow strong by simply getting next
| to natures fresh air.
The matter had it's origin in this in
| stance with DR.. Woodward He has been
talking about it to members of the
Instructive Visiting Nurses Society.
| which is strongly In favor Of this latest
method Of rearing a race of young giants
by letting the weak-lunged and white
blooded children nj their chests during
the sky as the height OF school build
ing will permit.
= Before the Commissioners.
Er. Woodward has also had talks
with the three Commissioners about the
matter, and has brought it to point
where it can actually be worked on by
making a formal recommendation to the
board. Commissioner Johnston has sug-
gested that the board of education should
give it's views on the subject. 1t Is well
known that school officials are very
strongly. in favor of the open-air school
idea for weak and anemic children.
Now, an open-air school Is different
from anything in the schoolroom line that
can be found around Washington. 1t is
the ultima thule of the fresh-air fiend.
who is distinguished for his healthy col
or and his big lungs. 1t is roof gar
den~with desks and a teacher who is the
picture of health. DIR. Woodward was
asked this morning whether the birds of
the air could come and sit on the pupils
desks, and he said surely they could, and
that 1t would be a sort OF nature study.
Success in Chicago.
That is all right in the fine springtime,
but how about winter? Well. the fresh
air man points out pictures Of the ia
nous open-air school in Chicago. One
can see in those photographs a class of
fat-faced kids dressed in the kind of
blanket-material clothes that the Cana
dams wear when they go tobogganing.
They have on the kind Of boots in which
DR.. Cook went to the arctic regions.
DR.. Woodward has q record of some of
those children In q publication which is
exploiting the open-air school If the
statistics are correct the Chicago young
woman with the healthy looks took a
| class of thirty pallid. listless, half-hearted
and weak-lunged kiddies and put an
whole class in months time That
class was probably the one class in the
Windy city which kicked on having a
Christmas vacation. They loved their
teacher so much and SO loved to recite
the multiplication table in the open, crisp
December air that they begged that they
be allowed to keep on going to school
| during the Christmas holidays.
There is no chance that the open-air
scholars will be rained on or blown off
the roof or that they will be weakened
by exposure. The people who have been
studying this matter say they know
enough to bring the children in when it
rains. Some of the schools have de-
| have tent-like roofs. and in all cases the
children are protected from the Indictment
weather and given chance to breathe in
the fine weather.
Lessons In Cleanliness.
Not only do the open air scholars learn
their readin'. 'ritin' and 'rithmetic, but
one of the features Of the curriculum
dealing with the problem Of making clean
and healthy children il an exercise in
teeth brushing. Out In Chicago they have
q class in taking cold baths. Washing
faces is another feature Of the studies on
the roof.
In talking about the matter this morn
ing. Dr.. Woodward said that II open air
schools are fine for weak children, there
is every reason why they should be splen-
did for strong children.
The Strong John Thompson School Is
being built. and II any changes in the
plans are to be made, they will have to
be made quickly. It is not known now
whether or not the change will make the
school cost less or more than was planned.
This school is picked out because it is not
finished. and because 1t IL in the center
Of the city.