Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-10-08

AHdI removes the situation at that
school-but is il fair to the children?
while conditions throughout the
CITY, both in the white and negro
schools, are such as to make imme-
dlate relief imperative if the health
OF the pupils is to be conserved, they
are worse at three schools in the In
man Park and neighboring district
the Highland Avenue. Edgewood and
lnman Park Schools-than in the rest
OF the city. OF these, the Highland
School is the more crowded, and In
man Park is next. 1t is at the latter
school that the children are COM
PEELED to sit in the basement, in I'M
ventilated rooms. and at the former
they are packed 80 and 100 in a room.
The Edgewood School is the least
crowded of any of the three, and yet
week ago there were s. pupils who
had no place to sit-and that after
every room had been filled to its ca
pacity and more.
Cottage Is Rented.
To provide for these pupils a cot
tage in the rear of the school was
rented, temporarily, and for four
weeks the little tots just barely out
of the nursery did, or tried to do,
their work in rooms that We're very
low of ceiling, with not enough light,
practically no ventilation, and no con-
veniences.
Every child that was in the classes
that had to work in the cottage was
constantly i'll, restless and unable to
do its best work. Sixty of these pu-
pills have now been transferred to the
Moreland Avenue School. which is a
building totally unfit for school pur-
poses, that the school authorities have
rented
There was no room at the Edge
wood School for the remaining %,
but they had to stay there or quit
coming 10 school altogether So Miss
Ora Stamps, the principal, did the
best she could. She partitioned off a
corner of the auditorium with a
screen installed lot Of hard,
straight backed benches-ihe best she
could get-and there the children
have to sit for hours at time. though
Miss Stamps and their teacher give
them frequent outings in the fresh
air when the tired little bodies be-
gin to rebel from the unnatural po-
sitiOn in which they are forced to
sit
For a long time the little feet dan
gled without touching the floor: then
Miss Stamps sawed of the benches so
they could rest their feet on the floor
They must sit either as stiff as po-
ker or bunch over with their elbows
in their laps.
They must keep the same position
all the time, and there is no place
where they can put their hats and
lunches and books but on the floor. in
their laps, or on the seats beside them
when there is room. .,.. .
Work Is VaIueiess.
Sitting for hours in an unnatural.
strained position, the children become
restless and the value of whatever in
struction they receive from their
hard worked teaCher-fOrced to teach
them with no desk and no blackboard
but a piece of black cloth tackled on
the wallis absolutely Valueiess be-
cause no matter now hard the teacher
tries-and she is young and enthu-
siastic, and does even more than her
duty-she can make but little i'm
preston on the mind that is torn with
the suffering of the body.
A Georgian reporter visited the
Edgewood School yesterday, and viz
tually every one of the 20 children
twisted and squirmed constantly in
an effort to relieve the suffering
caused nv S1ttlIlS IN a SlTdllltu, IoItSu
position. One little boy, not more
than years old-these are all second
grade pupils-began crying, because
his back was hurting.
And a little girl near the window
cried because she knocked down a
bottle of ink that was sitting on the
window ledge-there because there
was no other place to put it. In an
other corner of the room the doctor
was examining the pupils.
And he light comes into the little
corner from the wrong direction, and
when the sun shines the curtains
must he drawn to keep the glare out
of the little eyes-and then II is too
dark to read. And when the cur
tains are up the sun hurts their eyes,
and they have already begun TO blink
and complain that their eyes hurt.
In the Edgewood School are two
second grade rooms, 90 feet square,
with only three windows to a room,
These windows are all on the same
side of the building. Thirty-three
children are crowded into one room
and IS into the other. The two NTH
grade rooms are 20 feet square, with
the three windows. and have 36 pupils
in one room and 80 in another,
Clothes Touch Radiator