Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

"Take Out The Windows" 1961 by C. J. Arnold Xn December, 1948, there appeared an article in Educational Screen entitled "Take Out The Windows." It was an article advocating the building of school classrooms without windows. Twelve years have passed. At the present, a few schools, including the excellent ones in New Mexico, have been built with window-less classrooms and it is evident that more will be built. As the author of that article, I have been asked to state how I happened to write it. It was an attempt to set forth conclusions reached following a scientific study of the problems I had encountered in developing an audiovisual program in the Mankato, Minnesota, Public Schools. If audiovisual materials were to be used eflFectively, they would have to be used in the classroom as an integral part of the instructional program. The moving of a class to a projection room to show a film could not accomplish this. But in a room in which there is light, the big problem of projection becomes making the shadow part of the picture on the screen. The brightness or clearness of this shadow determines the effectiveness or efficiency of the projected material. In a darkened room, there is no problem of getting the best possible shadow. But where there is a source of light other than the projector, it becomes a real problem because light destroys the shadow. There are several approaches to the solution of this problem. One would be to get a light source for the projector so intense that it could make shadows under any circumstance. Another approach has been to build special screens. These have proved rather ineffective and altogether too bulky and cumbersome for classroom use. They provide a makeshift substitution for the real thing that is wanted— a large bright picture. These devices give but a small picture, limited in brightness, and usually are a clumsy contraption which no teacher should have to be bothered with. There is still another approach in the solution of this problem. If we cannot improve the shadow-making ability of our projectors directly, perhaps we can do it indirectly by eliminating the source of trouble— the light coming through the windows. This we can do very nicely by covering the windows with some opaque darkening material in any one of several different forms, such as curtains, drapes, Vene tian bhnds, etc. But again, this is a makeshift affair and subject to many inconveniences. It should be evident that providing darkening facilities for classroom windows has imjoroved the situation for projection, but it has by no means provided a satisfactory solution. It is then that we begin to question the necessity of the windows. As we investigate the matter, we find that they are not only unnecessary but expensive and a limiting factor in good school construction. Since the advent of the electric light, the window is no longer needed as a source of light. It is interesting to note that before the advent of the electric light, it was necessary to force economy-minded school boards to provide adequate window space by legislative action. It is also interesting to note that the windows determined the shape of the classroom and the seating arrangement. There is still the belief that a great saving in the use of electricity will be effected if windows are provided. This, however, is not bom out because teachers are forced to use the electric light to compensate for the inadequacies and uneveness of window light, even when glass block fenestration has been employed. However the saving, if there is one, cannot justify substituting bad light for good hght in the classroom, when the good light is readily available with the flip of a switch. Window light is bad for several reasons: it cannot be depended upon; it constantly varies from hour to hour and season to season; it is difficult to control; it is difficult to distribute evenly throughout the room; it may produce glare and uncomfortable heating in certain parts of the room. The typical long and narrow shape of the window classroom is due to an attempt to get light across the room. Glass block fenestration is an attempt to help in this matter. If we do not have ^vindows, we can make the room as wide as we wish and get more square feet of floor space for the same wall space. The window also dictates the location of the front of the room, since pupils must be seated so that the window light comes over the left shoulder! The vdndowless classroom does not discriminate against the left-handed student. The window, too, was at one time used as a meanst of ventilation. Here it has been even more of an unsatisfactory means. In most modern construction where windows are still used, it is required that they be closed when the heating or ventilation system is in operation. And when it comes to air-conditioning the heat loss through windows makes it expensive. (Continued on Page 296) 280 Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — June, 1961