Location of Shops

1. Location of Shops. Shops for high school pupils will be located in or near the high school building. A special effort should be made to have both wood shop and drawing room placed in suitable environment. Where manual training has been introduced into high schools with buildings planned for academic work only, it has been the custom to place manual training in the basement and drawing in the attic, these being the only places available for subjects that had yet to prove their worth. Even today, when it is a well established fact that handwork as a part of our educational course has not only proven its worth but is prophesied a greater place in our educational scheme in the form of industrial training, some school authorities not only place shops in basements of old buildings but plan new buildings with basement shops. This is an economy with nothing to justify it but tradition.

In many cities the custom of building basements high out of the ground serves to mitigate some of the evils, by giving a fair degree of light and ventilation. Any basement, however, that is formed with a cement floor directly on the ground will be damp in the spring and fall when the heating apparatus ceases to force warm air thru the rooms. The result upon tools, upon wood, and upon the health of those who must spend their time in such surroundings is not a matter of speculation.

Any subject to be taught to the best advantage must not only be a subject that will win the respect of the pupils but it must be given surroundings that will not tend to degrade it in the eyes of the immature student. Excellent work has been done in basement rooms and excellent discipline maintained under very adverse conditions but it has been in spite of these conditions and not because they do not influence the student unfavorably. In spite of the instructor's best efforts to create a feeling of respect toward the basement shopwork similar to that entertained toward the academic work, pupils in going from the comfortably furnished rooms above, in which the decorator's art has helped to make everything agreeable to the eye, unconsciously assume an attitude in their first conduct and deportment that places the shop instructor at a disadvantage.

Fig. I.

Arrangement Of High School Shop With Reference To Main Building.

The chief objection, aside from cost, to placing shops above ground is the noise. This objection has been met, and can easily be met by any competent architect. The accompanying floor plans are indicative. Fig. 1.

In some high schools, the shops are entirely separated from the main or academic classrooms. This is unsatisfactory, as any one familiar with high school organization knows. The frequent change of classes after short periods makes the going from one building to another a matter of serious moment, especially in our northern winter climate.

Shopwork has won its place fairly in our school courses and it is encouraging to note an increasing tendency on the part of progressive communities to place shop and drafting-room in environment calculated to create a feeling of respect, to give dignity equal to that of other school subjects, and to provide favorable conditions for the best working of materials.

In the grammar schools the problem is but slightly different. In a city of any size, shopwork will need to be given in centers. The alternative of a shop in each school with an instructor going from shop to shop on different days of the week is hardly practicable. The equipment of a shop is a matter of too great cost to have it lying idle part of the school time. There is added disadvantage in that a peripatetic shop instructor cannot "keep up" his several shops with divided interest as well as he can keep up one in which he works constantly.

The best plan is to have a center or shop located favorably for several neighboring schools and install an instructor in this center. The pupils are to be sent to him from a sufficient number of schools to occupy his entire time at this shop.

Here again the basement makes its appeal to school authorities first, the basement of some one of the grammar schools being utilized for a shop center. Since almost all of the pupils come from other schools, there is no excuse, other than economy, in placing grammar school manual training shops in basements of schools already established. If the high school shopwork suffers a disadvantage by being placed in basement rooms, grammar school shopwork suffers more, and with less excuse.

Since domestic science cannot well be taught in basements, and is objectionable on main floors because of noise and odors, and since there is no reason for having the laboratories directly connected with any

grammar school building, the best plan is to erect a special building to house both manual training and domestic science. The cost need not be great and the building may be erected upon grounds of some one of the grammar schools. Evanston, Illinois, public schools offer a good illustration. Figs. 2 and 3.

Fig. 2. EXTERIOR GRAMMAR SCHOOL BUILDING FOR MANUAL TRAINING AND DOMESTIC

Science, Evanston, Illinois

Fig. 3. FLOOR PLANS OF BUILDING, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS.

The proper placing of centers in a community will depend upon the number of pupils to be cared for, the distance they must travel to get to the center, and the site available.