School Stinks
by Jill Jenkins
I recently visited my former school to celebrate the retirement of two of my favorite people. When I opened the door, not only did I note that my former classroom was gone to facilitate moving the school office to the front of the school, but also that the building reeked with the pungent, sour odor of 1500 sweating adolescents. In the wake of the recent school shooting, the school had been transformed with one main door that opens into an office, so visitors are forced to check in before having access to classrooms. Logically this seems like a wise choice since anyone carrying an AK-47 would have to confront the school secretaries and administrators before blasting any innocent students or teachers. The secretaries and administrators are some tough cookies for any would-be assassin, but it was the smell that would have sent any miscreant running. The brick building was built without windows like a giant warehouse. When I taught there, the classroom doors used to have a small rectangular window filled with wire that ran vertically above the door knob, but these have been replaced with windowless doors. For further protection, the teachers are required to keep their doors shut and locked to keep any rifle-toting criminals from having access to the forty or so students in each classroom. Unfortunately, this significantly reduced the air-flow in the building. The walls of each classroom are covered with carpet to absorb sound, but they have absorbed far more than that over the 30 years of the school's existence. Every year 1500 boys and girls entering puberty run through the halls rubbing their sweat covered skin over the carpet leaving behind their rank essence. The school's air conditioner and heater have feebly attempted to filter the stale air, but quite inadequately. Like any pig or turkey farmer, I became nose blind to the smell when I taught there. (There were advantages: I was thinner then because I never had an appetite and I couldn't wait to shower when I got home. Maybe subconsciously I was more aware than I thought. Even then, many teachers, I included, tried a variety of solutions including plug-in air fresheners in our classrooms, but the fire department banned them.) I started to wonder that if in our attempt to keep students safe from intruders are we exposing them to the health risks connected to the bacteria growing in that carpeting or extreme depression from "loathsome smells and shrieks like mandrakes torn from the earth" (Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet). Maybe school just stinks.
I proceeded down the hall to the library (excuse me, Media Center) to join what was left of the faculty where I spent over 20 years of my career. The halls were darker than I remembered perhaps because the area that used to be office had windows on two sides that were always brightly lit. Those windows had been bricked in and contained three classrooms whose dark doors were closed. Although there were photos on the top of the walls of former 9th grade classes (too high for my eyes because I am only five feet tall about the height of the average 7th grade student), the halls looked bleak and depressing. I wondered if these dark, colorless halls might be contributing to the unusual number of suicides that have occurred recently among teenagers. The place was depressing me. According to research "The Impact of Light and Colour on Psychological Mood: a Cross-cultural Study of Indoor Work Environments" by Kuller R, Ballal, S, Laike T, Mikellides, B and Tonello G ,
"The results also indicate that the use of good colour design might contribute to a more positive mood.
It is suggested that in future research light and colour should be studied as parts of the more complex system making up a healthy building."
The foul, rancid odor flowed after me down the hall and I began to wonder if I needed another shower before I congratulated my old colleagues. The prison-like atmosphere and the over-crowded classrooms made me wonder if the psychological effects could contribute to a desperate teenager. Maybe school just stinks.
Working with this faculty was a real treat. Faculty members took a team approach on everything. If a student had a problem, his teachers shared ideas to help him overcome. Departments worked together on curriculum as well and technology, reading and writing skills were developed in a cross-curricular method. For example the librarian and the Language Arts Department (that's the English Department) tested and checked with each child to guarantee that each read books on his/her individual reading level. Each classroom provided the student with ten minutes of reading at school and communicated with parents on reading charts that each student read two hours each week at home. Computerized tests determined if the student had comprehended his/her book. As each book was successfully completed, we teachers rewarded the student with both verbal recognition and small piece of candy, continually encouraging him/her to achieve his/her individualized reading goal based on his/ her reading level. At the end of each grading period, each student who achieved his/her reading goal was recognized in his classroom and sent to the media center where the librarian personally rewarded each student with a certificate and rubber ducky. She snapped a picture of the student wearing a crown or holding a ducky and posted it in the library for all to see. The halls were filled with pictures of the students reading. "Reading is Duckie," or at least it was. According to the librarian, those programs have ended. Cross curriculum projects between Language Arts Department and the Geography or the Science Department were common and the projects were displayed in the halls. Students used computerized writing programs, computerized testing programs and created movies and presentations in the computer labs for cross-curricular projects. These projects have also given way to test preparation. Although I was happy to see old friends and everyone hugged and talked about the old days, I was sad to see what has become to my old school.
For all those designing schools to maximize student safety, while placing a safety portal with school offices and resource police at the front of the building is a great start, there is more to think about. Preventing a child from becoming a maniac murdering his peers should be goal number one. Schools need to be pleasant places, not prisons. Providing students with a clean, well ventilated, well lit and brightly colored space will help create a lively, healthy environment. For all students school is a home away from home and each student needs to feel like an appreciated member of the community. Remember students are malodorous, messy creatures, so use building materials that are easy to clean. Don't put carpet on the walls. Use insulation in the walls to dampen sound from room to room. Provide colorful display areas to show students work and display happy pictures of the students in the school. Designing safe school building is only part of the answer.
The school atmosphere is important. Keeping the school clean and well lit will improve health and moral for the teachers and the students, but encouraging teachers to work together and find ways to recognize students' achievement will make students feel more loved and appreciated. Even as another school shooting occurred today in Texas, think about ways of preventing others by using training teachers to identify behavior or signs that a student is troubled. Observing changes in student behavior and referring student to social workers, counseling staff or school psychologists can prevent depression from escalating into disasters. Changing our focus on making all students feel safe, appreciated and loved is a good start. Schools do not have to stink. Instead make them smell like school spirit and make every student's education a positive one.
For all those designing schools to maximize student safety, while placing a safety portal with school offices and resource police at the front of the building is a great start, there is more to think about. Preventing a child from becoming a maniac murdering his peers should be goal number one. Schools need to be pleasant places, not prisons. Providing students with a clean, well ventilated, well lit and brightly colored space will help create a lively, healthy environment. For all students school is a home away from home and each student needs to feel like an appreciated member of the community. Remember students are malodorous, messy creatures, so use building materials that are easy to clean. Don't put carpet on the walls. Use insulation in the walls to dampen sound from room to room. Provide colorful display areas to show students work and display happy pictures of the students in the school. Designing safe school building is only part of the answer.
The school atmosphere is important. Keeping the school clean and well lit will improve health and moral for the teachers and the students, but encouraging teachers to work together and find ways to recognize students' achievement will make students feel more loved and appreciated. Even as another school shooting occurred today in Texas, think about ways of preventing others by using training teachers to identify behavior or signs that a student is troubled. Observing changes in student behavior and referring student to social workers, counseling staff or school psychologists can prevent depression from escalating into disasters. Changing our focus on making all students feel safe, appreciated and loved is a good start. Schools do not have to stink. Instead make them smell like school spirit and make every student's education a positive one.
