Book Description

Schoolhouse planning is becoming specialized. In a few of the larger centers of population there are architects who desire no other work except the planning of school buildings. This is bringing about in the larger cities schoolhouses that are peculiarly adapted to the educational program. They are sanitary, well lighted, and properly ventilated. At the same time they are attractive enough and sufficiently monumental in character to be objects of civic pride. The advance which has been made in construction of city school buildings has with rare exceptions characterized what the authors term "the rural schoolhouse." The improvements which have been made in the country school in better arrangement of windows, in provision for artificial light, in improving heating and ventilation, in sanitary plumbing, in selecting better sites, and in making adequate provision for play space have resulted from the efforts of students of school hygiene. Of these Fletcher B. Dresslar was a pioneer. Doctor Dresslar was employed for nearly a year and a half in the Bureau of Education either as an editor or as specialist in school sanitation. For the last 17 years of his life, as a member of the faculty of the George Peabody College for Teachers, he had marked influence upon the improvement of schoolhouse construction throughout the entire South. During this period also he was employed from time to time as a part-time specialist by the Commissioner of Education. Shortly before his death (January, 1930) he transmitted a manuscript entitled "Rural Schoolhouses, School Grounds, and Their Equipment," which he had prepared in collaboration with Haskell Pruett, director of schoolhouse construction in the Oklahoma State Department of Education. This paper, as revised by members of the Bulletin staff in cooperation with Mr. Pruett, furnishes a cross section of present practice and indicates what is good. It should be helpful to State and county superintendents in convincing rural school boards, who would build schoolhouses of the older type, that in so doing they are not only working injustice on pupils but also that such construction is not a wise use of taxpayers' money. Contents include: (1) Letter of transmittal; (2) Some rural problems and opportunities; (3) Planning the rural schoolhouse; (4) Plans of a rural schoolhouse; (5) Constructing the rural schoolhouse; and (6) Remodeling rural schoolhouses. (Contains 41 figures, 6 plates, and 1 footnote.) [Best copy available has been provided.].