The Basement
Another very common source of foul odors in the school-room is the basement. Though many school-rooms do not have a basement, yet so many have a problem at this point that it is necessary to speak about the matter. The author has visited many schools with basements, and recalls one only that was actually sanitary. Most basements of schools are the receptacles for the garbage and refuse of the school. In it are kept broken seats, old brooms, things forgotten and left at school by pupils, waste paper, paint cans, flower pots, and a hundred other things. To make matters worse, the basement windows, if there are any, are never opened. A disease producer is beneath the children; contagion gets through the cracks of the floor and is a constant source of contamination of the air in the room above. Many basements are even abodes of rats and mice, thereby exposing the pupils to different diseases. Damp and rainy days increase the offensiveness of an unsanitary basement. Unscrupulous teachers often use the ill-ventilated basement for a play room during bad weather. Such a practice is abominable. No teacher should be guilty of such an offense. Better not let the pupils play at all, for exercise in offensive air is dangerous and far worse than none. If any place in the entire school should be sanitary, it should be the basement.
After all has been said about the equipment of the school-room, the greatest asset is its sanitary condition and cleanliness. This must be at its best to secure good results. The unclean school-room—especially the unventilated one, usually a condition indicating a lazy, careless teacher—is dangerous. Disease may lurk in such a place and the mental activities of the pupils be stupefied.