Nelson Open Air School
Nelson Open Air school, opened in 1930 and was, I understand not residential but a day school for 120 children with various weakening diseases, although not TB. It was staffed by a doctor, a nurse and teachers.
In 1931, the Nelson Leader sent a reporter to the Open Air School to give his view on the school and its children. His report is a very personal one.
TRAIN UP THE CHILD:
THE NELSON OPEN AIR SCHOOL.
"It's a bonny job washing up for a hundred an’ twenty-five childer a day,” remarked cook, pushing her sleeves to above her elbows and exposing her round, motherly arms, but we always get through.”
“Look at our crockery?” asked Miss Stanworth, leading the way to high, wide cupboard. I did look. I got a shock.
"Why; this is better crockery than is used at so-called high-class restaurants,” I exclaimed, handling a tea-cup.
"Exactly,” said my guide. You see, we not only teach children how to read and write, sew and paint, knit and grow plants; we also teach them table manners, and how to use and handle and care for cups and saucers and glassware and knives and forks. And we find the children will take greater care of a nice pot than of a coarse, common one. We have very few breakages in pots, and only now and again does a glass drop on the floor. A child thinks it is awful thing to break pot or glass.”
"And then,” added Dr, Markham, "what is taught the children here is carried home, and tho good table manners implanted in them here are re-taught to their brothers and sisters who cannot come under our care. The children are taught to take their proper places in the food queues; the little ones first, always; and so in gradation, the biggest coming last. There is no pushing and shoving, and it is almost unknown for a big boy or girl to sidestep for position.”
" At dinner and tea table,” supplemented Miss Stanworth, there is no bidding for place. Each one knows and goes to bis proper place in quiet order. A newcomer, acting in an assertive manner, is quickly pulled up by his mates saying; 'Billy, that sort o’ work simply isn’t done here.’ A boy or girl who is allowed to serve others at table is looked up to, as being signally honoured. There is nothing lowering in serving each other.”
We were passing out of the cookery room, when cook called out; "Mr. Bates; if you write anything in the 'Leader ’ about your visit to the Open Air School, don’t forget to mention the cat, Tommy; he's a beauty, well fed, clean, orderly, and in good condition. I look after him!"
(Item: One cat; order carnivora; genus, felix: species, domesticata; colour, black in patches, white .in blobs; sex, male; age, nine months; instincts, sportive; habits, to chase mice; profession, music; voice, high tenor; practice days, every night; times of practice, 11.30 pm to 4.30 am.; life’s ambition, doubtful; hope for future, barn full of mice; motto, "There’s only one girl in the world for me ”; enemies, dogs, old boots, tin cans, boys.)
I had made three requests of Dr Markham ; first, to see the children in class; that had been fulfilled. The second request was that I might see some of the children given their bath; that was now to be granted. The doctor and Miss Stanworth led the way to the bathroom. A dozen lads were in as many baths. The baths are oblong, with divisions between, but open at front. The baths, divisions, floor, walls ceiling are in pale tints, and concentrate the light from the windows. You couldn’t find speck of dirt or smut of soot in this room if you went round with a magnifying glass. In the middle of the room, all in white, warm and smiling, and ready for action, stood Nurse Smith. The bathers were warm; a light steam filled the room. A dozen broad grins assailed us, as entered the chamber; the grins turned to laughs; the laughs ended in shouts. Some of the lads stood up, as stood Adam in Eden before he begged off Eve his share of the notorious apple that brought discord into the world.
"Aren’t they a fine set of lads?" said Dr. Markham. Look what splendid bodies some of them have. Note this lad on the right, how well set up he is, and what perfect arms and legs. No ribs showing there.”
He certainly was fine lad of his inches. Not angular, as was the lad in another bath, whose ribs were countable under his skin.
In this work, I think Nurse Smith looked the perfect mother; her adopted brood seemed to think the world of her.
In a room apart is a single long, white-glazed bath used by children who are more or less deformed. They are generally very sensitive in the presence of other children when undressed. Probably they magnify their condition at such times.
We left nurse and the lads all soap-suds and smiles, and passed into the doctor’s room, but had been there only a minute when nurse entered, saying, "Mr. Bates, the boys in the bathroom want to know how soon you can come again; because they know they’ll get time off for another plunge, in your honour. They want it to be soon and oft.”
The doctor’s room is a real workshop. It is beautifully light and airy. A truckle bed, ready-made, is against the wall; a desk stands in the middle of the room; on it are a calendar, a wristlet watch, ink, pens, papers and a piece of rubber. A set of drawers holds the card index forms of the children. On them, all particulars of the children are methodically and correctly written out. A glance at any card, and the doctor can outline the child’s medical history from the day he entered.
So precise are the school’s regulations defined, and so dutifully and thoroughly carried out the staff, that illness at school has been almost eliminated. Cut fingers, bruised shins, and similar playground trifles, are mostly what calls for attention.
Mark this; and I think it a most significant thing. Since Nelson Open Air School was started, eighteen months ago, there have been 196 backward children under the school staff’s supervision; out of that number of scholars, there have been only three failures, and those failures were attributable to adverse domestic conditions. The children did all right when at school. Dr. Markham is a firm believer in light, fresh air, good food conservatively cooked, the best quality milk, plenty of rest and play, and not too much study for backward children. You cannot rear up children to an A1 standard of manhood and womanhood on a diet of starchy white bread, chewing gum and mineral water drinks. Only physically defective children and children backward through illness are entertained at this open air school. Mentally defective children are sent to Burnley. If a child has consumptive parents, but has not itself contracted the disease, it is permitted to attend this school. On condition would a consumptive child be allowed here; the danger to the other children would too great.
Children begin to improve physically and mentally from their first day at school, and some of them, in spite of adverse domestic surroundings, keep on the gaining side. ln the generality of cases, parents at home second the efforts of doctor, nurse, cook and teachers. Surgery medicine is unknown here. There is no 'physicy' smell in any room. Dr. Markham lays tremendous stress regularity in all things; the best in food, easy exercise, undisturbed rest. No child sits down to a meal until he has washed his hands and teeth. That is the LAW, and must be obeyed.
We visited the other classes in turn. We saw the tiniest tots at their tasks, and some of their efforts were very creditable, especially the plasticine 'crockumdiles' and a merry-go-round made of corks, feathers, a long, thin stick, paint, fancy paper and patience. Each tiny student concentrated upon his work and took but little notice of our presence.
"I think,” said Dr. Markham, the finest example of the curative properties of the open air school treatment that Miss Stanworth has to her credit seen in the teacher of that class there. When she took up duty at first, she was completely washed out; and look at her now, enjoying perfect health.”
We walked around outside. Dr. Markham, to make my visit as thorough and complete possible, showed me the children’s conveniences, that I might see how clean and tidy they were. Then to the lawn and playground, where some of the children were playing rounders, and others were kicking a football. We came to the kitchen garden, where a large amount of salads and vegetables have been grown. Pointing, with commendable pride, to what remained, Miss Stanworth said, “Considering that we have grown everything from seed, and were month late in starting, our success has been wonderful. If you bought lettuce for one meal only for 125 children, it would mean an outlay of several shillings. We have some left yet. Look what fine cabbages we have; they are splendid for the children, cooked as we cook them. Again, the work on the land is splendid exercise for the boys and girls, as well as educative in its results.”
A lad passed us; few seconds later that same lad was again in front of us; though how he had got there beat me. I rubbed eyes, to make sure. "There’s something wrong with my eyes, Miss Stanworth, or else that lad’s like Boyle Roche’s sparrow.: he can be in two places at once.”
There’s two of him,” said she, laughing. You've seen two once, not one twice; they’re twins. When they first came here, they rang the changes on me, and it took me some time to tell th’other fra’ which.”
A lad was struggling with big sod of grass. Speaking little above whisper, the mistress said, "James, knock off a little of the soil, double up the sod, and lift it into tho barrow. There; that’s the way!"
"My first schoolmaster, had he seen in such a difficulty, would have addressed me as follows: "Bates; you empty-headed dolt, you senseless blockhead, get a spade and clear the soil away, bend your lazy back if it isn’t made of a poker, and put that sod where it has to go, and quick about it, you ass." And to further expedite the process, he would have lifted me up by the ears or struck me on the head with his fist.”
After careful comparison, I think Miss Stanworth’s way of imparting instruction more forceful than that of my old schoolmaster.
"This,” said Dr. Markham, "is the rest place. After dinner the children’s rest beds are brought under this shelter, and here they repose for one hour. They are taught how to rest and sleep. We see to it that they have complete relaxation of body and mind. In wet weather, the shelter serves as an excellent playground.”
"The difficulty,” supplemented Miss Stanworth, is with newcomers. Children are not used to resting and having forty winks after dinner. Girls, new to the idea, bring novelettes to read; but, with a little coaxing, they soon put them away and leam to rest and sleep.”
Tea time; tables covered with coloured print cloths; plates of brown bread and butter, nicely cut; tumblers full of milk —the genuine cow-juice—and shallow dishes of syrup. The cloths had been in use several days, though they hadn’t that appearance. The children used to cut the cloths with their knives; it doesn’t happen happen now. I stand at the door as the lads file past into the dining room.
"Show hands,” said the doctor, laughing; and pairs of spotlessly clean hands were held out for inspection. In a few moments all were gathered round the tables. There was a stillness in that room that gave me a peculiar feeling. I could hear my heart thumping. All were standing, hands together, eyes closed. A teacher, seated at the piano, played over an eight-line hymn tune. She played it tenderly and with deep feeling. It was the tune to the 'grace before a meal' the children would sing. She ceased; there was a five seconds’ pause, then, striking the keynote with her right index finger, they sang in unison their petition. After they had sung, there was pause of equal duration to the time taken up by the singing; then, at some given signal I failed to note, the children opened their eyes, put their hands on their chairs, drew them apart, and sat down to eat.
Those children had the manners of cultured Iadies and gentlemen. Those who served out the syrup and jam, and consequently were the last to sit down, are the envied ones of the table. They are the honoured ones; they are servers; they are greatest because their office is one of humility—pure self-abnegation.
When the children rise from table, there will be nothing eatable left.
As I sit by my fire waiting, I cannot help contrasting the conditions in which these children learn their lessons with those under which I was dragged up, fifty-six years ago. Pah! I can yet smell the effluvia from the congested bodies of three hundred sweating kiddies huddled under one low, badly-ventilated roof. I can still hear the raspy voices of the teachers, see the flashing eyes of a cayenne-tempered master. I can again hear him strike a lad on the face and fell him to the ground, or lay him over a desk and cane him until his arms ached with the labour. I cannot remember one thing I was taught at that horrible place—that school surrounded y slums.
How different, here; how sweet the autumn air; how clean the October sunlight. Here are warmth of heart, kindly thought, love deeply expressed.
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