New-York tribune., 1919-06-03
That Many Children in New
York's Public Schools Do
Not Get 5 Hours Daily.
Says Miss Alice Carpenter
Many on Four-Hour Shift
Only Solution More Build
ings or the Gary System,
Howard W. Nudd Declares

Every third child in the schools of
New York is either on double shift or
part time, making a total of 247,472
out of 714,3SS pupils in the elementary
grades of the city as whole
every fourth child is on double
shift q camouHaged form of part
time), making total of 1852 pupils.
Every fifth child receives less than
five hours schooling daily, making a
total Of 14O,392 pupils, of whom 36,405
are on part time in the upper grades
and 59,9S3 are on both part time and
double shift"
These figures, compiled by the Pub
lie Education Association, formed the
basis of Miss Alice Carpenters state
ment to the Mayor which excited the
interest of c. B. J. Snyder, superin-
tendent in charge of building, and An
ming S. Prall, president of the Board
of Education.
247 900 Pupils Involved
In urging the necessity for imme-
diate construction of schools. Miss
Carpenter. who is chairman of the
Mayors Committee of Women on Re
construction and Relief. informed the
Mayor that 600 children in New
York are at school either on part
time or double shift Mr. Snyder and
Mr.. Prall both expressed curiosity as
to where Miss Carpenter got her fig
ures
Howard W. Nudd, director of the
Public Education Association, backs
Miss Carpenter in her statements, and
declares the situation to be even worse
than she describes. The Board of Edu-
cation made out that only 4O,157 chill
dren might properly be classified as
receiving part time instruction, said
Mr. Nudd. This was because they were
labelling as "full time instruction" the
four-hour day common to the children
Of the first grades throughout the city;
also the shortened school day of the
sixth, seventh and eighth grades
They We're taking into account only
such children as could not be ignored
because there was actually no housing
for them
Less Than Five Hours
what we mean by part time" said
Mr.. Nudd, is when q child is actually
getting less than five hours instruc-
ton in school daily. 1t is commonly
assumed that pupils in the sixth, sew
enth and eighth grades are getting
five hours day instruction. AS E
matter of fact, most Of them are get
ting four hours with the extra hour
devoted to recreation or study in the
auditorium. The children of the frs
grade are all on a four-hour shift
which is called full time instruction
by the Board of Education If yor
want to get the real measure of chill
dren receiving only part-time instruc-
tion you have to take into consideration
all the children who are getting but
four hours of bona tide schooling
This includes the 10000 computed by
the Board of Education because they
actually have no housing, and the
four-hour children of the first grade
and Of the sixth, seventh and eighth
grades.
Il propose to make thorough inves-
tigation of the situation this summer
and announce the results when the
schools open for the fall term.
There are two solutions of the
problem: % Build enough schools
to give the children all the classroom
space they need--this would cost from
s50,0OOoO0 to 100000, ,OoO-or (2) adopt
the Gary system