The Gary plan, therefore, has worked out a multiple use of the school plant in the most comprehensive form. By distributing classes in alternating groups, so that every department and room is in use as nearly as possible every hour of the eight-hour day, the “peak-loads” are prevented and the costs of operation reduced to the minimum. This system, variously called a “rotation-of-crops” or a “platoon” system, permits almost the actual doubling of the capacity of the school plant. Two duplicate schools may function together in the same building all day long. This “duplicate-school” plan is not, it must be observed, that used in some cities, where one school occupies the rooms for a few hours while the other remains at home, to take its turn in the rooms while the other goes out. That is merely a “part-time” scheme, and only accentuates the usual evils of fragmentary schooling and demoralizing street life. The Gary plan involves two distinct schools, known as the “X” and the “Y” schools, each of which has the entire program and the full day. The Gary plan, in other words, can accommodate twice the ordinary number in a school-building, not by shortening the time for each child, but actually by lengthening it.

How this plan works out in detail for a school unit of eight classes may be shown by the following program, which was used in the Jefferson School when Superintendent Wirt first came to Gary. The Jefferson School has been described as a conventional school-building, which was adapted to the Gary plan by the institution of shops, gymnasium, etc., and the conversion of classrooms into laboratories and studios. The program shows how a small eight-room school, ordinarily accommodating three hundred and twenty children (forty to a class), may, with a small auditorium, playground, attic gymnasium, and basement shops accommodate two duplicate schools of eight teachers each, with a total of six hundred and forty children. The first column gives the teachers,—grade teachers for the regular studies of the eight grades, and special teachers for the special activities. The second column gives the rooms where the work is conducted; the other columns give the distribution of time. “1X” means the first grade of the “X” school; “1Y” means the first grade of the “Y” school, etc. The program shows the ingenious distribution of classes throughout the school and throughout the course of the day,—six hours in this case, to which one hour and a quarter must be added for lunch-time.

StudiesForenoonAfternoon
TeachersRoom90 min.90 min.90 min.90 min.
1st GradeClassroom1X1Y1X1Y
2d GradeClassroom2X2Y2X2Y
3d GradeClassroom3X3Y3X3Y
4th GradeClassroom4X4Y4X4Y
5th GradeClassroom5X5Y5X5Y
6th GradeClassroom6X6Y6X6Y
7th GradeClassroom7X7Y7X7Y
8th GradeClassroom8X8Y8X8Y
MusicAuditorium1Y 2Y1X 2X3Y 4Y3X 4X
DrawingBasement3Y 4Y3X 4X1Y 2Y1X 2X
LiteratureLibrary5Y 6Y5X 6X7Y 8Y7X 8X
Science or manual artsBasement7Y 8Y7X 8X5Y 6Y5X 6X
{Attic2Y 1Y2X 1X6Y 5Y6X 5X
Physical education{Playground4Y 3Y4X 3X8Y 7Y8X 7X
(2 teachers and{Attic6Y 5Y6X 5X2Y 1Y4X 3X
principal){Playground8Y 7Y8X 7X4Y 3Y2X 1X

According to this program, only eight regular schoolrooms are required for the sixteen classes. While these eight classrooms are occupied by the classes engaged in the regular studies, the eight other classes are engaged in special activities in other parts of the school plant, in basement shops, attic gymnasium, or playground. Half the day is given to the regular studies, and half to the special activities. The regular studies occupy two periods of ninety minutes each, one in the forenoon and one in the afternoon. The same amount of time is given to the special activities, but the ninety-minute periods are divided into two forty-five-minute periods. The time devoted to the regular studies is divided as the teachers see fit. Each teacher has but one class at a time, and the way in which the time is distributed between the arithmetic, reading, spelling, geography, history, etc., depends upon the needs of those in the class. It will be seen from the program that each class of the two duplicate schools has time not only for three hours a day of the traditional school studies, but for three hours of play and special activities besides. And since this is the daily program, each class gets this varied work, study, and play every day, and not, as is the case of the special work in most public schools, only once or twice a week. Thus, according to this program, the day’s work for the third grade in the “X” school would be mapped out in this way,—regular studies, drawing or manual training, playground or gymnasium, lunch, regular studies, music, and playground again. The sixth grade in the “Y” school has a program of physical education, music or literature, regular studies, lunch, play, science or manual arts, and regular studies again. The program shows not only how double the number of classes are accommodated, but how all are given a longer and more varied day than is possible in the ordinary school.

This program represents the simplest framework of the application of public-service principles to the daily school program, with its multiple use of facilities. It is known as the “Old Gary School Program,” and has, of course, been much modified and refined and complicated as the need for flexibility and for the further departmentalizing of studies has arisen, and as it has had to be adapted to schools of different sizes. As here presented it does not include the high-school classes. The program of the complete school plant is much more elaborate. The “Old Gary School Program,” however, contains the essential principles of the distribution of classes and of school time.

Since September, 1913, a new and more satisfactory program has been followed in the four larger Gary schools. The new school day is eight and one quarter hours in length, and the work is divided into four groups, as follows:—

GroupProgramHours
1.History and geography, English and mathematics2
2.Manual work, science, drawing, music2
3.Auditorium1
4.Play, physical training, application2
Lunch1¼

The first group of studies is conducted in the ordinary classrooms; the second group in the shops, laboratories, and studios; the third group in the auditorium; the fourth group in the gymnasiums, swimming-pools, playrooms and playgrounds. Four groups of children are simultaneously engaged in these four different departments throughout the day. If A represents one half of the classes of grades 1 to 4; B, one half of grades 5 to 8; C, the other half of grades 1 to 4; and D, the other half of grades 5 to 8—then A and B together will represent the “X” school of our old program, and C and D together will represent the “Y” school, each school with its own corps of teachers and classes of all grades from 1 to 8. The new program for the duplicate school then works out in operation as follows. (The new day is an hour longer.)


Time
Studies for
Group 1[[2]]Group 2Group 3Group 4
8.15- 9.15AB C D
9.15-10.15BACD
10.15-11.15CDAB
11.15-12.15DCLunch-hour
for A B
12.15- 1.15ABLunch-hour
for C D
1.15- 2.15BADC
2.15- 3.15CDBA
3.15- 4.15DC—A B

4.15- 5.00 Playgrounds, gymnasiums, and shops open for volunteers.