An open air school in 1957, Netherlands ⁣ In the beginning of the 20th century a movement towards open air schools took place in Europe. Classes were taught in forests so that students would benefit physically and mentally from clean air and sunlight.

I sometimes find an old black-and-white photo online that makes me think of what my education should have been like. The Netherlands, where the photo was taken in 1957, had a lot of open-air classrooms at the time. If the weather is nice, the idea of a classroom outside should be obvious. Unfortunately, most traditional western schools today don’t put much emphasis on the benefits of learning outside of a classroom.

I decided to make this picture bigger to see if there were any other pictures of outdoor classrooms I could use as a starting point. As the sun sneaks over my desk and tempts me to leave the office, this is a call to our teachers and educators to open the windows, let the birds listen in, and bring spring into the classroom. when classes were officially cancelled for the summer. Open-air schools, which were first set up to avoid and fight the rise of tuberculosis in the years before World War II, were very common in Northern Europe in the early 1900s. Schools were built with the idea that getting fresh air, being close to nature, and having good ventilation were all important.

The idea caught on quickly, and a movement called “open-air schools for healthy kids” was started to encourage all students to spend as much time as possible outside. The Waldschule, which means “forest school,” was started in 1904 in Charlottenburg, Germany, with the goal of getting as much sun exposure as possible for its students. People thought that having classes in a nearby forest would help city kids learn to be independent and feel good about themselves. Open-air classrooms became popular because of the forest schools, and the idea spread to other countries in Europe. By 1937, there were 96 open-air day schools in the UK. The United States was eager to start them as well, and the first one opened in 1908 in Providence, Rhode Island.

The League for Open Air Education led the first International Congress, which was held in Paris in 1922. They did this because they were sure that the movement could teach people. The inside of traditional “pavilion plan” schools, which have long hallways with lots of windows, looks a lot like a hospital. In the 1930s, clever sliding doors, retractable roofs, and light, portable furniture made it possible to turn classrooms into outdoor terraces. Until the 1970s, the unique way of teaching was widely used. After World War II, when antibiotics were made and social conditions at home got better, it became less and less important to have open-air schools, and they were eventually phased out.

I think outdoor schools should be brought back, but that could just be because I want to go outside as soon as the sun comes out in the Spring. What better way to make the next generation love learning than to give them classrooms with fewer barriers, even if it’s too late for us to enjoy the benefits? Let them think bigger, farther, and more creatively about what the future will be like.