After-School Classes and Vacation Classes
The second type of extension to be noted is that which adds to the regular school work by giving supervised opportunity outside the ordinary curriculum.
One example is that of a high school which tried the experiment of requiring manual training. The students grumbled a good deal about the course because it was so different from their other work. The course was abandoned. In its place was opened a voluntary class after school hours to which only students who secured a high grade in their regular work were admitted. There was a larger demand for the course than the shop could satisfy.
Vacation schools are often supported by groups of citizens interested in providing for pupils who have to remain in the city during vacation and have no suitable employment or recreation to keep them off the streets. So valuable is this addition to school work that it is very often taken over by the school system.
A great deal of school gardening is being encouraged by finding vacant lots or providing land in unsettled districts. School supervision sometimes cannot be extended to cover this work. This movement has been evolved during the recent campaign for food cultivation and conservation into a general social movement.
Athletics are sometimes organized under school supervision; sometimes only advisory help is furnished by the schools. The playground is opened to pupils after school hours or a special playground is provided. The matter of supervised play is important enough to justify a full discussion in a later chapter.
Some schools are providing moving-picture exhibitions out of hours for the pupils. The experiment has been successfully carried out by charging enough for such entertainments to pay their cost, the school thus furnishing only the place and the organization.
All these examples show that there is an unused margin of time and energy which pupils will use somewhere. Especially in cities it becomes a serious problem to insure wholesome conditions for the use of this surplus. If the pupils need further opportunities and the schools can provide them, it is certainly legitimate to carry out such plans. To be really educational all these activities need supervision. Supervision, of course, means either more expenditure of money to secure additional supervisors or an increased demand on the energies of present school officers. The present provision for instruction and supervision is seldom excessive. Expansion, therefore, ought to be faced as a new demand.