Schools more than a century ago, when tuberculosis ruled

At the very beginning of the 20th century, American cities were plagued by tuberculosis.In 1907, Mary Packard and Ellen Stone, doctors of the smallest American state of Rhode Island, came up with the idea of ​​how to prevent or at least alleviate the transmission of tuberculosis among children.They wrote a letter to League President Jay Perkins outlining their idea: “Do you think it is too early to try with a small group, for some children, to organize a school that looks like an outdoor school? It would certainly be just an experiment to begin with. It has been proposed that the horse stables in the North Main Street be rearranged… ”

The first school of this type was "opened" in January 1908.

The classrooms had many windows, some of them on all three sides, and they were all open all the time, even though it was winter. And very strong. On very cold days, the children carried so-called Eskimo sitting bags with warm stones to warm their feet. Teacher Mary Powers, in addition to teaching the material, warmed the children with soup and pudding.

The experiment showed absolute success in practically all fields, and most importantly - not a single child got sick. Not even from a cold. Two years later, 65 such schools were opened, and one private school in New York conducted classes on the roof. As the incidence of tuberculosis decreased with the appearance of antibiotics, so did the schools in the open, and the last one was closed only in 1965.

Does this have anything to do with the coronavirus?

The Chinese study covered 7,000 cases and showed that out of those 7,000, only one infection occurred in the open.

Conclusion: Instead of rotating between online teaching and classroom teaching, perhaps children could rotate between the classroom and outdoor learning, that is, in a space that would have airflow as an open space.

Source: Green Classroom

@Snezana28