16. Size of Classes. It should be noted that the building was planned originally for twenty benches and that it now contains twenty-four. Twenty benches ought to be the maximum number so far as the giving of proper instruction is concerned. When more are given the instructor the conditions for the most efficient work are not good. This problem of accomodating twenty-four boys will have to be met, and may as well be planned for just so long as school directors insist upon crowding fifty pupils in the regular classroom when the teacher ought to have but thirty-five or forty to do her best work. Then, too, it frequently happens that a room contains more boys than girls. Some of these boys might be sent to another and adjoining center. It is best to plan to care for twenty-four boys, however, where the regular room enrolment runs above average. In this case the dimensions of the building as given in the preceding text should be changed. Enlarge the width of the building by six feet. This will permit the placing of the extra demonstration seats upon the platform and also allow sufficient floor space near the lumber rack for cutting out stock, and about the finishing table, etc.

In placing benches, plan to have the light enter over the back and the left end of the bench. That is, when standing at his bench, the light should strike the pupil in the front and left.

An amphitheater is very desirable both in the high school and the grade school shop. In large classes it is a necessity. With small classes it is possible to make use of desk stools arranged about a bench. Many manual training centers, in fact, most manual training centers, do not have the amphitheater. This is no argument against its desirability. It simply means that the boys get but an imperfect undertsanding of the demonstration and that their work must suffer accordingly.