The Y School: Unfortunately the program described requires twenty-six classrooms for twenty-one classes of children in addition to the auditorium, play space, library, workshops, etc. No facility during the school day is used more than half the time by the X School. Fortunately the auditorium need be large enough to accommodate only one third of the X School. The same is true of the play space and the special work facilities. There is a great economy in using the facilities named for three periods by alternate groups, each representing one third of the school. But a higher first cost and a greater operation and maintenance cost would be justifiable in all these facilities, including the regular classrooms, if they could be used longer and accommodate more children.
Since the X School can use any of these facilities only half of the time, what objection can there be to another school of twenty-one classes using the facilities when the X School cannot use them? On p. 198 is shown a program for such a duplicate school, designated Y.
The Y School has the same time as the X School, for both pupils and teachers. Neither school could use any facility any more if the other school were not there, but both schools have better facilities every hour of the day because the other school is there. Forty-two classes of children are thus accommodated in twenty-six classrooms. Instead of building a sixteen-room additional school, with its initial cost of construction, site, janitor service, heating, maintenance, etc., an equivalent expenditure can be made for the permanent improvement and increased operating cost of the twenty-six-room school.
| School hours | Academic instruction | General exercises | Play, etc. | Special |
| 8.30- 9.20 | Div. 2. | Div. 3. | Div. 1. | |
| 9.20-10.10 | Div. 3. | Div. 2. | Div. 1. | |
| 10.10-11.00 | Arithmetic, all divisions | |||
| 11.10-12.00 | Language, all divisions | |||
| 12.00- 1.00 | Entire school at luncheon | |||
| 1:00- 1:50 | Div. 1. | Div. 3. | Div. 2. | |
| 1:50- 2:40 | Reading, all divisions | |||
| 2:40- 3:30 | History, geography, all divisions | |||
| 3:30- 4:30 | Div. 1. | |||
(The blank spaces represent the periods when the X School is using the facilities.)
While this program makes two schools in one possible, primarily it is planned to provide a longer school day, i.e., six hours in place of five, and greater facilities for each child during each of the six hours. One hundred minutes’ daily play is given to the primary grades, for play takes the place of work for small children. This play is gradually transformed into work, fifty minutes’ work and fifty minutes’ play in the intermediate grades, and one hundred minutes’ work in the grammar grades, as the older children use their after-school leisure time for play. Thus the play impulse is transformed into the work impulse. Productive activities are substituted for non-productive activities. Work is made constructive play.
IV
ECONOMY OF PLAYGROUND MANAGEMENT IN GARY SCHOOL, AS CONTRASTED WITH PUBLIC PLAYGROUND
Superintendent Wirt, at the meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association, St. Louis, February, 1912 spoke as follows:—
We have not utilized the school plants completely unless they are used for recreation and social centers by adults. Fortunately, a school plant that provides for the constructive play and recreation activities of children is also most admirably adapted for similar activities with adults. The playground, gymnasiums, swimming-pools, auditorium, club and social rooms, library, shops, laboratories, etc., make a complete social and recreation center for adults. Experience has demonstrated that the facilities for academic instruction add also to the attractiveness of the plant as a social and recreation center.