Evening star., 1934-04-29
Using the Schools at Leisure
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

and owned by the public in the
United States runs into billions. AS
matters now stand a great deal of
this property Is used only for part
Of the day and for only a part of
each year. 1t is true, of course, that
during the depressed period, increased
use of the schools for regular teach
ing has come about because Of the
necessity, through shortage Of funds,
to close many buildings. Night classes
have been added and hours stag
gered SO that a much fuller use has
been derived. But the general policy
has been TO obtain only a partial
use Of this vast and expensive plant.
The new idea Is to utilize these
facilities in such manner that not
only school pupils, but adults in COM
munities may better learn how to util-
ize their leisure. The free public j.
brar1es OF the country showed tre-
mendous increase in use all during
the years of unemployment. Hun
dreds OF thousands, perhaps millions
of persons who never had been at
tracted to libraries before found, in
their enforced leisure, that there were
many advantages in the practice of
reading. The number of public IL
braries in the country is far too few
to accommodate all those who would
like library facilities. This is espe-
ciaiily true in the South and sections
of the West.
Community Life for Adults.
Adult use OF school buildings is
especially stressed. After all. the
adults pay the taxes which pay school
employees. from principals to janitors.
their salaries, and the interest on the
bonds issued to raise funds for new
construction and maintenance Now
that there has come a period in
which, presumably, adults will have
more hours free frcm work each day
and entire days free from toll, these
tax payers should be accorded fuller
use of what they have purchased. In
not few cities school houses are
used for meetings of citizens asso-
Citations. but there are also many
where still the buildings are dark and
unoccupied after the closing bell for
undergraduate classes rings
The force which the public schools
could be in better migrating modern
American society is strongly stressed.
A better community feeling would be
possible and a more complete COM
prehension Of public problems ar
rived at were classes for adults con-
Quoted with as much care as those
for children. Some slight additional
cost might be involved in some cases,
but much of the work would be VOL
unteer work. 1t is the observation
of educational experts that a great
many persons. forced by economic
circumstances to leave school at early
ages, would like to return later in
life to fill in gaps by listening TO
lectures and even perusing the school
text books to which they earlier had
had acceSS-not conSpicuously as
adults among youngsters, but as a
matter of course
The National Recreation Associa-
ton also is manifesting keen interest
in the general idea. School plants
have gyrnnasia, Fairgrounds, theatri-
cal stages. and many such facilities
the use of which adult members of
the community would appreciate.
Also, in the larger cities. school
buildings have expenSively equipped
laboratories. machine shops, and other
vocational work rooms which, conceiv-
ably, could be put to excellent use in
developing handicrafts and increas-
ing the economic lf-sufficiency OF
the population.